It sounds like a familiar experience: If you’re a Queer person looking for community, you take a turn down an alleyway, head down a few stairs, and enter a gritty, pulsing world of heat, sweat, and action. You’ll find people who look like yourself, moving their bodies to an unspoken energy.
However, this isn’t a nightclub. There’s no music or dancing. Instead you’ll find everyone gathered around two Lesbians, circling each other in a ring, trying desperately to punch each other in the face.
Welcome to “Lesbian Fight Night,” an all-out celebration of Sapphic badassery!
This special event is the brainchild of two local entrepreneurs, Alex Carter and Ali Garcia. Carter is the current owner of Cappy’s Boxing Gym. Despite its origins within a masculine sport, Cappy’s has been catering to a diverse array of bodies, genders, and identities in the Central District for decades. Carter has always known it as a safe, welcoming place for women to box. She wants to keep it that way.
It’s why, after she was laid off from her software development position, she decided to become a boxing coach to fill in the days between her job applications. She never expected to stick around for years, let alone own the place. Yet when the gym’s prior owner offered to pass the reins on to her, it was the chance for her to fulfill a lifelong dream: owning her own business.
She took the keys and has yet to look back. While continuing classes and programs that bring in Cappy’s regulars, like its big “Saturday Night Sizzler” spectacles, Carter kept an eye out for ways to keep the gym active in the community. That’s when she came across a crowd of Lesbians arm wrestling in Cal Anderson Park.
Garcia also stumbled into running her own business. A Seattle native who recently moved back home from New York, she came to realize the potential in re-creating NYC’s dense, vibrant ecosystem of events here in Seattle. So, by hosting one collage night or performative Lesbian contest at a time, Garcia successfully built a vibrant, Sapphic community from scratch: Lezztalkaboutit.
“New York is so dense, yet Seattle feels so small. So everyone here is tight-knit,” said Garcia, when asked about Lezztalkaboutit’s growth. “It’s a real family! I know, like, half the people here.”
Impressed by the energy of and turnout at her events, Carter DMed Garcia to see if she would want to collaborate on a future boxing event. She got back an immediate yes. Boxing actually has personal meaning for Garcia, as her father has long been a boxing coach. She couldn’t pass the opportunity up.
All levels
This April’s match was the third fight night Carter and Garcia’s have hosted together since then. On the first night, they forgot to have someone watch the door, so fans immediately swarmed the space before anyone was ready. This time around, there was a doorman watching the front, making sure that only the fighters were being let in.
Anyone could sign up to join the night’s roster of fighters, so their experience ranged dramatically. First-time boxers, alongside genuinely impressive professionals, were all set to compete under the same roof.
Somewhere in the middle of that spectrum was Olivia, dressed head-to-toe in black with big, wavy hair scrunched into her headguard. This wasn’t her first rodeo: She’s done casual boxing before, but after attending the previous month’s fight night, she was convinced by her supportive friend group to get in the ring.
Her besties made their presence very well known. They hooted and hollered and cheered Olivia on. One of them held up a cardboard picture of Olivia’s face, which occasionally popped out of the crowd. Once she wrapped up her match and entered the audience, they greeted her with a much-earned hug.
On the more competitive side was Lily, a retired professional Muay Thai fighter who spent years mastering her craft. She traveled the world while transitioning, fighting matches in Thailand during her peak, eventually moving to LA once she was ready for the next phase of her life.
Asked about why she fell in love with Muay Thai in the first place, Lily spoke about being diagnosed with autism, and how fighting helped her learn to live in harmony with her disability.
“Before I transitioned, I often felt disassociated from my physical experience. Fighting forces me to stay present. I have to be within my own body,” said Lily. “It’s also one of the few spaces where you’re allowed to be selfish. I’m a recovering people pleaser, yet in the ring, I get to just be responsible for myself.”
The fights
The fighters were set to go. Once the lights dimmed, and an audience of girls, Gays, and theys huddled around the ring, Garcia grabbed the mic and played her usual role as the ringleader of her own spectacles, setting the stage: three matches, with two rounds of fighting each, gradually increasing in skill level and difficulty. After a match between two newcomers, it was Olivia’s turn to fight.
She immediately threw hands after bumping gloves, and was unafraid to both serve and take a healthy heaping of hooks and jabs. The fight sometimes got too feisty, and Carter would briefly step in as referee to break up the action or adjust equipment, but nobody was ever knocked out. The goal was never really to do that. Everyone in the ring was there for the love of the sport, rather than seeking a declaration of victory.
Every fighter received plenty of validation from the fans, who kept the energy alive throughout the course of the night. After Olivia’s match, her friends were simply overjoyed to see her fight in the spotlight.
“I’m so proud of her!” said Lilah. “To see her live her dream, in front of so many Queer people? It’s just so amazing.”
Lily’s match was the grand finale. As she prepped backstage, she rejected expectations that she’d have to “go easy” on her opponent. If anything, she predicted they’d have to go easy on her.
“Muay Thai and traditional boxing are very different disciplines. One allows for kicks, whereas boxing’s all in the arms,” explained Lily. “That’s honestly where my weakness has been.”
Lily couldn’t have predicted that her opponent, after a great first showing, would politely ask to tap out between rounds. To fill in, Garcia announced a surprise challenger: Carter would step into the ring! The crowd erupted with excitement. For as fun as it was to cheer on the rookies, everyone knew they were about to see the best against the best.
The fight itself was ironically more chill, as both Lily and Carter knew to pace themselves and strategically pick their punches, but the roar of the crowd made the whole experience feel like an action-packed blur. Sweating profusely between bouts, Lily was asked how she was feeling in the moment.
“It’s good to be humbled every now and then!” she shouted through the noise.
Eventually, the show was over, but a few dozen stayed behind a little longer to chat, laugh, and dance their hearts out. However, Garcia left the others with a parting message.
“Women’s boxers aren’t paid as well as the men, so you all being here to support us, it shows we deserve as much as the cis men in this world,” she told the crowd. “I’m so lucky to see all your beautiful faces. Thank you so much! Thank you!”
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