Patricia Berghult is twelve years old and will participate in the South Swedish championships in boxing. After the weigh-in, it is clear that she is the only girl in her weight and age class. There is no girl to meet in the class above either.
The organizers therefore place her in the class with the one year older boys. She wins match after match and when the final is decided, it is she who gets to step to the top of the podium.
The following year, girls are no longer allowed to box against boys.
– After my win, they changed the rules because the boys thought it was unfair, says Patricia Berghult fifteen years later and says that the South Swedish championships still have the rule.
– Patricia Berghult has been boxing since she was 12 years old.
Photo: Emil Langvad / Bildbyrån
Today she is the WBC interim world champion and IBO world champion in super welterweight and RBO world champion in welterweight. Had she been a man and achieved the same feats, she would probably have been financially independent. As a woman, the situation is completely different.
When Patricia Berghult decided to invest in a professional career, not only a great effort was required of herself. Her father and coach Joakim Berghult also made a real sacrifice to see her daughter succeed.
– My father, who is a car mechanic, sold his car workshop so that we could invest in my dream of becoming a professional, she says.
Now he has another full-time job in addition to the coaching role. She herself works part-time as a coordinator in occupational health care and together they do their best to make the economy go together.
– I also used to work full time. Then I got up at six in the morning and came home at eleven in the evening, but in the end it did not work. My body could not bear it, she says.
– Despite her world championship titles, Patricia Berghult works part-time as a coordinator to be able to finance her boxing.
Photo: Sara Johari
Then the professional career took speed, Patricia Berghult has gone fourteen matches and won as many. Despite that, she has only made money on one of the match occasions.
– The only time I got paid was when I took the belts in Malta. Before that, the economy has gone plus or minus zero, she says.
Today Patricia Berghult competes for Örebroklubben Fight-life promotion, but at the beginning of her career she did not belong to a stable. This meant that she had to bear all the costs herself.
– The first eight, nine matches we paid for everything ourselves. A match costs between 25,000 and 35,000 kronor, so it is important to constantly try to find ways to pay, she says.
With a club behind her, she no longer has to bear the match costs herself, but the puzzle of training times, competitions and job commitments remains.
– As a full-time professional, you can get the proper rest. You also get a completely different freedom in being able to go to camp whenever you want and travel on your way to get the right sparring, she says.
To pay attention Inequality between the sexes – in boxing in particular and society in general – Patricia Berghult has started the initiative Sisters support sisters.
– Guys can box for several million, while a girl may not even reach one million in all her matches. We want the gap between the sexes to be smaller, she says.
The initiative is symbolized by a red boxing glove in glass.
– For me as a boxer, the glove felt obvious, but it symbolizes all girls’ fight. Whether the fight is about something private, in business or in sports, she says.
– To draw attention to gender inequality, Patricia Berghult has launched the Sisters Support Sisters initiative, which is symbolized by a red glass boxing glove.
Photo: Sara Johari
In September, Patricia Berghult leaves to Montreal to box for the WBC title. The match against Canadian Marie-Eve Dicaire was supposed to have taken place in June this year, but was advanced.
– It is the highest and finest belt you can win in boxing. It would mean a lot to take home that fight, she says.
During the same gala, two male boxers will settle for the corresponding title and this time the prize money will be divided evenly between the active ones.
– We will get paid exactly as much as the guys. It’s awesome. A step in the right direction, says Patricia Berghult.
However, it is not very likely that the prize money would change her life situation.
– Even though there is more money to be won in this match, it is not immediately the case that I go home and submit a resignation application the following week, she says and laughs.