➤ It was Arum’s plan to make her the polar
opposite of Martin, who was riding high on the back
of her rough and tough “Coalminer’s Daughter” image
and no shortage of ability. While Martin was already
on the pages of Sports Illustrated, St John, in obvious
contrast, would soon grace the cover of Playboy.
The novice boxer regularly fought immediately
after comedy heavyweight Eric “Butterbean” Esch’s
latest offering had got the crowd in a party mood,
but long before it could interfere with the serious
business of a Top Rank main event. The industry
viewed the Californian as little more than a gaudy
sideshow, and her rivals, like Martin and Lucia Rijker,
didn’t take kindly to her Top Rank platform – built
purely on sex appeal – lifting her to prominence.
“I thought it was really unfair,” St John, of Mexican
descent, explains about those early days as
a prizefighter. “My peers knew my background,
and I’m a business person, we all are. As
amateurs we fight for free, and I was
fighting for years for free. I made
the decision that I was going to
turn pro and I was going to
start making a living. Every
fighter has that right. So
why was I criticised that
I went with big promoters?
Wasn’t that a no-brainer?
Who wouldn’t do that? Are
they mad because they
couldn’t and I could? Lucia
Rijker was very upset with
me for many years about
it, but now we’re friends and
she apologised. Back then it
was really hurtful.”
While her looks had got her
noticed, they also played havoc with
her mission for respect. A blessing and a
curse, some might say.
“I would never say my looks are a curse
because I was able to get pretty far with
my looks, to get on the cover of Playboy
and get all the media attention I did on
the big talk shows,” she counters. “Yeah, that had a lot
to do with my looks. That’s not a curse. To me,
I was very lucky and I was in the right place at the
right time. I was blessed that my family brought me
to this country and I made money in this country, and
I had success and fame in this country. It was for a
reason, and I now know what that reason is.”
In a better world, the reason would be the
enormous role she played – alongside Martin, Rijker,
Laila Ali and Jane Couch – in eventually making
women’s boxing creditable in the modern age. In a
happier story, the reason for proving her toughness
and skill over 65 fights, travelling the world with Julian
alongside her, graduating from bill-opener to bill-
topper and splitting a pair of bouts with Martin along
the way, would be to open the door for the likes ofClaressa Shields, Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor to
become stars today. But St John doesn’t want to talk
about that. She wants to talk about her son.
St John admits to loving Julian, who died in a
mental health hospital on November 23 2014, a little
too much. Every parent, at least any worthy of being
called one, can empathise with that feeling of bursting
at the seams with insane affection for their offspring.
But St John insists she couldn’t stop thinking about
Julian, who was fathered by American TV star Kristoff
St John, from the moment he was born. Not even for
one second. Not when she was fighting. Not during
the countless photoshoots, and most certainly not
now, three years after he left her behind.
St John had achieved a degree in mental health
years before it was clear Julian had schizophrenia,
a chronic disorder that makes the sufferer lose
touch with reality and, in the worst cases, creates
multiple personalities and voices battling
for prominence in one mind.
“We knew something was
wrong, but he finally had a
formal diagnosis at 17,” she
explains. “It confirmed my
greatest fear in my life. It’s
been all my money, all
my time, researching for
medication on something
that would work. I went
through countless doctors,
and I spent thousands.
I knew there was no cure,
but I was searching for
something that would save
my son’s life. We went through
medication after medication,
hospital after hospital. I got the
best doctors in the world, I got the best
hospitals in the world. I spent every dime
I had to save my child’s life.
“Ultimately, four years ago, I placed
him in a hospital that I was very unhappy
with so I ended up taking him out of the
hospital...” St John’s voice breaks, she
holds her face, but she won’t stop, she has to explain,
she has to confess. “But then the family got so upset
with me because he tried to take his life outside the
hospital, so I put him back in the hospital.”
And it’s there he would die. St John had no choice
but to take him back, of course. Julian, a brilliant
artist whose work sold for thousands of dollars,
would spend time befriending the homeless, yet
he’d become addicted to meth in a bodged attempt
to escape his demons. When he returned to the
hospital, Mia would speak to her son every day, and
their last conversation, only minutes before the end,
will haunt her forever.
“When I spoke to him on the phone that day he
thought somebody was trying to murder him. I tried
to tell him it was in his mind, but he was in denial.36 lBOXING NEWSlJANUARY 11, 2018 http://www.boxingnewsonline.net
MY SON WAS MY WHOLE LIFE AND
I FEEL LIKE, WITHOUT HIM, I WOULD
BE OKAY NOT WAKING UP IN THE
MORNING, VERY MUCH OKAY”
MOTHER AND SON:
Mia will ensure
memories of Julian will
be put to good use