March 3, 2000

It's a funny thing. Amy "Red Dog" Burton has waited nearly three long,
exasperating years for this day to dawn, and now that it has ... well, she
really doesn't know what to think.

"This," she said, "is either going to be the beginning of something or the
end of something."

Strange. Very strange. Amy has run and negotiated and trained and dickered
and poured her sweat for all this time. And, finally, tonight at Turning
Stone Casino and Resort near Verona, she'll discover if it has all been so
much energy wasted.

She's a professional boxer. That's what Amy "Red Dog" Burton is. She's a
professional boxer, that is, if fighting in June of 1997 and then again in
March of 2000 can be called a professional boxer's body of work.

"I've tried," Amy said on Thursday afternoon. "I've called promoters all
over the country. I've tried and tried and tried. I've had offers, but they
never worked out for some reason or another. But it was never anything on my
part. There have been all kinds of excuses."

If it wasn't a weight issue it was a financial problem. If it wasn't an
opponent pulling out, it was a card falling through. If it wasn't this, it
was that. Whatever, Amy Burton debuted in Syracuse some 32 months ago, lost
a six-round decision to a lumbering Mona Nelson who outweighed her by 50
pounds ... and hasn't fought since.

But, should the boxing gods smile on Red Dog this evening, that hand-tossing
drought will, at long last, end. This, because Amy Burton - the kid out of
both Henninger High School and Syracuse University who has turned into a
29-year-old woman with a hint of Kate Winslet to her - is scheduled to again
climb through the ropes, this time in the Oneida Nation against an unknown
from Akron, Ohio.

No, Amy is not nearly a main-eventer. In fact, she's part of just one of the
seven bouts on the undercard of the Paul Spadafora-Victoriano Sosa headliner
that will be telecast by ESPN2 beginning at 9:30 p.m. But after such a long
delay, Red Dog is ready to howl.

"I never thought I'd have to wait three years for my next fight," Amy said
from beneath a healthy crimson mane that has inspired her nickname. "I mean,
the day after that first fight, I was ready to go again. And I'm being
honest. I'd have fought the next morning. I love it."

Still, as much as she enjoys the game - the sparring with the guys at the
Syracuse Boxing Club, the challenge, the discipline, the lure of someday
winning a title - Amy is not quite sure about herself.

You see, on that evening in June of '97, she had a game plan, but got
nervous and then got hit ... and forthwith forgot about the game plan. And
just like that, Amy wasn't boxing but brawling, and she plodded rather than
danced. And the whole affair turned rather unsightly rather quickly. Red
Dog, after all, had been a Toughwoman Contest winner prior to running into
Mona Nelson at the Onondaga County War Memorial ... and she discovered that
once you're a toughwoman, you may always be a Toughwoman.

"I was just throwing wild punches," Amy remembered, "and walking right into
her straight punches. She won. I won't argue that. It was a very stressful
night."

That was nearly three years and 20 pounds ago. That was prior to connecting
with a manager, George Taylor, and her trainers, Billy Eagan and Cole
Taylor. That was before the daughters of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier and
George Foreman and Roberto Duran introduced both pizzazz and the promise of
bigger money to the curious world of women's professional boxing.

That was, in other words, back when Amy "Red Dog" Burton, 5-foot-3 and now
149 pounds, was a novice. But now ... um, now she's a veteran. But only of a
single bout. Of merely six rounds. Of that one ugly loss. And so, there
remains some doubt.

"I've been waiting for this day for three years," she said. "My left jab is
snappier than it used to be. And I'm definitely lighter, so I'm a little bit
quicker. Everything is coming so much more natural for me. I don't catch
myself with my hands down and with my head moving forward.

"And, you know, in my mind, I think I'll have everything under control this
time. But if what happened three years ago happens in this fight - if I
forgot everything I know and just started throwing wild punches again - I
would give up boxing. Because, obviously, I wouldn't have the mentality to
fight."

And so, we shall see. Her parents will be at Turning Stone this evening. And
her older sister will be there, too. And so will the boyfriend she met at a
boxing event - the one "who's not afraid of me. I couldn't be too fond of a
guy if I knew I could kick his butt if I had to." And so will nearly 100
others among her family, friends and UPS co-workers.

After nearly three long, exasperating years, they wouldn't think of missing
the return of their "Red Dog" to the ring. Remember, this is either going to
be the beginning of something or the end of something for Amy Burton. And a
whole lot of folks who want to see it with their own eyes.