AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 1
No Punches Pulled with No Mercy is proud to have Malissa Smith as a special guest. Malissa is an amateur boxer and the author of the popular blog Girlboxing, which focuses on women’s boxing. She will be discussing the history of women’s boxing and the possibility of it being included in the Olympics. Malissa will offer her insight on the current status of women’s boxing, share stories from her own boxing career, and discuss strategies for increasing the visibility of and participation in the sport. Don’t miss this exciting and informative interview!
#Girlboxing #NoPunchesPulled #NoMercy #WomensBoxing #History #Olympics #AmateurBoxing #Visibility #Participation
Transcribed
I feel them in the shadows: hey y’all.
How are you tonight? It’S your girl, no mercy here, it’s Tuesday night, so you already know what time it is it’s time for no punches pull with no mercy.
Some of you probably already know who I am some of you may not so I’m your host uh Brooke Millbrook early in the fight game, known as Brook no mercy here or I’m a retired professional boxer called the WBC lightweight title and now, as of 2022 International.
Women’S [ Applause, ] goods and UPS bags, BS and the support of boxing um.
This is my platform.
Where we talk, we talk we’re going to bring out the truth in women’s boxing, so you’ll hear from some Pioneers past boxers current boxers future Champions a little bit from all over and hear the stories that all of us have been through um.
You don’t want to miss it um Today’s Show.
Hopefully you guys caught the title.
It’S called we’re doing an interview with Melissa Smith.
Author Advocate comparison World, women’s boxing.
Everyone that’s joining me today.
This special guys is such an amazing woman um.
I am honored to call her a friend she’s, a huge advocate for women’s boxing and also an author of the author of a history of women’s boxing and currently writing a new book scheduled to release next year.
She’S had a blob girl boxing and also is co-host on war room talking all about boxing as well.
Everybody help me welcome in Melissa Smith, hi Melissa.
How are you hey Brooke? How are you thank you? I am so excited to have you here with me today.
Thank you for joining me on my show.
Thank you.
How have you been since the induction been good? It was so exciting when we inducted you along into the class of 2022.
I think we’re still really excited about it, because we had a great showing and we’re getting geared up for the 10th anniversary this coming October, 6th and 7th, and that is really going to be such an exciting opportunity to continue to really um display the Brilliance.
That is women in the boxing game.
Yes, yes, definitely we’re gon na definitely talk about that tonight, too um.
So I figured we’d start off kind of like hit the rewind button and go back to like the beginning of your love for boxing um.
Tell everybody how your boxing Journey began: where did it start and how did your strong love for boxing like? Where did it all begin? Well, you know to tell you the truth.
I grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan um and in the 19 in the early 1960s, and there would be kids out on the street boxing.
You know showing off their moves and you know where they’re we’re talking: eight nine ten-year-old boys.
I was seven.
Eight nine ten years old and I watched them and go wow – that’s really cool.
I want to do that, but I just didn’t kind of have the imagination for me actually doing it, and then my brother was taking boxing at the boys club and I was like dang.
I really want to do that.
So I had an uncle show me.
The one two and I was so proud of myself because I could turn a jab.
You know I thought that was the coolest thing in the world, but right figure out that I could actually do it for many many decades later and I was actually in my early 40s when I walked into Gleason’s gym in Dumbo Brooklyn and said I can do This I can trade.
I could learn how to it’s.
Never too late, it’s never too late, it’s never too late, and – and I still do it – you know I’m in my late 60s and I still hit the gym and work out with my trainer.
Lennox Blackmore who’s.
A former Commonwealth lightweight champion, and – and I and out of all of that um that experience of overcoming my own fears about my physical being, if you will, I was able to have that journey into the power that is boxing for women in particular, especially in my Generation, you know we we were always we never really allowed to show our physical power.
We were always told to be quiet.
You know our my voice was our outside voice and everything else so and literally Brooke.
The first time I ever sparred I burst into tears, hitting somebody yeah.
It was just like a little tap and I just the tears of streaming out out of my eyes.
I was like get me out of here.
Oh no take my gloves off my my mask everything.
It was just so freaked out by that process.
It’S very intense, especially when you first start very, very intense yeah um.
I know my oldest daughter.
We tried to get her just for self-defense and she’s.
Very probably have the same.
We never made her Spar or anything her head or Spar.
We never got that far, but she probably would have the same reaction because she just didn’t want to hit anything um so yeah I could.
I can picture that.
I didn’t quite have that reaction, but I think I think the the hardcore fighters.
We have a different mindset.
I guess when we’re in there, you kind of just turn it on and off yeah.
You do and you know certainly now I don’t have a problem, but it takes a while.
You got ta get there yeah for me.
I had to get there and I had to overcome my own fear of power, and I think it was much less about hitting someone and releasing more about an expression of power.
Yes of my own power – and you know what you’re telling yourself that it’s okay, like exactly giving myself permission to be my full being as a physical being, which I think for women, especially, as I said in my generation in particular, where we were never allowed to Really have any expression physically um, it was quite in quite an extraordinary experience and out of it um, you know I started to write about it and really learn more about the female experience.
Then I went um back to college in my 50s got.
My degree then went on and got a master’s degree in my 50s and um.
What I was studying ended up doing a thesis on the gender binary, how you know the the Notions of what is male and what is female.
And then I examine women’s boxing and say well: how does that fit in right? Because it’s constantly in and out you know, most of us are raised on the idea that boxing is this hyper masculine sport.
Well, guess what women do it too, and they do it really really? Well, yes, yes, they do, and the boxing body has nothing to do with gender and a point, a case in point is: I think it was.
In 2011 the then head of uh, the international boxing amateur boxing Association, Dr Wu, was saying that he wanted to change the uniforms for the amateur boxing.
He wanted women to start wearing skirts.
Of course, amateur women were like hell, no we’re not going, and some a reporter asked him.
Michael Rivas who’s a was a a boxing writer for Ring magazine, and then I had a column up in Albany.
He asked him.
He said: why are you doing this right? That’S Lou said wow.
The problem is when people watch Boxing on television, they all have the helmets on and they can’t tell if it’s a girl or a boy now think about that.
Think about that to me, what that said to me was that women’s boxing the had evolved to the point where their boxing body, how they move in space, was exactly the same as their brothers in the ring.
Yes yeah.
If you can’t tell the difference yeah what Dr Wu was expressing was this construct that people watching were uncomfortable with the idea that gender wasn’t playing a part right because they knew girls were boxing right right.
Women are in the elites.
This was a year before the Olympics right, and that was the level of discomfort.
It never get.
What happened on the uniform side was that didn’t make it mandatory, but each boxing National boxing organization had the option to mandate that women wear skirts.
So in the United States they wear shorts.
You know Poland in 2012, they were wearing skirts skirts.
So I mean I that’s like a whole topping in itself.
Isn’T it about the whole General neutral thing in bias and trying to make everybody? It’S just it we’re all.
One like I, I hope, I’m alive to see the day when boxing just becomes boxing.
I highly doubt it, but when we can just say boxing and not separate the two, because we’re all the same um and I’ve always told people, I feel like women have to work twice as hard as the men, even back in the day.
Even today, still um.
You know women are mothers, the you know the guys can easily just go off for camp and, like they’re, just focused um yeah.
I mean there’s very few women, maybe more so some today that can just train and not work, but I know everybody.
I in my generation and past beyond that all the way up till recently I mean you worked a full-time job, you trained on the side, you’re also a mother and a wife, and you you just do it all.
So I think it’s harder women work harder than the men have yeah.
You know I I I’ve uh.
As I said, I’m at a Gleason’s gym.
That’S my home, gym and – and I have the Good Fortune to you – know – have stable mates like Heather Hardy and Alicia Ashley and Heather.
Hardy is a perfect case in point.
She has never ever in her entire career, had a camp that wasn’t her stealing four or five extra hours a day from her very busy life being a single mother, raising a daughter having to work full time.
You know as a trainer in the gym, which is it’s not a seven hour day.
It’S not an eight hour day.
It’S you show up at six o’clock for your six o’clock, client and you’re there at nine o’clock at night for your nine o’clock client.
Yes, she would steal those extra four hours a day sparring in between training.
Doing the you know, all the the road work over the Brooklyn Bridge in between training, yeah and she’s, 40 years old she’s a champion.
She has a fight coming up, guess what she’s doing she’s stealing those hours out of her day you have to you have to that’s it.
I mean I can remember him when I was doing it at the end, even more so at the end, but I mean I worked in, I worked a nine to five got off.
Work picked up the kids, the husband.
We went to the gym, we’re there for like six to nine.
You know six to eight six to nine doing our work and you, the kids, lived in the gym.
My kids grew up in the gym, my oldest ones, um.
They just stable mates, helped out with the kids.
That’S just what you’re saying you know.
We all were a family and they just helped out and they they were there with me in training, and then we went home and grabbed dinner and went to bed and did it all over again.
So it’s not it’s not easy um.
It’S definitely not an easy Road for for anybody for that matter, but I I think most most of the men leave for or they’re in a training camp like off to themselves for those four to six.
Oh man, can you imagine if you would have six weeks to to go train? I can’t even imagine what I kind of I mean.
I think I was always in pretty decent shape, but if I had six weeks of just training, I don’t I’d be a whole.
Other person, it would have been a whole another person.
So yeah, that’s that’s a good one.
Uh women’s Boxing Channel pipes in hey guys.
How are you he says? Um? Oh, he wants to apply for you, tough question.
So, what’s not a tough question, I I see it and then the question is you know that she failed a PET test and blamed it on a period and it’s actually the it’s the truth she had taken.
She was prescribed a certain type of um.
She has a tendency to have really uh difficulty with her menstruation cycle yeah.
It’S it’s on record, there’s nothing mysterious about that.
She uh was prescribed a medication to take for the third week.
When that happens, what she didn’t understand were that all one of the ingredients was actually part of the PED test.
Okay, she ended up finding out after the test.
That’S an education process.
She certainly apologized for that.
There’S nothing nefarious or underhanded about it.
That’S all.
It was no, I mean yeah.
I’Ve never had the pleasure to meet Heather Hardy in person, but I have spoken to her and no, I wouldn’t call Foul Play whatsoever at all.
In that scenario, no, and and the thing is – it was a good education, because you know pets testing for um for that those drug tests that are something new for a lot of women boxers and there’s also changes as to what the panel of tests are going To be because there’s a lot of changing rules and regulations, sorry astringent than others, and in her case she didn’t really.
I mean she’s, the first to admit it.
I didn’t educate myself enough.
Her team didn’t educate themselves enough.
They just didn’t understand enough about the the compression that what they were doing right.
She accepted the responsibility for that, and certainly will never have that happen again because she has gotten educated, but it was an.
It was an important lesson for all females.
None of them knew because you know you know the main things anabolic steroids all of those things, but these little other things that may be slipped into a general medication.
Um was something that she hadn’t been educated enough about and needed needed to do that and we’ll do that in the future and is doing that yes, um yeah.
So of course she just said the team obviously didn’t educate enough as well um.
In light of that, what do you think about Connor Ben’s case? I don’t know enough about the medications that the um I know he tested positive.
I believe that was for an illegal steroid, but I don’t know enough about that particular case to opine, but I think that that was a rather known substance, but I don’t know enough, so I’m gon na not be able to react.
I do know a lot about the other party case because we covered it at the time.
Okay got you all right um, so we kind of went back to the beginning.
We got the the start of Melissa’s process and journey with boxing um.
So then, next I want to talk about the first book, a history of women’s boxing um.
Can you tell us um, like how you well you kind of got into how you got into the process of writing it and why um what was like the inspiration behind the book and can you give the readers who haven’t or the listeners who haven’t read it Like a little bit about the book in case, they want to go, buy it absolutely um.
So I I, as I had mentioned, I had gone back to school to get a a master’s degree and um.
As part of that process.
I wrote a a thesis on women’s boxing as uh as a test of the boundaries between of the gender binary and and how um, how that has been very changeable.
Almost you know, decade by decade, right and as part of that, one of the things that I was very difficult in writing.
The thesis was that there was so little written about the sport.
There are a few really wonderful academics who have done research essentially starting in the 90s.
So just like around the time that I was writing this, they had maybe been in it a few years before I was writing my thesis in 2000 began it in 2010 finished.
It in 2012, there were maybe three or four academics, one in particular a woman named Jennifer Hargraves in the United Kingdom, who did wonderful work documentary the early years of women in the sport literally 300 years ago in the 1720s nice.
So that kind of gave me some places um to start there are a few other academics in the United States, Canada and and um in the United Kingdom, but there was no history of the sport literally when I went through.
I don’t know like bookshelves worth of boxing books and they would be like one mention of one boxer.
You Know This Much on right, that’s it! You know it’s like it never existed before.
Christy Martin showed up on yeah, so I did a lot of original research.
I pulled things out of the air found them um and then um was actually approached by a publisher, Roman in Littlefield, who eventually published my book to say: listen, you know we’re expanding our titles for women’s boxing and we would like to offer you the opportunity to Write a history of the sport – and I just went oh, my God, what an amazing opportunity, yeah so uh! I I it took me two years to do for a year and a half really of intense writing and researching and um like I was able to really Avail myself of a lot of online newspaper research, digital research opportunities from the United Kingdom.
Literally, going back to the 1700s, you can buy newspaper stories nice, so I was able to do a lot of original research by combing through these records and archives and and wove a story of women in the sport.
As I said that essentially began in the 1720s.
When a man named James fig essentially invented boxing, as we know it, it was a it was called prize fighting and they would have a short little wooden sword.
In one hand, called a cudgel and a fist in the other, and the fist would hold like a a pound or something you know some some amount of money and they would have to hold it in their fist.
They’D have the sword and they would sword fight and hit each other to try to get them to either knock them out or get them to drop the corn, so they lose, and women began to do that as well, and they came up with a concept of Rounds, okay and sort of it wasn’t, as squared off was typically in a in a space.
They were like amphitheaters that would be that were developed or In Fairgrounds, and it was kind of more like a circle and they would fight within the circle.
Okay and women became quite popular um performers of this it was in in theaters, and it basically open-air theaters and on Fairgrounds uh.
Interestingly, in England, the concept of boxing shows and fairgreens went on for another 200 years or 300 almost three years, so the boxing Booth kind of idea right so women started boxing in the 1720s and my book talks about the ups and downs of women’s participation in The sport, both as practitioners as as performers, but also as managers and referees and judges, and all the other ancillary roles that women have come to play.
Even as people who observed the fights there were periods of time when it was illegal for women to attend fights and then there would be periods of time when women were encouraged to attend fights right.
So I I my approach to the book was to um write about sort of decade by decade, Century by Century, pretty much um and look at the culture where women roles were in the culture and then how boxing expressed that? Okay, okay um? Those of you that want to purchase the book, I believe Amazon right is where yes, it’s for the history of women’s boxing it’s available on amazon.
com, you can get it as hardcover soft cover or as an ebook.
Okay, awesome awesome.
Awesome, um! Oh women’s boxing.
Okay, thanks! No, don’t worry about deviating.
That’S what we’re here for to answer.
Questions live we’ll come back to the question we’re working on.
You can ask whatever you like! That’S why we’re here Angie, you know Angie Passmore, hi Angie, yes, um, Melissa, love your history.
I started boxing at 40.
.
Thank you for the back story with Heather.
I didn’t know what actually happened and she is one of my and I got something in front of my thing.
Yeah.
She is one of my favorite Fighters going back to school at 50.
you’re such a strong woman and very inspiring.
I appreciate you coming on here and sharing your experience.
So do I Angie? Thank you.
No going back to school in my 50s was the best thing.
I ever did for myself.
It was like a dangling participle, not having ever actually completed my ba.
I had more credits than I needed: just never strung them together and getting my BA at the age of 56 and getting my master’s degree at the age of 59 or extraordinary, and I never felt so proud of myself to tell you the truth.
Nice.
In that experience yeah, I know um several people that have gone back late and they’re, just the the feel of joy and like kind of like relief that they feel because they finally did it like it’s, never too late.
I always tell people that it doesn’t matter what you want to do.
It’S never too late.
You can do anything if you just put your mind to it and and work hard at it.
Yep um, so um next thing I want to talk about is your blog girl boxing um tell people where they can watch it like what to expect on the blog um when it airs things like that for those of uh that are new in here, and don’t Really are familiar with your blog sure, so I I started my girl girlboxing.
org blog in 2010 um, and it was essentially a way of me to write about women’s boxing.
There was not a lot out there and I was very much engaged in writing my thesis at the time.
So I wanted uh to practice writing, because I wanted to feel confidence in that process, and I was also there weren’t a lot of voices about women’s boxing.
In 2010, 2011 2013-14, there was soup Fox on W band, they’re still really archive Network she’s.
Now, in her coming to her 25th year, there were very, very few websites, so I started the blog.
It was more of a personal journey in terms of um.
Some of it was about my journey in the sport.
A lot of it was reportage and because of my unique um opportunity to to meet um, professional and amateur Fighters through Gleason’s gym.
I was able to take advantage of that and do a lot of interviews with boxers over the years.
So you know I’ve all the local girls, you know local women’s boxing people from Brooklyn and around New York um.
So I was able to do interviews and videos um.
Then I pushed out as content over the years.
Things have evolved, um and now uh.
You know another hat I wear in my life is that I am a caregiver for my husband who has dementia.
He has something called frontotemporal dementia, it’s less known than Alzheimer’s he’s in his mid 70s, now otherwise quite healthy, but it’s very challenging for him to be able to negotiate life on a day-to-day basis.
He’S not he’s often confused and doesn’t necessarily know where he is in time and space so um I take it.
I spend my time most of the time, caring for him and making sure he stays safe and try to make him feel that he has community in a place to be in the world and still has value and meaning.
So I write about the caregiver experience.
A lot now to try to um sort of take my experiences, the highs, the lows, the difficulties and put out content.
That’S, I hope, helpful to the community of caregivers and folks who may have a father or a mother with Dementia or a sibling or spouse, or some other family member or close friend, and to demystify it a little bit and to realize that there is a community Out there for you that you’re never alone with what you’re experiencing and that the idea of I kind of borrow it a little bit from boxing.
Just like you have a boxing Community, you have a boxing family, there’s also families for other aspects of your life.
Caregiving is one of them for me, and it’s been a really rewarding and fulfilling experience to be able to share my stories of my experiences in that realm and what my husband is going through, so that it can be a touch point for others who may be In a similar situation, who don’t feel as capable of reaching out yeah um yeah, I was definitely going to make sure we talked about that.
I my mother has early onset dementia um and that’s it’s very hard and it’s a very touchy subject for me: um, because my mom’s my best friend so it’s like.
I can’t really talk to her now on the phone.
She doesn’t remember to call I’ll call we’ll talk for a few minutes and then, if you ask any questions, though, she immediately puts my dad on um, because she doesn’t know how to answer the questions, and she feels embarrassed because she knows it’s.
She knows still knows that it’s happening right right now, um, so then she gets embarrassed um, so she’ll just get off.
So that’s a very, very touchy subject.
For me.
It’S very hard of me to deal with um my husband also his my mother-in-law and his aunt.
Also have dementia and he is the guardian for both of those, so we’ve kind of got it on both sides.
There um, but yes – and I I applaud you for that – um at his mother stayed with us for a while um and it’s very, very difficult um to one deal with it all for somebody.
That’S so you know you care about, and you love um and two.
It’S very hard to um just see them in that state um, so you know yeah.
I definitely want to make sure we touched on that and talked about that, because that’s so awesome that you’re doing that um and and helping other people like learn about it and there’s so much out there that you can learn about and read about and things that You can still do to try to help stimulate the brain, and you know all these things um.
But yes, my mom, it’s been about a year and a half maybe going on two years since it first started um.
So it’s getting worse so yeah, it’s um.
I used to talk to my mom like every day and now it’s like.
I get five minutes here and there just because she just she doesn’t know what to say when you start talking about.
You can talk about everyday things like the weather and but if you’re like oh what’d, you guys do or where you guys at or because they travel now they travel in their camper and they’re, both retired, and where you been.
What have you been doing? I don’t know and then she’s like Rick.
What have we been doing? Where are we at like you know, and then so then I I told my dad, I kind of made a joke with him, the other like about six months ago, so I think I’ve talked to you more in the last year than I’ve talked to you.
My whole life, because my dad he was an over the world truck driver when I was growing up, so he was gone all week home like on the weekends um, so we were always with my mom and I I used like I said I talked to her Daily, like every day, probably a couple times a day, um and now I told him I said I seriously think I have spoken to you more the last year than I’ve spoken to you in my entire life and we both got ta chuckle out of it.
But it’s probably true, really actually um, so I mean I still call and we still talk, but it’s just not the same conversation so um.
I definitely applaud you for doing that, because I know it’s very difficult, um situation yeah.
It is, and I I think that what I’m what I struggle with and what I’m trying to do for myself is not to normalize the disease.
The disease is horrible, yes, but but to normalize the experience that you know he can come with me where, if, if he’s able to come with me, he can come with me yeah, he may sit there and be you know like a fidgety three-year-old, sometimes jumping up And down, or you know, filled with a little bit of anxiety and he’s sitting there going.
No, it’s okay, it’s okay in the way of a three-year-old, and it’s a little bit bizarre to becoming your your husband of you know, 25 years to 75 and treating him like yeah, but yeah.
It’S it’s! It’S fine and there are stages to it and stages to experiencing it, and in my case we have a very young daughter, she’s only 23.
, so helping her through that process and doing it as a family is also difficult, um but necessary for us to move forward.
And I I really understand how painful this is for you and how difficult and that how you have to go through a process of your own sort of under evaluating what your relationship is and has been, and why and all of those things and yeah you’re also Grieving the loss of a person that isn’t there anymore and it’s very difficult so yeah, I don’t want to stress you right now, I’m like sitting here trying so hard not to like let the kids fall right now, because it’s a very like.
Are we going to talk about boxing? You know you’re very, very touchy, subject for me because my mom, that’s my that was my writer.
I mean she still is she’s my ride or die.
She’S always been my number one fan um.
When my dad was over the road she was at every game I ever played through school from.
I played all the sports um yeah yeah.
We were just very close and, like I said I still she’s still there like we’re, not that far into it yet, but her memory is definitely going yeah quicker than it was a year ago.
So um I hear you, I just pray that I don’t.
You know that I don’t it doesn’t give the point where she doesn’t remember us in the in the kids um everything else.
I don’t.
I don’t care so much about, but I it and I know it’ll happen one day, but that’s the day I dread is the day.
I will say one thing to you: never get ahead of where you are yeah, that’s as a caregiver as a child of a as a person who has a relationship with a person in dementia.
You just don’t know so be where you are, if ever you’re, going to learn that lesson of being present and being Where You Are do that now and and what you, what I have learned from my husband is: actually he can’t cope with the fact that he Doesn’T know things or so he doesn’t worry about it, no he’s only where he is in the moment right and therefore he is quite joyful and I would say happier than he was before because he just he just doesn’t.
I don’t know like just happy yeah because he doesn’t have he doesn’t process it enough to think of it in a bad or a negative way exactly it’s just.
It is what it is.
Sometimes it’s frustrating, but what I am learning, as I said, is not to get ahead of myself.
I’Ve got a plan to think, but I don’t think about well what about next year.
I have no clue what next year is going to be.
Let me get through this week right and then we’re there yeah exactly exactly.
I totally agree.
Um women’s Boxing Channel says I see it going on to great great things.
Some think it will Flatline in a few years.
I don’t know what do you say? What were you, what were we talking about that he’s talking about what were you talking about women’s Boxing Channel? We must over.
I must have missed your message before.
Let me know because I don’t remember what we were talking about that used.
What we, what were we talking about before that we were talking about women? Just I think about the sport and and how you know the sport was growing and – and I guess he’s trying he’s asking us – I think this question is hey.
If we look at boxing now, it’s really great, is it gon na flat? What do we project for the future? Oh, I don’t know, let me see, I’m lost, I see it going on to great great things.
Is that the one you’re talking about and then it goes, some think it will Flatline unless I’m missing something women’s Boxing Channel? That’S the only three messages I got over here.
You’Ll have to retype it, I’m so sorry hon retype it for me, but maybe if we do from my perspective, if we look at where we are with women’s boxing now, which is you know, giving women an opportunity to actually um earn earn a living.
Some.
Some few very few still few but more yes, um still have most still have to work.
Listen, Jessica, mccaskill was working till a year and a half ago right yeah.
She was still working while she was Undisputed, so yeah she was so um.
You know uh claressa doesn’t have to Katie, doesn’t have to Amanda, doesn’t have to um, not sure about Chantelle, not sure about Samantha.
I don’t know about baumgarner mayor um yeah.
You know I probably might still work, maybe yeah that they might be up there enough.
I don’t know um, you know it’s someone I think they’re pretty much able to box and and the thing with mayor and and Baumgartner even is that they’re they’ve been able to capitalize and do um announcing, and I’m sure you know when mayor uh announces for ESPN She’S getting paid so she she’s digging.
If you will it’s still within the realm of boxing, but um she’s she’s kind of it’s actually quite smart, because she she’s quite good on the air and and as is uh Tasha Jonas who’s been doing on-air stuff commentary.
Kylie Reese has been doing on air company yeah and they’re and they’re doing it quite well, and so it’s giving them the potential for some Avenues down the line to kind of transition into uh.
Being commentators and that’s what I wanted to do when I retired was commentating, but I we didn’t have those opportunities back.
No, they really weren’t there all right.
I mean this is so new.
Thank you Eddie.
I don’t see WBC.
I do not have that message.
That starts out um so good to see the.
I don’t have that message.
So if you want to copy and paste it back in the comments, somehow we missed that one.
It’S not over here, um, okay, so moving on, you also are on war room with Chris Baldwin and Eddie Goldman.
Tell us about tell us about it! Well, yeah! We we started about, I guess it’s about a year and a half um.
It was really, I think, Eddie and and Chris were doing a show.
What we were.
The idea of it is sort of to be an alternative to the usual Sports boxing stuff right, which is kind of Towing the line.
If a lot of shows tell the line of the various networks and so on, and we we wanted to look at it a little differently and you know, frankly, we’re all a bunch of lefties.
So we we wanted to have a different Focus, which is for us Sports Justice and women’s boxing is very much in that role, but we we wanted to look at dive a little deeper into issues, um uh what it you know what the issues are for gay Athletes, women who are gay versus women, who are straight and and the issues that they face right as an adult gay woman who is masculine facing versus one who’s been facing.
You know what I mean these kinds of um issues are things that we we want to talk about.
We also were diving a lot into um or have been diving a lot into the issues with the new international boxing Association, the amateur organization that is under um.
Victor kremlev and his ongoing their ongoing fights with the international boxing with the international Olympic Committee.
Okay um there during the 2016 Olympics there was a lot of corruption in the judging at the Olympics and uh a report came out, and so we we Amplified that a lot.
We interviewed folks about that uh.
We also were looking at the criminality undercutting some of the mailboxing, in particular Daniel kinahan who’s, a crime Lord uh originally from Ireland, and has had been holed up in Dubai and now he’s been um uh he’s on like the universe most wanted list and his assets Were frozen in the United States and anyone associated with him has been kicked out of the United States or there had their assets Frozen, even uh, I think, a week ago, or so mtk Global, which wasn’t spun out of an organization he originally started, shut down in The United States, because of the financial implications, there’s a lot of money laundering going on Sports spending, all sorts of really nefarious stuff.
So that that’s what we talk about – and we talk about the stories that a lot of other folks don’t necessarily cover right and, as I said, we do it from an angle of of sports Justice um and try not to pull punches.
We look at things Beyond just boxing itself, but we also have a really warm-hearted space for women’s boxing and try to amplify fighters who may not get seen or heard and really talk about the the continuing pay Equity issues.
The continuing issues of access to promotion.
I mean it’s a scandal that in this country you cannot a woman, any woman cannot get on a PBC card.
What the hell is that yeah, ridiculous yeah, which means women, are not on Showtime anymore.
What the hell Stephen Espinoza! I mean what there were two female fights last year: what because they had two cards that were in PVC, what the hell yeah! Sorry! You know.
So we we talk about that.
We talk about um, you know the what’s happening in the UK versus here.
Looking at things, Mexico and Argentina, you know where the other centers of women’s women’s boxing right right and have fun and have fun.
I mean that’s what it is.
You talk to talk and walk the walk and expose the truth right, yeah! That’S what it’s all about! That’S what we need, that’s what we need um women’s Boxing Channel.
I got your number two and your number three.
I still don’t see your number one message I don’t know what’s happening Eric.
Can you see his message that I’m missing? Let me know, because I don’t see it um, oh he’s been looking.
Okay, you don’t see it either.
Um, you don’t see it.
Okay, woman’s Boxing Channel.
I got number two and number three.
I do not have the first part.
Still.
I don’t know why um and my um, my lovely assistant, backstage, can’t see it either.
So I’m not sure why that first message is not coming through, but we’re not trying to ignore your question.
I just don’t see it um, Okay, so um from there um.
So the latest appearance, of course, we kind of started off in touch with it.
In the beginning, your last motivational speaking was at the Ninth Annual International women’s Boxing Hall of Fame induction right at the Orleans hotel and casino last October, which is where we had the lovely opportunity to meet in person for the first time, yay um.
So to.
I guess tell everybody about your role with the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame and then the events and everything um that takes place with that.
Well, I I’ve had the honor to to to be on the board with Sue Fox um, since our first women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014 um.
This is the brainchild of Sue Fox and to give it a little context in history.
In 2014 the international Boxing Hall of Fame in Kennestone New York did not induct women.
That did not happen until 2020.
, yep so um in 2014, really 2012 2013 Sue started saying you know we should have an award now, there’s Regional, there’s State um Halls of Fame for boxing their counties.
Their states there are cities depends on where you are and how important boxing is to your community or to the community or the state Sue said, but there’s nothing for women, and we said you know what you’re absolutely right.
So she put together a board of a few people and we banded together and uh, really Sue did most of the planning and we located it in Florida at the national Golden Gloves, which were still being held, the national women’s Golden Gloves, um.
They were led by Bonnie Canino, that brilliant wonderful fighter, Bonnie Canino and her partner, Yvonne Reese, both of whom have been inducted to the Women’s Hall of Fame and we put together an event that first year in 2014.
That coincided with her uh National Golden Gloves.
And we had the event in the afternoon right where the state, where the Rings were you, know, yeah and then in the night we would watch the boxing and that first year we inducted Christy, Martin and Lucia Riker and Regina heimlich and a few others and and Barbara buttrick and it was sort of like the greatest hits of women’s box.
The greatest hits of women’s boxing coming together.
One of the most remarkable things is that uh, you know.
As I said, it was the national Golden Gloves, so there were Fighters like Marlene, Esparza and Christina Cruz, who were still competing on the amateurs, as was claressa Shields, although she wasn’t competing in the National Golden Gloves.
So she came because she was there to support her teammates at the Golden Gloves and she brought her gold medal with her from the Olympics and she came up and she met.
Well, you know our incoming induction class, I’m telling you there wasn’t a dry eye in the house among the women who were being inducted because there’s this beautiful, you know she was then what 18 19 years old 19 year old young woman, with a gold medal from The Olympics, something never in their wildest imagination, as professionals ever thought could be achieved so proud of her, so so so very proud of her.
It was wonderful, yeah yeah that would have yeah I can.
I could totally manage.
Just imagine the just.
I don’t know just this excitement of just I mean everybody when the Olympics first happened.
I don’t know any female that wasn’t just so like relieved that it finally happened.
Um because women have been fighting for Olympics in boxing, for I don’t even know how far back um, but you know, listen when the amateurs in the in the United States of America were not legalized to the mid 1990s yeah 1993.
I had Dakota stuff Dallas Malone.
Last week, yeah Dallas now there had been a few instances where diff, where State organizations who are not necessarily affiliated with the AAU, which was the amateur uh organization, that sort of spearheaded um, though that level of competition in the United States um prior to the USA.
Boxing they’ve kind of slipped through – and you know some Golden Gloves in New Mexico – might have a girl boxed or pretended to be a boy who boxed and got away with it and got caught and kicked out that was it until Dallas, yeah, so yeah.
I had her on the show last week she was phenomenal, like she’s a phenomenal.
She was great yeah and if you look at so then you it’s literally 19 years later, women are in the Olympics.
Yeah I mean we didn’t, have Nationals till what 1998 1999 and then there was the first International competition with different organizations from around the world.
It was illegal in most places in the world.
Yes, um, yes, so extraordinary years.
What happened from 2000 to 2012.
yeah amazing baby steps.
We got to take baby and baby steps, we’re getting there.
Yes, absolutely we’re.
Definitely getting there um so yeah.
I mean the the next year’s event for the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame for everybody.
That’S in here that has not, if you don’t follow, wbandwban.
com Sue fox is like the most amazing woman you’ll ever meet um.
She does so so so much for all of us from the amateurs all the way.
Through my Pros, I can remember um the first time that I spoke with Sue um and found the website.
When I was fighting amateur I mean she covers it all.
So, if there’s anything you want to know about women’s boxing, everybody go check out.
Wban.
Com Sue Fox she’s on Facebook, I mean she’s on all of them, but go to the website, there’s pretty much nothing you can’t find on there.
Yes, she is a legend 100 uh, amazing, amazing, woman and and a boxer herself.
You know she started out karate and then became a boxer in the late 70s.
She was one of the first female wife yeah.
I was so happy when I brought the belt.
I brought my belt to the inductions and Sue was like.
Oh my gosh, like I want to take a picture with you, but I want to hold the belt because I never got to have one I said girl, you can hold it all night.
You can carry it all night long with you um, and I think I just saw somebody somebody made a belt for her well recently right.
I saw it on a picture: well: yeah, uh, Stephen blay who’s, um uh, a very legendary referee, uh and Coach um with, and does a lot of, WBC bouts and and work uh presented it to her.
We had actually inducted him.
I I want to say 2020 uh for as a non-boxer category he’s a really wonderful, fabulous human and and extraordinary advocate for women in the sport yeah.
He was there last year, right yeah, he was, he was definitely there and and we we wanted to invite him up to the stage, but for those of you who were there, it went a little long.
So that’s why I you know everybody Sue, hey she’s.
So, thank you so much like your speech was amazing and I said well, I had a I mean I didn’t have like a like a 10-minute speech or anything, but I missed quite a bit of stuff.
I was gon na mention in my speech just because I’m, like you know what I’m just gon na go up here and thank everybody and make it real simple, because I was one of the last later ones together.
I could feel the tension in the room um that it was getting late and I was like I’m not even gon na like I had it wrote out, and I was just gon na read it and I’m like no we’re just gon na.
Do the main points.
Like exactly who, I need to think and what I need to say and we’re going to leave it at that yeah next year, we’re we’re we’re.
We’Ve we’ve really been working hard to time it out a little better yeah, because we want everybody to have the opportunity to speak, but we can’t give everybody 20 minutes.
So no we’ll be there till the next day.
So it got pretty late three minute rounds because we’re actually gon na have two days.
This is our 10th anniversary and we’re gon na have two days of events.
We’Re gon na have an afternoon event where uh folks will have the opportunity to meet all the fighters.
Do the pictures, that’s what I’m looking forward to and – and you know just to give out some award – do the raffling and just have a lot of fun for that experience, um, so we’re gon na uh do all of that and really have a great time in The afternoon and then the following night on the seventh we’ll have our formal induction ceremony, uh and dinner and and hope to um.
Have it really be an exciting event for everyone and have it move along a little bit quicker than that yeah? I know but not cut anyone off or anything like that.
Just have a great time to do that.
Yeah I mean you want them to have their moment to shine.
Like I mean I wanted my moment, um the you know, the key points that I had.
I think that was really all the rest of.
It was just kind of like a backstory of me, which everybody already knew that was there anyway, so it didn’t really matter that I skipped that part um.
But yes, I know I was laughing because I didn’t really eat because I spent so much time trying to make sure that I took pictures with everybody that was there and I got autographs with all the fighters that were there and I kind of giggled with Sue Later I said you know, I think I I think I almost got a picture with almost everybody was there, but I didn’t get to speak to anybody that was there like.
It was just like.
Oh my gosh Christy Martin can I have a photo.
Oh my gosh Martha.
Can I have a photo like? Oh my God like so I was just I mean it was.
I got photos but I would love.
I love that she’s adding the extra day for this year, because you can actually we can actually have a conversation.
There were so many people there that I looked up to that came from before me, um that I would have loved to just like ask some questions, and you know um talk a little bit what there just wasn’t time for that.
I didn’t even eat my food because I was trying to just talk to people.
I think what we what we have – and this is again all all kudos – to sue yeah, building this notion of a community of it’s a community of people who support each other.
I know we talked about Community earlier on our call and it’s really important.
I I’m like look I I love the fact that Canastota is recognizing women.
Um, there’s two amazing women being inducted this year, Alicia, Ashley and and Laura Serrano, it’s wonderful, but the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame is a place for us.
It’S a place where we can celebrate ourselves, meaning the community.
That is not only the women who box like you Brooke, but all of those who support it.
All of those who advocate for this behind the scenes, the promoters, the managers, the referees.
As I said, the judges, the Commissioners you know, Jill Diamond at WBC and all that she does in supporting the furtherance of women in the sport.
Not only you know, uh, you know showing up at you know being being the manager, and you know, being the official at at title fights but all the stuff she does behind the scenes, how she is sitting there and supporting amateur sports at a time when, just The participation in the Olympics itself is being threatened, so it’s really important to have that kind of advocacy.
So what I feel about the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame is it is a community of people that have the opportunity to meet and come together and, as you said, adding that extra day gives us some time to just relax, we’re not all tense from the Event itself we’re not in a way it’s a chance to kind of break the ice a little so that when we do come together for the event, we’re already good friends, we’ve already had this other thing that we shared, so it kind of get to the shorthand Of the experience and be able to really cheer each other and that’s what it’s all about is giving that support to each other for the their Endeavors for persevering and for continuing to persevere.
Yes, for those who are active Fighters that still have to put up with all that nightmarish crap on YouTube and Twitter and everything else, it’s disgusting get on life, people you don’t have to denigrate people, you don’t have to trash, talk them or anything else, not enough.
Yeah, just stop all that stuff, and just you know pet some people on the back for all their hard work and accomplishments.
Exactly exactly you know, anybody that steps in the ring deserves respect because they got in the ring um.
I know one of my biggest pet peeve when I was fighting was people that would come up to me and say negative things and I’m like have you even sparred like have you even trained like? Have you ever even been in a ring like do you know what it feels like? So don’t talk to me? Yeah, listen.
You know women die.
I don’t know like.
If you haven’t experienced it.
Don’T talk to me because you don’t know [ __ ], you don’t know what you’re talking about if you’ve never done it yourself, we have a young Mexican fighter who died in the ring in Canada.
Last year, yeah we have a Mexican fighter who went down and went into a coma after fighting Hannah Hannah, Renkin yeah in the Ring went through the full fight ended up in a coma yeah.
So it’s not a joke.
No, I mean you come through.
The ropes are there to perform a sport, give it their best and may not come out of it yeah, because it’s like boxing exactly in that respect, must be given a hundred percent um from everybody and for those of you that are watching the show, if you’re.
If you’re not an actual athlete – and you haven’t actually done it – think about that, the next time you want to give somebody, that’s doing it a negative comment or try to tear them down and tell them they’re, not good or whatever.
The case may be because you can’t even get up enough guts to get in there yourself and give it a try.
So just sit back and watch and enjoy the show, and maybe next time just give somebody some props or just don’t say anything at all, because we don’t need your negative comments.
We’Ve been through enough, we know if we had a good night or a bad night or whatever the case may be, or if we made some mistakes.
So we don’t.
We definitely don’t need you guys, throwing that in in their faces um.
You know because they’re already beating themselves up at that point, so we don’t need that extra, that extra throw in there just keep that to yourself.
Um.
Let’S see women’s Boxing Channel says what do you think about Liam Smith’s homophobic outbursts? You know reprehensible, what’s to say, don’t do it.
You can go to a lot of places, but you’re gon na do that and then there were.
There was a fan.
Some boxing idiot uh was throwing epithets at Connor Ben.
Before the fight I mean it was just disgraceful get out of there.
Yeah, don’t worry, Barry um! Thank you, um Eric for putting up everybody to check out in the chat.
That’S in here.
If you are interested in purchasing Melissa’s book, he put the link to the Amazon to the book, so you can check it all out um.
Is it woke or is it Salient? Well, I think we just are you talking about the same thing right? It’S also in the description it’s also in the description down below.
He just informed me so give Eric a big pat on the back, because he’s doing his job he’s doing it right today.
He’S got it everywhere.
He’S ahead of me, that’s for sure um! Oh! So that’s you I’m like.
Is he he’s telling me something? No, I’m saying! Thank you.
Listen.
You know one thing about boxing whatever you’re in it’s all a labor of love.
Exactly exactly so.
Thank you still paying off the editor, exactly um, so you I know um.
You are currently now writing another book.
That’S set to release next year.
Can you tell us what what that one is about? Yes, uh.
I am writing a book that is taking an in-depth look at the last 10 years, basically um from the 2012 Olympics to now.
It’S I’m I’ve sort of identified three separate errors within 10 years, which is, if you think about it from the Olympics, 2012 to 2016.
.
We have the Olympics, it’s like great everybody’s, going to get on TV and be all famous and guess what there was still no women on television in the United States.
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