Lucia Rijker is a Dutch professional boxer, kickboxer and actress. Her impressive champion's trajectory includes a boxing record of 17 wins, 0 losses and 14 knockouts. Rijker also won four world titles as a kickboxer, compiling a record of 36-0 with 25 first-round knockouts. Rijker appeared as "Billie" in the Clint Eastwood-directed, Oscar-winning
Million Dollar Baby (2004), a film for which she also served as technical advisor. Retired from sports, Rijker now travels the world as a motivational speaker.
In this Skype chat, Rijker serves as luminary mentor to Fortnight contributor Christina Cruz, a young boxer who recently qualified for the first-ever women's Olympic boxing team. Fortnight
documents the movement of Cruz every 14 days this edition.
In
Part I of the chat, Cruz and Rijker talk about what motivates a young woman to fight. Rijker cites historic inspiration from great fighters such as Muhammad Ali (b. 1947). The two also discuss brutal and lonely aspects of top-class conditioning routines.
