sports spotlight: brenda rouse
By Mike Tupa
Bartlesville Area Sports Report
BRENDA ROUSE
They say good things come in small packages.
The same could be said for dynamite — which is just about how the punch of local ring female fighter Brenda Rouse felt in her heyday — and probably still today.
This writer knows first hand — literally — the power of Rouse’s bombs.
During an interview several years ago at the Rouse Studio in Bartlesville, I put on a thick glove and let the 105-pound Rouse unload a punch into it. It felt like someone had pounded a sledgehammer into my palm. The shock reverberated back to my shoulder like a seismic jolt. (Yeow!)
Unfortunately, not enough of today's Bartlesville residents know about the achievements of this petite, polite and focused former world champion — and mother of four — in our midst.
During the 1990s Rouse ripped through women's kickboxing and boxing competition like a live wire with a thoroughbred's kick.
She would win several world kickboxing championships (UKF and WKA) in multiple weight divisions ranging from 105 to 120 pounds. She also pounded the best kickboxers the Japan could offer and became a legend among the Japanese during her battling sojourns in the Land of the Rising Sun.
After building a 24-0 record, Rouse couldn't find any other kickboxers who wanted to take her on. With the help of former heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Morrison, she segued in the middle 1990's into stand-up boxing, in which she would win the WBA straw weight (105 pounds) championship belt. She then successfully defended her title against the No. 1 contender.
But Rouse broke her hand in that fight. That, and the arrival of a third child for her and fight trainer/coach/gym owner husband Randy delayed her fighting career.
Some time after the birth, she attempted a comeback. But a vicious attack in Bartlesville by two dogs injured her arm and curtailed her ring pursuits.
The shame is Brenda was due to a couple of major paydays, starting with a scheduled fight in Seoul, Korea, prior to the dog attack, Randy Rouse said.
A while after that the couple's fourth and final child arrived.
Brenda and Randy's son Jarrett also won a kickboxing title belt and forged great success as a stand-up boxer before his active career wound down.