The Fighting Spirit of
Bantam Boxing’s Tammie Lefebvre

By Margaret Michniewicz

Boxing and women. For many, the award-winning performance of former Vermonter Melissa Leo in The Fighter comes first to mind, with her vivid portrayal of a boxer’s mother who sought to manage her son’s career, while her seven daughters looked on from the sidelines. And though based on the true story of our neighbors in Lowell, Massachusetts, it is, after all, a Hollywood drama.

But Vermont has its own remarkable boxer story unfolding of a gritty woman who has come out fighting, determined to overcome life’s challenges, among them domestic violence – while her five daughters, age 8-13, box on.

“I never thought I’d be running a boxing gym,” confesses 43-year old Tammie Lefebvre of Bantam Boxing. Nor, it seems, do most people who spot the diminutive 5’2” mother of five at boxing matches expect that she is there as manager of the male competitor sparring in the ring at a Golden Gloves tournament, for example. “When people think of boxing, they think of Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali – not little blond Tammie!” she laughs. Yet this is where her career path has currently led the Rutland native, who now lives in Chittenden County. It’s late March when we first meet, and Lefebvre is perched on a stool amidst the chaos that comes during a move in progress. Rarely taking a pause, she relates the story of how she’s come ringside.

Lefebvre recalls growing up in Rutland at a time when young girls were dissuaded from watching boxing on television, let alone actually participating in the sport. Raised primarily by her grandparents, she was to be a “little lady.” She remembers always being “the chubby little girl who got picked on” at school – and, she says, got really tired of it. Once in high school, a friend of hers had begun training with Tommy Garrow, a well-known boxer in the area – and so young Tammie asked her friend to show her some of the things he was learning from Garrow. “While he was training with Mr. Garrow he was showing me how to defend myself,” she says. “And the chubby little girl was actually transformed into the girl who actually went on to do a little bit of modeling and then on to college, and was not the chubby little girl anymore.

“I always felt this need to prove that you should be able to do what you want to do no matter what anybody says – you should be able to do that,” she declares.

Several years ago, Lefebvre’s eldest of five daughters, then ten-year old Catie, quite unexpectedly announced, “Mommy, I want to learn how to box.”

“I bit my lip a little,” Lefebvre admits, explaining how it brought back memories of her own girlhood boxing experience, paired with her current feelings as maternal protector. Thus, she researched where she could find a gym with proper training – “I started conversing with Billy Lefebvre who owned Bantam Boxing in Winooski,” she continues, relating how Lefebvre had been in the business since 1973 when he was 16 – his father, was the former boxing champion Robert Lefebvre.

Not only did Catie begin to learn boxing, but soon her mom was transporting her and all of her sisters from Rutland to Winooski for lessons. And, having been divorced from her first husband by this point, Tammie and Billy began dating and then married.

Concurrent with the girls’ ever-increasing enthusiasm for their new-found sport and their immersion into the family’s boxing club, their 54-year old step-father meanwhile was likely feeling the effects of serving two tours of duty in Iraq. “He has been in the Air Force for 30 years, and went to Iraq in 2004,” Lefebvre says of her husband. “He became ill and the last couple of years have been hard for him – he couldn’t put his heart and soul fully into the business,” she explains.

Faced with the prospect that they might have to close the gym’s doors, Lefebvre says she felt too invested by then to let that happen – so she stepped into the ring, as it were, and has taken the reins to keep this family business going. “Since last fall, this has been my baby,” she states. In a short period of time, she obtained her license to coach (and has already taken a team to the Golden Gloves tournament), and has energetically revived the club – leading to the decision to make the move from the Winooski location to this newer and larger space on Williston Road in South Burlington, which allows the potential for even further expansion.

“My husband taught me a lot; as we spent time together he taught me how to box, how to train; I’m glad that he did because now I’m able to run the gym,” Lefebvre says. “He’s kind of the silent partner right now but very much a driving force behind me and we talk about everything and I call on his expertise all of the time.”

She smiles appreciatively as she describes the help given during the move by so many of Bantam’s faithful clientele, from moral support to the heavy lifting. “Everybody who was patronizing [in Winooski] actually has been on board and in fact a good number of them have been involved with the move.”

And while the bulk of the club’s regulars over the years have been guys, as one would expect (including people like Butch Kelly, a former pro champion), the club is undergoing a transition in its customer base. “We have had an influx of women,” Lefebvre reports, especially, she says, since she was seen with her team at the Golden Gloves competition last winter – where, she grins, “I was holding the mitts for people 10 times my size!”

It has become very much a parent/child environment, she says of Bantam’s new direction, recalling the sight of a young girl sparring happily with a 6’5” boxer on his knees, or a retiree using the gym’s facilities to stay fit.

Nor, she says, is it all about competition. “You don’t have to compete to participate; it’s a workout… It’s not an easy sport; I don’t want anyone to kid themselves, it’s a very demanding sport – but there are various levels that you can enter into.

“The first lesson is free, so if you just want to come down and try it out, have fun – there’s no commitment, just come in and try it out!” Lefebvre says, adding that all someone needs to bring is gym shorts, sneakers, and a positive attitude. “I’m hoping more women take that leap of faith with boxing – or whatever it is – and say ‘I can do it!’ Don’t let anybody say you’re not going to do it.”

A recent arrival to the gym is Shoshi, a 23-year old social worker who started boxing in March. “I was interested in learning self defense and other types of mixed martial arts,” she says. “I’m not really too interested in competing, but it’s a really good way to expel any anger or aggression that builds up throughout the week!”

Of particular importance to Lefebvre is making the club and its training opportunities available to women and children who have been victimized by domestic violence, experience she herself has faced. “We offer free boxing lessons to domestic violence survivors and their children. It’s a big passion of mine to help – I am a domestic violence survivor. I want others to know you can make it through.

“I have five little girls and I’m teaching my daughters they can be whatever they want to be.”

The Right Hook

In addition to its focus on a female protagonist in boxing, Lefebvre appreciates the film Million Dollar Baby specifically for how, she explains, it brings you into the gym and what the training process is like. “I smile when I rewatch it and the Clint Eastwood character says ‘You know, if she keeps hitting it like that she’s gonna break her hand!’ I remember the first time I hit a heavy bag – I almost broke my hand!” she laughs.

However, Lefebvre bemoans the inaccurate impression that Hollywood leaves viewers about boxing – primarily the significant differences between pro and amateur boxing.

“There’s a whole lot of difference and it really gives us a bad name,” Lefebvre declares. “People think ah, you’re just wanting to throw people in a ring; it almost becomes a similarity to a dog fight – and it’s not. Everybody sees pro fights [on TV and in movies] and they never see amateur fighting.” And when people actually do go to an amateur match, she points out, they inevitably find “Gee, it wasn’t what I thought!”

In addition to there being the exchange of money in a pro bout, some of the differences found at the amateur level include the wearing of protective headgear, and the objective is not to knock your opponent out. Victories are attained more through the accumulation of points through a match, with blows directed at the opponent’s body not head.

“There’s a referee in the ring who’s there to make sure those boxers aren’t getting hurt or, if they think they are going to get hurt, it’s stopped then and there, it’s not carried on like it’s carried out in the dramatizations,” says Lefebvre. “The violence and the blood, all of that negativity – all of the fears and all of those things that prey on people’s minds aren’t there – or I wouldn’t put my own children there.

“The training is rigorous – and it teaches focus. You have to focus just on the other fighter, the ref, and your coach. You need to block out the crowd,” Lefebvre explains, adding that she believes this focus has behooved her daughters in their schoolwork, as well as promoting the attitude of treating others with dignity and respect, even one’s adversaries.

“Boxing is not a team sport, it’s you by yourself, and you have to depend on your own skills,” Lefebvre continues. “You need to capitalize on what you yourself have.”

Of her own plans, Lefebvre says: “I’m trying very desperately to finish up my degree in addiction studies on the side – I have my bachelor’s degree in social work and this was going to be my time to go back to school and finish my master’s degree. It didn’t work out that way – but that’s okay!” she laughs. “I’m enjoying myself immensely and doing something that I love and that’s all that matters.

“I am hoping other women will give boxing a try and otherwise realize that no matter what your situation, you should always reach for that dream you have and never let anyone tell you that you cannot or should not try. Break down those barriers. The gloves are off. It is no longer a man's world. In our club the girls and I run the ring and the men we encounter are respectful of us, our talents, and who we are as people,” Lefebvre implores, before adding with a mischievous gleam in her eye: "Boxing – invented by men, perfected by women!”

Margaret Michniewicz is editor of Vermont Woman and can be reached at editor @ vermontwoman.com.