From the Golden Gloves to the Ring Masters, the gyms and tournaments of New York City have produced more female world champions than any city in America. The next generation takes to the ring Friday at the Ring Masters finals at Madison Square Garden.

By Larry Goldberg

In 1995, the New York Golden Gloves allowed women to compete for the first time. A Japanese-American math teacher named Dee Hamaguchi entered by writing just her first initial on the application so the organizers wouldn’t know she was a woman. When they found out, they tried to keep her out. She called the ACLU. She fought for her right to compete. She won.

That moment opened a door that has never closed. The Golden Gloves, USA Boxing Metro, and the community boxing programs across the five boroughs created the amateur infrastructure that allowed women to train, compete, and develop into professional fighters. The pipeline that produced Floyd Patterson, Sugar Ray Robinson, Mike Tyson, and Mark Breland did not just welcome women. It built them into world champions.

This is not a ranking. This is a celebration of the amateur system that made it all possible, and the women who proved it works.

Christina Cruz

Cruz is the most decorated amateur boxer, male or female, in New York Golden Gloves history. Ten consecutive titles. She broke the record of five held by Mark Breland. Seven USA National Championships. Two World Championship bronze medals. She represented Team USA at the Pan American Games and was an alternate for the 2020 Olympic team before choosing to qualify through Puerto Rico, only to have the pandemic and a new IOC qualifying process end that dream.

A Hell’s Kitchen native who started boxing at 22, Cruz turned professional in 2021 and made her debut at Madison Square Garden. With over 150 amateur fights, she beat future world champions Adelaida Ruiz and Marlen Esparza during her amateur career. She has since challenged for the IBF flyweight world title and remains a top-15 ranked contender at 43 years old.

Amanda Serrano

Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Brooklyn, Amanda Serrano is the most accomplished female boxer New York City has ever produced, and one of the most accomplished in the history of the sport. She won the New York Daily News Golden Gloves as an amateur, defeating USA Boxing national champion Jody-Ann Weller in the final. She has won world titles in seven weight classes as a professional. On April 30, 2022, she and Katie Taylor headlined Madison Square Garden in what was called the biggest women’s boxing event of all time. The first women’s fight to headline the Garden happened because a kid from Brooklyn was good enough to sell it out.

Sonya Lamonakis

Lamonakis is a four-time New York Golden Gloves champion, a National Champion, a former IBO heavyweight champion, NY State Champion, and a New York City school teacher. She turned professional in 2010 after compiling an amateur record of 25-6 and competed at the highest level of women’s heavyweight boxing. A product of Gleason’s Gym, Lamonakis combined a teaching career with a professional fighting career, proving that the women coming through the NYC amateur system were not just athletes but professionals building lives outside the ring while competing inside it.

But her impact on women’s boxing extends far beyond her own record. Lamonakis is the Vice President of USA Boxing Metro, the governing body of amateur boxing in New York City, Long Island, and the surrounding counties. Her volunteer work with USA Boxing Metro has changed countless lives. In 2018, when NY Metro needed a new qualifier, Sonya and Metro came up with the Ring Masters, a National Golden Gloves Qualifier which has become the top amateur tournament in the northeast. The amateur pipeline that produced Patterson, Robinson, Tyson, Breland, and every fighter on this page exists today because Metro listened to their athletes and brought it back to MSG.

Heather Hardy

Hardy came out of Brooklyn and trained at Gleason’s Gym, where she developed through the amateur ranks and won a Golden Gloves title. As an amateur she was known for her technical skill and relentless pace, qualities that translated directly to her professional career. Hardy won the WBO featherweight title and compiled a professional record of 24-3. She is one of the most recognizable female fighters to come through the New York City amateur system.

Ronica Jeffrey

Jeffrey is a three-time New York Golden Gloves champion from Brooklyn who turned professional in 2008 because the Olympics did not yet include women’s boxing. She won five world title belts, including the IWBF World Super Featherweight championship, and compiled a professional record of 17-1-1. She was inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame. Jeffrey trains at Gleason’s Gym and continues to coach the next generation of fighters.

Melissa St. Vil

St. Vil, known as “Little Miss Tyson,” trained at Gleason’s Gym and came through the New York amateur system before turning professional. A Brooklyn fighter with Haitian roots, she compiled a record of 15-4-4 and won multiple titles at super featherweight, including the WBC Silver championship. She challenged twice for WBC world titles and was named a WBC Ambassador. St. Vil is recognized as Haiti’s first female world champion and is an advocate against gender-based violence through the Haitian-American Caucus.

Cindy Serrano

Before Amanda became a seven-division world champion, her older sister Cindy was already in the ring. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Brooklyn, Cindy won the 2003 Empire State Games Tournament as an amateur and turned professional that same year. She fought out of Glendale Boxing Club in Queens and compiled a professional record of 27-6-3 over a 15-year career. In 2016, she won the WBO featherweight world title, making the Serranos the first sisters to hold major world titles simultaneously. In 2025, Cindy was inducted into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame. She was the one who got Amanda into boxing. The pipeline started with her.

Stacia Suttles

Suttles grew up in the Bronx and found boxing at 19 after years in karate and taekwondo. Within a year of stepping into a gym she was a Golden Gloves finalist. She went on to win two Golden Gloves titles, the 2016 USA National Championship, and international gold and bronze medals. She was a four-time Team USA boxer and competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials twice, finishing second in 2024. Suttles turned professional and is currently undefeated. She also founded Suttles Boxing Academy, where she teaches children social and emotional skills through boxing. She represents what the amateur system does beyond producing fighters: it produces leaders.

Alicia Napoleon

Napoleon competed as an amateur for nine years, winning 11 amateur titles, including two New York Golden Gloves championships and a National Golden Gloves title. She trained at Gleason’s Gym and turned professional in 2014. In 2018, she won the WBA super middleweight world title at Barclays Center. Napoleon co-founded Overthrow Boxing Club in Manhattan and was named Ring 8’s New York State Female Fighter of the Year. She will be inducted into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026.

Nisa Rodriguez

Rodriguez came up through the Cops and Kids Boxing Program in New York City and won eight Golden Gloves titles as an amateur. She turned professional while serving as an active NYPD police officer and is currently ranked in the WBC top 10, pushing for a world title shot in 2026. From a community program designed to connect young people with law enforcement to a world-ranked professional contender, Rodriguez is the full circle of what amateur boxing can do.

Keisher McLeod-Wells

McLeod-Wells is a four-time New York Golden Gloves champion who trained at Gleason’s Gym. Known as “Fire,” she turned professional and brought the same intensity that made her one of the most dominant amateur fighters in the city.

Maureen Shea

Shea came up through the Bronx amateur scene and competed in the Golden Gloves, where she faced Ronica Jeffrey in the 125-pound final at Madison Square Garden. The fight drew national attention, with actress Hilary Swank, who had just starred in Million Dollar Baby, attending ringside. Shea turned professional and went on to compete at a high level, another product of the Bronx gyms that have been producing fighters for generations.

Gleason’s Gym

Any conversation about women’s boxing in New York City includes Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. Under owner Bruce Silverglade, Gleason’s became the home base for a generation of female fighters who went from amateur competition to world title fights. Heather Hardy, Alicia Napoleon, Melissa St. Vil, Ronica Jeffrey, Keisher McLeod-Wells, Sonya Lamonakis. One gym, one owner, and a commitment to women’s boxing that predates the current wave of mainstream attention by decades. Silverglade did not treat women’s boxing as a novelty. He treated it as boxing.

The System That Built Them

This is a story about infrastructure. USA Boxing Metro, the Golden Gloves, the Ring Masters, Gleason’s Gym, the Cops and Kids program, and dozens of gyms across the five boroughs created the conditions that allowed women to develop as fighters, compete at the highest amateur levels, and transition to professional careers. Christina Cruz broke Mark Breland’s record. Amanda Serrano headlined the Garden. Sonya Lamonakis saved the tournament. Every one of them started in a New York City gym.

The 2026 Ring Masters finals take place at the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden on April 10. The system that built them is still building.