US coach Starks giving Saudi female boxers a platform to rise

RIYADH: Boxing in Saudi Arabia is on the rise.

For a new generation of aspiring female boxers, however, a platform for development in the “sweet science” hasn’t always been accessible. But thanks to one boxing veteran, that is now changing.

“I created TKO Fighters because when I came to Riyadh, I found out that they (female fighters) had only two shows a year, and so I was like, man, you know, they can’t really get a lot of experience that way? So I decided to create the team so that they can travel outside of Saudi Arabia to get experience, different experiences,” said Saudi-based American boxing trainer Lee Starks.

Starks has been a boxing coach for the past 21 years, having started training young fighters in his home state of New Jersey. In that time, he has received numerous honors by the city of Plainfield and the state for his achievements in amateur boxing, which included producing 29 champions that came out of his Plainfield Boxing Academy.

In 2009, he was selected as one of the coaches for the US National Boxing Team.

Since then, he has been working with professional and amateur fighters — as well as hosting training camps — in the US, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and several other countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Starks founded TKO Fighters, the first ever women’s boxing team in the Kingdom, in 2021. He started with four ambitious young female boxers and led them to a historic debut championship in Riyadh, one of the first women’s boxing tournaments in the GCC.

They did not disappoint, winning one gold and three silver medals between them.

“I did boxing before in Vietnam,” said Christin Reuter, a pro-amateur boxer from Munich, who boasts a master’s degree in psychology and works as a business