Vonda Ward pugile

Vonda Ward (born March 16, 1973) is an American former professional boxer and NCAA basketball player. As a boxer, she competed from 2000 to 2008 and held multiple heavyweight world championships, including the WBC title in 2007. She also challenged Ann Wolfe for the WIBA and IBA female light heavyweight titles in 2004, in which she suffered her only defeat, losing by knockout in the first round.Ward grew up in a sports-oriented family; her father, Larry Ward, is a famous harness racer.Ward played basketball at Trinity High School in Garfield Heights and was twice named Ohio's "Ms. Basketball." She made "Parade All American" teams twice. She was recruited by Division I universities across the United States.In 1991, Ward accepted a basketball scholarship at the University of Tennessee. While a member of Pat Summitt's Lady Vols, Ward played in one NCAA basketball championship game (1995) during her college career at Tennessee, losing to the University of Connecticut. She competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 1993 Jones Cup Team that won the Bronze in Taipei. After her college career ended in 1995, Ward played for a professional basketball club in Germany. She later played for the American Basketball League's Colorado Xplosion. In 2012, she was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.After a broken leg cut her professional basketball career short, Ward turned her attention to boxing.