By Jerry Del Priore
If you ask Heather “The Heat” Hardy, she’ll be the first to tell you that she deserves her due after she defeated Kirstie Simmons (8-1, 2 KOs) with a unanimous decision in an eight-round Super Bantamweight bout Saturday night at the Barclays Center.
It was part of the undercard of the Keith Thurman-Shawn Porter World Boxing Association World Welterweight (WBA) main event title fight, which Thurman won on points.
“I’m ready for a world title shot,” Hardy told the media with the utmost conviction following her fight. “I mean, come on, enough is enough. It’s time.”
Hardy (17-0, 4 KOs), although not devastatingly overpowering in the match by her own standards, felt she captured all eight rounds.
“From one to ten, maybe like a seven,” the five-foot-five spitfire said when asked to rate her performance. “It took me like two rounds to just loosen up and find my (striking) distance. And I was really unhappy with the end of the fight. Other than that, I know I won all the rounds, but I know I could’ve done better.”
Nevertheless, Hardy, who is a popular draw, especially in her hometown of Brooklyn, has beaten everyone that has been placed before her and is ready to fight on TV under a bigger spotlight and not be buried in sports obscurity.
“The problem with boxing is the promoters want to put us on Fox Sports 38 at midnight, and then they say we get no ratings,” she said. “So, I think, it’s going to take somebody who’s going to take the chance and shove Heather Hardy between two big fighters and see what happens when everybody tunes in.”
And people do show up to see the Gerritsen Beach native compete, as Hardy said she had sold $15,000 worth of tickets – low for her, she noted – but still pretty decent numbers.
“I asked them [promoters] to put me on next month’s card, but I got a big fat no,” Hardy quipped. “I got, ‘Shut up, Heather. Take some time off.’ So, I will be calling the office, bothering them to get me something hopefully soon.”
