Born on 3 May 2002, Sarita Waris hails from Salo, Finland. Her nickname “Princess of Darkness” comes from knockout power that makes opponents fall asleep, supreme belief that she is the top fighter of any boxing promotion and a remorseless bad girl attitude.
Boxing was not the initial career of choice when growing up. What came first was ironically beauty. Sarita felt that she was the most beautiful woman in all of Finland – and many people agreed with her assessment.
She was, and still is, arrogant about it. This led to the young woman signing up for children and teenage beauty pageants. However, the judges did not agree. While Sarita would always end up anywhere in the Top 5, she never won first place. It ticked her off and she would always complain that the judges were biased.
In her final participation at a pageant in high school, she came in second place. She was so furious that she went up to the winner and punched her square in the face. Of course, this incident led to a straight ban from future competitions.
However, the situation did lead her to boxing. Knocking a contest winner out cold with one punch made her realize that she had power. From that point, at age 15, she began training for the ring under the guidance of Sara Timonen to box at amateur level.
When Sarita turned 16, Sara noticed a pattern. Sarita had talent… and a temper even in the ring. A huge ego. She saw herself as the best pugilist and the most attractive outside of it. The mindset made her trainer sick, but talent kept the pair going.
That potential showed in the amateur ranks. Sarita went undefeated in 21 fights. With 20 wins and one hard-fought draw against Germany’s Leonie von Hammerstein. The Finn survived a knockdown in the first round to carry the rest of the fight and earn the draw.
Everything seemed lined up for an amateur championship, but Sara talked about turning pro instead at the tender age of 18. Sarita’s approach gave mixed results.
The early going was tough. She lost on her debut to rematch that opponent and knock her out. The pattern was set until she reached 3-3 with two KO wins. That’s when the blonde pestered the people at Final Bell to get a chance to fight outside of Finland. Meeting Steffi Slater turned out to be a painful experience, but also one to learn about the value of being fitter and more disciplined as a sportswoman.
