Daisy Lang: Lady and the Champ

She looks more like a fashion model than a prizefighter, but don’t be fooled by Daisy Lang’s appearance. When she laces on the gloves, she can trade punches with the best of them.

On Thursday, the former boxing world champion visited Gerry Blanck’s Martial Arts Center to give his students boxing and kickboxing lessons and preach the virtues of health, fitness and a positive attitude. She did two one-hour workouts, one for adults and teens and the other for children. Afterwards, she signed autographs and took pictures with her  newest graduating class and their families.

“Gerry’s a good friend and I’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while,” said Lang, who was nicknamed “The Lady” during her career because of her femininity outside the ring. “I’m busy, he’s busy but I’m very excited to be here. I always told him I’ll do seminars in your gym when I retire, so it’s a pleasure for me.”

Lang, who was born in Bulgaria and grew up in Germany, won titles in three different weight divisions and posted a 19-3-1 record with seven knockouts from 1996 to 2004. She studied martial arts prior to boxing and won world titles in Taekwondo, kickboxing and karate.

As one of the pioneers of women’s boxing in Europe, Lang admitted that a feminine woman being No. 1 in a men’s sport came with certain expectations.

“I’ve always believed that a woman needs to be a woman outside the ring,” she said. “Inside, you try to forget that. It’s like any other profession — you can’t bring your personal life into work.”

After retiring, Lang moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and has appeared in several action movies. She is also a trained physiotherapist.

“My sports success opened a lot of doors in the entertainment business and I have a lot of fans in that industry,” Lang said. “I enjoy kicking butt in front of the camera. I remember my first casting I felt so afraid, I was sweating.”

As a child, Lang ran track and aspired to be a world champion hurdler and sprinter, but destiny led her into martial arts. She credits two people with local ties for influencing her career: fellow Bulgarian and martial arts actress Stephanie Cheeva, with whom Lang trained in Taekwondo, and Palisades’ own kickboxing champion Baxter Humby.

“He’s a very good example of what you can become if you believe in yourself,” Lang said of Humby, who teaches at Blanck’s studio and the Palisades-Malibu YMCA. “Baxter’s one of the most inspirational individuals I’ve ever met. He’s a champion in his heart and in the ring.”

Lang has no regrets about moving to Southern California: “It’s been a positive experience. The weather here was a huge factor — it’s the best in the world. I also like the freedom of opportunity you have here. Germany is good economically, but everything moves slow there. It was not an easy decision to make but I’m very happy here.”

Lang complimented Blanck’s students on their technique and was clearly in her element wearing a red bandana while leading her classes through a series of punch-kick combinations.

“I especially enjoy teaching the children because it keeps you  young and positive,” said Lang, who won titles in the super flyweight, bantamweight and super bantamweight divisions. “It’s good therapy because they’re sweethearts and they’re good imitators. If you show them something they can do it.”

The day before Lang’s visit, Blanck’s younger students were treated to a pair of skills exhibitions they won’t soon forget when 8-year-old Jesse Jane McParland (known as “The Golden Dragon”) and 9-year-old Nassim Faras Lahrizi (aka “Young Dragon”) stopped by Blanck’s dojo to perform jaw-dropping forms demonstrations. The two karate phenoms are starring in the upcoming action movie “The Martial Arts Kid.”

It was McParland’s first trip to the Palisades and Blanck hopes she returns soon after witnessing a 60-second extreme forms routine that made everyone in the dojo stop what they were doing to watch. McParland, from County Armagh in Northern Ireland, started in martial arts at the age of 3 and when she was 7 she became the youngest female World Karate Champion ever. She showed why she’s already won well over 100 world titles with a dazzling display, after which she said machine gun kicks are her favorite move. Faras Lahrizi wowed Blanck’s students with a weapons demonstration in December. Last week’s encore included a vast array of punches and kicks, back flips and spins, each executed with precision and timing.

A five-time kickboxing and karate world champion who has also racked up in excess of 100 world titles over the last three years, Faras Lahrizi was born into the sport, taking his first class when he was a year old, entering his first competition at 3 1/2 and becoming a Black Belt at 5. He lives and trains in Brockton, Massachusetts, the hometown of boxing champions Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

In March, Faras Lahrizi wowed a studio audience with his weapons demonstration on “The Queen Latifah Show” (the episode aired April 10).