Bittersweet: What happened to Diana Prazak?

The documentary Bittersweet by filmmaker Marieke Niestadt shows former boxer and 6x world champion Lucia Rijker while training the Australian professional female boxer Diana Prazak. At the end, the documentary shows the match between Diana Prazak and Frida Wallberg. Prazak defeated the Swedish world champion Frida Wallberg by knocking her out. It soon became clear this match didn't end very well for Frida Wallberg, she suffered a brain hemorrhage. As Prazak would explain later, it was a bittersweet victory. How did it go with her career after this almost fatal match?

The Los Angeles resident Diana Prazak started relatively late with pro boxing, namely at the age of 27. She used to be an overweight chain smoker and decided to do something about it. When she decided to go boxing, people made fun of her, because "she was too fat, too old and a girl". In three months time she lost 30 kilos, took part in an amateur boxing match and won the bout through a knock-out. Within eight months she would become World Champion Super Featherweight at the age of 34 by beating Frida Wallberg.

Only recently, in 2008, Queensland (Australia) lifted the ban on female competitive boxing. According to Prazak female boxers are still struggling: she has no major sponsors and therefore has no money to travel home to visit her family. She has to pay everything herself with a full-time job. Male professional boxers, on the other hand, earn millions.

After she won the WBC super featherweight world title by defeating Frida Wallberg, she never received a warm welcome in her home country Australia. According to Prazak almost no one has ever heard of her in Australia.

On March 1, 2014 she was able to extend her WBC super featherweight world title by defeating her compatriot Shannon O'Connell via a technical knockout.

On November 11, 2014 she lost against the Belgian WBC Lightweight World Title holder, Delfine Persoon, by a technical knockout.

Want to know how it ended with Frida Wallberg? Read the article Bittersweet: What happened to Frida Wallberg

Watch the match between Diana Prazak and Delfine Persoon:

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Sources:

• Craven, J. (2011, 20 juli). Diana Prazak prepares for world-title boxing fight. Geraadpleegd van http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/diana-prazak-prepares-for-world-title-boxing-fight/story-e6frf9if-1226097832874
• Safi, M. (2014, 28 februari). Diana Prazak battles doubters to make Australian women's boxing great. Geraadpleegd vanhttp://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/feb/28/diana-prazak-battles-doubters-australia-women-boxing
• WBAN. (2013, july 01). Diana Prazak. Retrieved september 29, 2015, from http://www.wban.org/biog/dprazak.htm

• Picture Diana Prazak, 2010: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bfra07/