Former soap music director Jill Diamond

[GregNYC]

Former ATWT, GL, AW, and Passions music director Jill Diamond is now involved with boxing and is on the World Boxing Cares WBC committee.

http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/4389/jill-diamond-rough/

For as long as she can remember, Jill Diamond has been project oriented. And whether she realizes it or not, she is also more of a giver than a taker, so her role as chairwoman of the NABF women’s division, as well as her position on the WBC female championship committee, is a perfect fit.

Diamond appears ageless as she travels the world supervising female title bouts and telling anyone who will listen that women boxers are as committed to their craft as their male counterparts.

Diamond, who has won multiple Emmy awards for her work in music direction and composition for television, immersed herself in boxing after the death of her husband, an Emmy award winning actor named Don Chastain.

After his passing, Diamond helped fill the emotional void in her life through boxing. She began training at Michael Olajide Sr’s. Kingsway International Gym, which is near her Manhattan home, and quickly fell in love with the sport.

She had always felt a connection with boxing because several members of her husband’s family had been fighters. But when she donned gloves for the first time and pounded the mitts or slammed the bag, she felt as if her body, mind and soul had opened in ways she could have never imagined.

In recent years she has found more joy through boxing than any other outlet. Whenever she travels, which is often, she finds time to visit local gyms.

On September 18, she escorted championship fighters Erik “The Terrible” Morales and Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez, as well as talented photojournalist Kazumichi Hayashion, to the Children’s Hospital in the City of Angels.

They brought with them a message of hope and love and support from WBC President Jose Sulamain, who Diamond says was an ardent supporter of this project from the moment she pitched it to him, as well as gift bags donated by Alberto Reyes of Reyes Sporting Goods, and WBC lifetime memberships for the children.

“The support that I received for this project blew me away,” said Diamond. “The sanctioning bodies are so often maligned, so it is unfortunate that the general public doesn’t get to see things like this.”

As one of the architects of a program called World Boxing Cares (WBC), Diamond and the WBC hope to continue this program in its 163 affiliated countries.