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From the rink, to the ring
Scandalous skater Tonya Harding tries to fight off her past in new arena
By Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff | January 26, 2005
ESSINGTON, Pa. -- Tonya Harding has a migraine. She's been sick for months with bronchitis and the flu. Now she has to meet the press to promote her upcoming celebrity boxing match. Interview rules are set by the promoter and Harding's new manager, who is also her godmother. There are to be absolutely no questions about Nancy Kerrigan. A reporter from Philadelphia introduces himself, and his first question is about Kerrigan.
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"I'm going to stop you right there," says Harding. "That was 11 years ago."
Harding, 35, looks totally different from the 110-pound figure skater she once was. She still has the piercing blue eyes but her 5-foot-1-inch frame is bulked up more than her listed 125 pounds. Her biceps look like telephone poles and she is dressed in a black Everlast warmup suit. She is slated to box Brittney Drake, 25, of the Women's Extreme Wrestling Federation, whose website lists her as 5-6, 120 pounds. It will be Drake's boxing debut, and win, lose, or draw, she will be at her waitress job the next morning $1,000 richer. Harding's fee is undisclosed.