Due to her blond hair and her trainer Arnel "Bomber" Barotillo, Ebanie Bridges, the current IBF female bantamweight champion, is better known by the moniker "Blonde Bomber." She is particularly well-known for her ferocious contest on April 10, 2021, for the vacant WBA female bantamweight belt against British boxer Shannon Courtenay.
Bridges participated as an amateur in the women's bantamweight division in the Australasian Golden Gloves in 2016 and 2017, where she took first place. Bridges and Split-T Management agreed to a promotional agreement in February 2020. On February 8, 2020, she made her US debut, defeating Crystal Hoy in six rounds by unanimous decision. Her most recent fight came on March 26, 2022, for the IBF female bantamweight title against Argentine professional boxer Mariá Cecilia Román, which she won by majority decision.
She resides in Dural, New South Wales, and in addition to her boxing career, she is a certified mathematics teacher at Airds High School. She did a work placement at Mount Annan High School while pursuing a career as a math teacher. She has also been featured in the reality-based quasi-military training television program SAS Australia: Who Dares Wins.
Ebonie Bridges, the woman's world bantamweight champion, has disclosed the peculiar demands her devoted fans make. The boxer said that fans have requested bath water, sweat, and even toenail clippings in a Pub Talk interview.
She said that she occasionally indulges the weird fan and confessed to having accepted cash for worn gym socks from a man who was sending her fan mail.
In an interview about these strange requests, Bridges said, "Give me your money, that’s my response! If you want my stuff, then you’ve got to give me your money. There are plenty of weird people out there. I haven’t sold my bath water, but I’ve been getting so many weird requests I was thinking, should I go buy some jars? I’ve done the socks and my feet because it’s a laugh and harmless."
Ebonie Bridges has already profited from these frantic admirers. However, not everyone online is trying to scam this Brickhouse boxer, and some people harass her in an effort to persuade her to give them free goods or reply.
In a statement, she said, "I ignore it (troll messages). Anyone who is successful, they’re going to get jealousy, the hate, and people will try to drag them down. That’s just normal. The people talking s***, they don’t know me, so why should I sit there and get emotional and bothered by someone who has never met me? I’m very secure within myself. I’ve been through hell and back in my life and I’m very secure, I love who I am.”
Bridges turned professional in 2019, and since then, she has only dropped one title match, placing her at the top of her weight division. For the world title of the International Boxing Federation, she will face Shannon O'Connell in December.
The Australian boxer has a lighthearted take on the strange requests she receives saying, "It’s all side money at the end of the day, if they want to pay then it’s up to them. I don’t care really, as long as I’m putting food on my table and the bills are being paid, I’m happy."
So there's still hope if you're hunting for a female boxer's sweaty sock that's stuffed with toenail clippings.