East Side Boxing interviews female boxer Alicia Ashley, the Jamaican-American women's boxer who is a former world Super Bantamweight champion. Though they only briefly touch on the subject of cheessboxing, offers some interesting points on the mashup between the two sports to create the chessboxing phenomenon.

ESB: Did you hear about the new sport of ChessBoxing in Europe?

Alicia: (laughing) I have never heard of that.

ESB: Yeah, it's like alternating rounds and you can win by checkmate or knockout.

Alicia: (laughing) I don’t think they have much to do with themselves over there.

ESB: You would never compete in something like that if Maurice trained you?

Alicia: (laughing) No, I think they would checkmate me, although if we boxed first?

ESB: (Laughing) Yeah, I mean, there is a lot of strategy involved in that. Would your parents rather have had another chess player in the family or another boxer?

Alicia: My mom, she has never seen me boxing; actually, she has never seen me in karate, either, but she is very proud of me and what I have done. So they are happy, you know. She is a world champion here, and he is a grand master there, so they are happy in that sense.

ESB: Which boxer do you think would make a good chess player with the right training and why?

Alicia: Mayweather because I think he uses strategy a lot. When he went in to fight Gatti, people expected him to run around and he didn’t. He comes out and surprises you, and now people know he is not just a mover and he can stand there and fight. So he employs strategy and that is what you need in chess.

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