AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 1
Transcribed
[, Music, ], foreign, [, Music, ], hey, hey everybody! What’S going on, it’s your girl, no mercy here! It is Tuesday night.
So you already know what time it is.
It’S time for no punches pulled with me, no mercy.
Some of you probably already know who I am for those of you that are new here.
My name is Brooke Millbrook, Formerly Known in the fight business as Brooke no mercy deardorff.
I am a retired professional boxer.
I held the WBC lightweight title until I retired and I was inducted into the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022.
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I have been through um some good, some bad and, of course, a lot of BS in the sport of women’s boxing.
This is my platform where we talk the talk and walk the walk.
We’Re gon na bring out the truth in women’s boxing we’ll hear from pioneers of the sport past boxers current boxers, even future boxers we’ll be getting down and dirty speaking, the truth of what takes place in women’s boxing.
You don’t want to miss a single episode, so please make sure that you like subscribe and share.
So you don’t miss any Tuesday night here with me, but today guys today we have a very, very special guest in the house.
We have the extraordinary boxing sensation Deirdre dangerous gogerty.
We will discover her inspiring Journey as she battled against the Irish boxing Union’s resistance to women’s professional boxing in her homeland of Ireland and ultimately forging her path to the UK and USA.
We will dive into the intense showdowns that defined her career, including the unforgettable clash with another Legend, Laura Serrano, which cemented her reputation as one of the fiercest competitors of her era and of all time.
Let’S not leave that out there.
We will witness the historic bout that revitalized women’s boxing as she faced the legendary Christy Martin at the MGM Grand Garden on the undercard of a Mike Tyson card, leaving an incredible mark on the sport of women’s boxing.
We’Ll relive that moment that everybody knows where she landed, that powerful punch, splattering Martin’s nose with blood and claiming the title with her and Martin as fight of the night outshining.
The main event with Frank Bruno and Mike Tyson prepare to be inspired by her trailblazing Legacy.
Recognizing with her induction into the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame as well in 2015.
, get ready y’all get ready.
This is going to be a great one.
Help me welcome Deirdre dangerous gogurty to the show Deirdre.
How are you it’s such a pleasure and an honor to have you on the show to share your story with the world? I appreciate you rearranging your schedule to be able to join me.
How are you, oh I’m doing great Brooke.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yes, I am super excited um to hear your journey um and it’s just an honor to have you here with us um.
Let’S start by going back to the beginning, if you could just tell us a little bit about your childhood and what led you to boxing well, that’s kind of um, interesting because I started to just fall in love with boxing, and I don’t really know where it Came from, I didn’t know anybody that even liked boxing there was no boxing tradition in my family at all, so I had no real kind of door to go through from my home life to the boxing life.
I just kind of had to figure it out on my own.
I didn’t know anybody that liked boxing at all, so it just seems to be something I was born with: okay yeah, sometimes it’s just in your blood, so I tell people it’s just you’re born with it.
Um tell us about the first time that you stepped into a boxing gym.
What was your experience? Did you I’m sure, like most of us, have trouble with trainers, other Fighters taking you seriously being a female in the sport? Well, it took me a long time to actually get into the gym uh Bowl.
It took me a long time to urge to even approach a gym, because just women weren’t even allowed in the gym back then, because we were considered a nuisance.
Not because of the worry that we’d want a box.
But it was the worry that we’d want to be boyfriend looking for boyfriends in the gym, so we were kind of considered a nuisance, so um, so just approaching a gym was very, very difficult and it took a lot of Courage, just even talk to the trainer, But finally, I chatted them up one day and I think he was so curious about me and kind of wanted to uh kind of see what was going on with this girl, a daughter of a dentist asking all these questions about boxing.
So he said that much you can come watch the odds train, so I went and watched them train and I just kept coming back and coming back so finally, he said I could train myself.
Okay, you could train yourself.
Well, I mean it’s one step into the gym.
I guess you got to start somewhere yeah definitely, and it was all little dreams one at a time.
You know my first dream was to even get to talk to a genuine boxing person all about boxing and my next dream was actually be in a real boxing gym, watching boxers train and then the next dream is to actually train myself.
So it was all the succession of little Dreams, yeah, absolutely um, baby steps, definitely baby steps um.
So what motivated you then to pursue an actual career in boxing despite the challenges and the resistance you had to Face by to women in the sport? Well, I mean it was the only thing in my life that really truly passionate.
I was just extremely driven and I just had this Vision I had watched.
My fellow Irishman, Barry, mcguigan, left the world title and I wanted to be a world tune just like him, and I didn’t see why um.
I should not get that chance, so I just um kept working and I felt like if I worked hard enough and got skillful enough and gave brought dignity to the sport that surely they’ll.
Let me fight absolutely yeah totally agree.
I mean we all have the same hopes and dreams male or female um and, like I tell everybody, it doesn’t matter what your dream is.
You can do anything if you just don’t give up you just got ta keep fighting for it.
Absolutely.
Can you share your experience of fighting against the Irish boxing Union’s refusal to sanction women’s professional boxing before you ended up leaving Ireland? Well, that was just terribly frustrating um.
You know I tried to get uh.
You know that kept getting back while women aren’t allowed to to fight, and I you know I just wanted an exhibition.
That’S all I wanted is just an exhibition just to because I really felt if I could just pull what I what women were capable of that you know that would knock down all the barriers, because I thought the fear was that we wouldn’t be able to fight You know we’d go out there and slap in and pull in hair or something I don’t know what they thought, but I mean I just felt once I said: no, no, I can really box just let me show you, I thought it would all open wide up, But um even just getting an exhibition every time it seemed like I’d, have an exhibition set up, it would get shut down and there was always some sort of excuse um.
I know it always kept with something medical.
Typically, like fear, we’d uh get breast cancer.
It would damage our ovaries that we were unstable.
While we were on our menstrual period periods and all these crazy things yeah anything they could come up with to say, no any excuse really well.
How did that experience Shaker determines? Do your determination and your resilience to keep going and not give up what I mean I just felt.
I had no choice.
You know.
I knew that uh when boxing had been licensed in the uh since the 70s, so I just felt the only place to go was um American.
I had looked into Europe and other countries because it did seem like a little bit was happening in in France and and Italy and some other places, but it just didn’t seem to come together and it just seemed the most sensible thing would be to go to The states yeah which at that point you did end up relocating to Louisiana.
Eventually um tell us about the decision and your experience traveling to Louisiana, and what made you choose that location? Well, the reason I chose is because I had boxed in London and my coach’s friend knew a guy in Louisiana called Bo Williford, and he uh told me if Beau Williford doesn’t any know anything about it.
Well, it’s not worth knowing, because he knows everything there is to know about the boxing in the United States.
So I wrote to Bo and I didn’t hear back from him for a long time about nine months and I finally heard back from him and um.
He said Deirdre you’re one bad mother because he had watched some footage of so I said.
Well, I guess that’s something good.
So he said I could come over it for a tryout and he would, you know, see how I do and do his best to get me a fight.
I didn’t realize that he was only doing it as a favor to a friend that he really didn’t want me to come so um when I came over.
He put me in really hard.
He put me in with a world champion Kenny Vice.
He was future champion at the time and I’d seen Kenny Vice knocked out Jim Donald in England, and it was a horrifying knockout.
So that was my first boring partner and it was a really really hard In the Heat of Louisiana with the crawfish boiler boiling in the gym and uh.
It was a really tough way to come to and I really felt my gosh.
What have I done? You know, but I cracked it out and I’m going and I just showed them showed him.
I wasn’t going to give up and eventually you know he became my greatest advocate and we boxed all over the United States.
Yeah absolutely and I feel like every single one of us, especially I mean obviously you’re from before my era, but even all the way.
Through my era, we really had to stick it out and prove our worth and um our talents to the coaches, because they they did everything they could to make us quit um.
They just wanted to deter us from doing it, so they tried everything to get you to just give up and quit and not come back, and you really had to earn their respect um and once once you’re in the respect, then then it was.
It was kind of like you know, cake from there, but it took a lot of work for all of us.
I think, especially back in the day, to get that respect for them to actually take us seriously and really put time and effort into us and not just allow us to be in the Gym’s presence right.
Absolutely in uh April of 1995 was the first uh like big fight that I can remember with you, and that was the fight between you and Laura Serrano on an all-female card staged by the wibf at the Aladdin, Hotel and Casino in Vegas.
It’S regarded as a defining moment in your career for sure.
Could you walk us through that match and the impact that you that it had on your reputation as one of the toughest fighters of all time, uh yeah? Well, that was a match against Great fighter and um.
It’S probably the most painful loss of my career, um and painful because um my coach threw in the towel in the seventh round and um.
But up to that point it was a great fight.
I mean it really was and it was close.
Um uh, you know I really boxed well early in the fight.
I was always a very good starter.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever lost the first round against anybody, but um Laura just kept coming with the pressure and I got sucked into getting into her fight and I wanted to beat her at her own game and she beat me at her game yeah.
So um, but it was a fight and, I think um.
Unfortunately, it’s just a fight that doesn’t get much recognition.
You know, in fact I think you’re, one of the few interviewers that have ever asked me about that really.
Joe, is amazing.
That’S a shame because that that fight I mean you were like I mean that was a like changing point in your career.
I think where it showed that you were like truly a phenomenal Fighter um and who knows what had happened? Had the fight not been stopped? I mean it was a very close, competitive fight, yeah um yeah, it was, it was a great fight and um.
It certainly showed, and the whole card was terrific.
Actually it was a brilliant card and it just showed what women were really capable of and uh.
Absolutely you know it was kind of the beginning of the really greatness of the the late 90s.
You know the last half of the 90s when women were really coming out and really looking strong and some amazing Champions on that card.
Yeah absolutely – and I, if I remember right, you never did get a rematch with her right.
No, I never fought again yeah that would have been a that would have been like the ideal rematch I think definitely for for you ever came together, yeah well, not long.
After that, though, you face another Legend, Christy Martin, which is like made women’s boxing boom and in the moment um at the MGM Grand on the undercard of the Mike Tyson fight in 1996.
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Um.
Everybody is known that that was a very pivotal moment for women’s boxing um.
How do you feel to be a part of the fight that brought women’s boxing back into the spotlight of the media? I mean it was a amazing experience.
You know at the time I just didn’t realize you know in the fight itself I mean we knew it.
It was going to be the first women’s fight on pay-per-view.
That decision was made just a day or so before the actual fight.
But I guess I just didn’t realize I guess I figured after the Serrano fight.
If that didn’t light up the world, I figured you know against Christy.
You know it would be gon na be a great fight but just kind of lost in the mix, but it actually did get the attention it deserved and um, I’m really glad it.
It helped women’s boxing, I’m sad that I lost the fight.
Of course you know every fighter wants to win, but um I’m delighted the impact it had yeah.
Absolutely I mean yeah Christy was getting a lot of Buzz, then obviously um with her promoter, Don King and then the fighting on the undercards and stuff.
So but it was a phenomenal fight, very close fight, um the same thing I wish we would have saw that rematch, because that was another fireworks.
It was.
They were literally fireworks.
Um.
Could you recount the memorable moment, though, when you landed that powerful punch, bloody and Christy’s nose mid fight yeah? Well, I remember kind of setting it [ Music ] closer a little bit closer and when I felt I had her lined up right, then I threw it and it did land perfectly um, so um, but she was so tough and strong.
I mean she really walked right through it.
I’M not.
You know in the fight itself.
I was thinking that bloody noses, no big deal.
It’S not gon na stop her from seeing it’s not sure not gon na stop her from coming after me, so I didn’t think was a big deal, but the audience sure loved it.
You know they thought it was a big deal, yeah absolutely well! I mean if looking back even at the images I mean afterwards.
I think this is the excitement and the explosion of it all was the fact that it bled like profusely for, like the rest of the I fight her, she was covered in blood like in the photos.
So I don’t know, you know how people are that watch Boxing anytime, someone’s hurt or there’s blood or Cuts or anything they just get super excited um, and it just made women’s by.
It was definitely the fight of the night for both of you, um outshining, the Tyson fight, so there was no way that that was undeniable, that women’s boxing was just as good, if not more exciting than the men yeah.
I mean it got a great reaction and people were all talking about that fight and not any of the other fights, and there was some fantastic World title fights on that car, but yeah we’re talking about our fight.
I think it’s just um, like I said me and Christy, we knew women could fight, but I guess you know most people didn’t and they were amazed to see it and I guess the blood added more drama to the event.
Exactly so I mean you think.
Ideally, though, the it didn’t affect the Dynamics of the fight at all or the or the overall response, because I mean she walked right through it and kept coming so really it didn’t other than it being a blood bath.
It didn’t affect her at all.
It didn’t seem um, it probably affected her breathing, but I mean as far as the judges or anything they wouldn’t be pushed.
You know they wouldn’t be swayed by that at all.
So yeah.
Absolutely no! Well! I know um go ahead.
I mean to cut you off.
No, no, I just said it just looked cool, that’s all yeah it did, it definitely did it definitely did and it was just I don’t know it was just explosions fireworks I mean, and it was a a very, very pivotal point point turning point for women’s boxing.
Um, it made a huge difference and without that fight who knows, if women’s boxing would be without you and Christy, and in that fight, who knows, if we’d even be where we are today, um, so that that was huge for us back then many female boxers, though I know who were active in the late 90s and early 2000s, like we were talking um, including Laila Ali and so many others have personally said they were originally inspired to try boxing after seeing your fight with Christy Martin um.
In that sense, you delivered the bloody nose that helped launch the boxing careers of dozens of other Fighters.
Um did you were you aware of that, and how does that make you feel about your your career and your legacy in boxing uh yeah? I mean I’ve heard that over the years from various different uh female Fighters, so it feels great.
You know that um that that many were inspired by it and I always felt I always had a big vision for women’s boxing.
You know I knew one day.
It would be topping cards and – and I knew the uh policy would come up and I’m just glad you know to have helped other women realize there is an opportunity to do this.
I knew there was lots of good Fighters out there.
They just needed a chance to do it, yeah absolutely a chance to be showcased.
That’S really all we ever really needed um in 1997, though uh you finally got an even we’re gon na call it an even matched fight with another great though um one that you had been wanting for a while with Bonnie Canino for the wibf featherweight title.
You did win that um.
A 10 round decision becoming the wibf featherweight Champion, tell us how important winning that belt was for you and how it felt to be officially called a true champion.
Well I mean it was.
The belt was everything you know.
I’D been through a lot, I’d lost to Christy, I’d lost to Laura, I lost to Mariano mcgarr and I’d lost a Stacy Prestige.
So I mean not, you know all these losses had a big big impact on me and um.
This was my third attempt at a world title and I really I really was going in with the mindset.
If I don’t win this, that’s it I’m done.
I mean I just felt like I blew it against Laura and I blew it against uh uh Christy.
You know we’re very hard on ourselves as Fighters.
Absolutely winning is that Winning is Everything how how or you lose losing is just failure.
So I absolutely idle because I mean I gave everything up, leaving my homeland, my family, my friends, all my relationships behind to sacrifice everything to be a fighter.
I was still working a full-time job, doing all this as well and um, so winning the world title.
I mean that was the affirmation of everything I had done and it would just kind of cement my legacy, even though I knew I’d made positive impacts in women’s boxing.
It’S not the same as not being a champion right.
So yes, that type everything to me yeah – and there were so many before you that never even got the even though they were true Champions, never got the opportunity to fight for a title or have a belt um, which is just sad very sad.
So I’m super happy that you guys in that era, had finally got the opportunity to even fight for belts, because there were many who never got the opportunity.
That’S so true.
Many have said, though, that speaking of the fight with Bonnie Canino that the fight was kind of ugly to watch, Bonnie used a clinchfield grabby style at times, uh more reminiscent of like a Muay Thai rather than boxing um.
At one point this, it said that she almost wrestled you through the ropes um.
Can you tell us a little bit about the fight and what you thought about her style yeah? It was a very rough fight, um very uh rough, and she did push me out of the ring at one point and I landed on my back and you know it’s never good to be thrown out of a ring because it does take something out if you Landed on your back like that, but you know I just felt like I I could tell she was bringing her this game because she felt that was what would beat me.
You know and deep Prestige had done, that in our world title fight and I think um.
Maybe she was trying the same thing: kind of a um, a bullying, kind of brutality, yeah and uh.
You know around the fourth and fifth round: it was starting to work.
A little bit and my coach said you better start bringing this back in.
You know you don’t let her take this over, so I mean I had to really uh get back in the fight and really box hard and really out hustle her, but um yeah.
I mean I wish it was a better uh.
As far as a boxing exhibition fight, you know a great match and it was kind of grabby and dirty and um.
I felt like every time I tried to spin her around.
She would push me down, so I didn’t spin her as much as I wanted, but anyway I definitely feel I won the fight handy yeah, absolutely, and sometimes they definitely feel that that I mean sometimes the i i they call it the dirty gritty, like just nasty Style of fights, sometimes people like that, that’s they feel that’s all they can do to win and and if especially, if they had seen someone do it before then in their mindset that was the key to beating you was to be a bully and roughhouse.
You um, and I can tell you from experience – I mean I was a very, not dirty fighter but very aggressive Fighter um and that’s how I beat a lot of the the boxers was because they just couldn’t handle the pressure, but there’s still a difference, though.
Between being dirty and doing dirty tactics versus just straight pressure, but still still it I mean you, you clearly won the fight.
You deserve the victory.
You deserve to be called the the true champion and finally, at that point, yeah.
Thank you yeah during your last fight.
In 1998, you had suffered a torn rotator cuff during training, and then you unfortunately re-injured it during that fight.
After recovering, though, from the injury, you attempted a comeback but decided to retire after seven scheduled fights that fell through um.
Can you tell us a little bit about? Was that just like people didn’t want to fight you or like management um like promoter issues or like what what happened with the seven failed fights? Why was it not working out? Well, that’s a very good question.
Um.
I don’t know if it really had an impact, but it just seemed like you know, none of nobody got paid on the uh, the fight.
I fought Bonnie Canino, nobody on the card got paid and I don’t know if uh that had some kind of impact on on the um on my manager or what happened but um we kept trying to get fights.
I was supposed to fight in Argentina and Germany.
I mean I I trained hard for a lot of fights that fell through and um.
It was just really and I was still injured.
I mean the the shoulder, never thought better, but I I just wanted to defend my title and keep being a champion and uh.
So it’s strange that the end of my career field, climactic, I mean I spent the first four years of my career not being able to fight in the last four of my career not being able to fight, and I um I finally hung up officially hung up My gloves at 35.
um, so you know I hung around a long time trying to get fights.
This didn’t happen very frustrating yeah, very um.
I I did yeah training for fights and going through all that work to have it fall through right like night of or right before and not get a fight.
Is it’s devastating um? You literally give up everything to do training, while you’re working and doing everything else it just takes.
It takes a lot out of you to just get nothing um over and over yeah.
Do you regret giving up at the time or do you feel like retiring was just there was no other option, because there just wasn’t going to be fights well, you know I was training for a fight at one point, and I remember you know I used to Love the training for a fight, I loved the Spartan lifestyle.
I loved the hard regime, the dieting like building your body up to this Crescendo of Fitness, but there was one fight.
I was training for, and I remember out being out running at five in the morning and thinking gosh.
I can’t wait till the day after the fight, and I don’t have to do this and I knew that was the point I needed to retire because yeah I was just um.
You know that’s when you’re when you’re looking past the fight, you know you’re already retired yeah yeah.
If you lose that hunger um and that drive and and determination, there’s there’s no.
Nothing left just you’re.
Just looking for an injury at that point, so yeah that at that point is the best decision to go ahead and hang up the gloves, but you were in being inducted into the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2015.
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That’S such a remarkable achievement um! I just recently was inducted, so I I it was phenomenal phenomenal um experience.
How does it feel to have your contributions and your legacy recognizing such a prestigious manner? Oh, it’s wonderful! You know it’s wonderful to uh remembered and to get such a purchase of such a good, honor and um to be uh.
You know remembered and respected, and they and um.
You know it’s really important, because you sometimes you feel everything you’ve done does.
Does anybody really um recognize it, and I that you know that’s the ultimate recognition, um yeah other than campaign to erect a statue of me in my hometown and draw the Ireland I mean that would be definitely another ultimate recognition.
So it’s really wonderful and very prestigious.
Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
I know I yeah and I I think that that’s in the works for you hopefully, but I tried to get in my hometown.
I wanted to get even um.
I I tried talking to like the committee and all of them even to get like a bench or something at the park like with with you know my info put on it.
It didn’t even have to be like a statue or anything, and I can still get it, but I have I have to purchase it um and I still have the funds to purchase it right now, so maybe I’ll start saving for it and maybe eventually before my Time is over on this Earth will get something put in my hometown.
This is a really small Hometown, um, nothing like big or anything, but just something to just like leave that stamp in my hometown, um, not that people there don’t know me because it’s a small town but still uh, just the thought of it is special.
So I totally understand the statue that would be amazing, yeah uh, all of us female, if especially female boxers, have faced a lot of BS in the sport things that we just shouldn’t have to go through.
We shouldn’t have to deal with at all um.
I know you kind of mentioned some things with trainers and stuff.
Can you tell us about some of like the worst experiences that you had to go through um back in your time as a female fighter that you just shouldn’t have had to deal with? Oh gosh? Well, there’s a lot um, but um.
I think I remember mostly what was really hard was they made us? Do it this pelvic exam before all our fights and uh the trouble with the pelvic exam? Is it cost more than what I’d get paid for the fight? So I mean I’d be in debt, you know, I remember they would cost four to five hundred dollars and I might only be getting paid two or three hundred dollars, so it was costing me money to and that that was very difficult.
You know especially um.
You know I was working a full-time job, getting paid minimum wage and um.
You know the struggle just financially was extremely hard um, so that was really tough, but there’s there’s lots of other tough things too um, but that yeah there’s there’s so many things I I’ve talked about.
Several several of mine is at some point or another.
Since I started out the show, I think eventually I’ll probably get through a lot of them, but there’s just so many things that we I try to tell people, especially like the newer Fighters, like things to watch out for little things here and there um.
That are said or done in a certain way that it’s just not okay and I think it’s getting better, but it still it’ll never be.
It’S it’ll never be gone just I we have to deal with so much more yeah.
What are um? What are some of your female role models in boxing? Did you have any females that you um looked up to or that were role models for you yeah? Well, that’s a very good question, um! Well, just because um I was one of the first to come along.
In my time.
All my roll battles were male yeah, so I love Harry mcguigan, of course, was my Irish hero and I love Sugar Ray Leonard and um.
The first one I watched was Jack.
Dempsey so um, so, unfortunately, the best female role models, probably the tennis players.
To be quite honest, you know that’s the that’s the great female athletes we got to see back in that yeah, absolutely so yeah it’s females in any sport was hard to come by yeah.
Absolutely so they were ahead of their time in a way, absolutely absolutely.
How do you think the landscape of women’s boxing has evolved since your time in the sport? What changes and improvements would you like to see in the future uh? Well, I think it’s come along immensely.
Well, I mean, I think, nobody bats an eyelid.
Now, at a female fighter and um, I think you know I just went to Kaylee Taylor’s fight in Ireland and I mean atop the card and packed the stadium.
And I that’s exactly what I envisioned.
You know that that’s what women’s boxing could become and I think um the sky’s the limit with it and I think up it keeps building on itself and building on itself and I think um it’s just going to keep growing and growing, getting better and better.
Absolutely I was going to ask you um, but since you brought up Katie Taylor, I was going to ask you about that.
Anyways um.
She has stated in lots of her interviews that you were.
You know her role model growing up.
She had reached out to you at a young age in her teenage boxing years and you are very welcoming and kind of like mentored her a little bit and then made it to her big fight that she just had at home in Ireland.
Um.
Can you tell us a little bit about Katie Taylor? I’Ve always wanted to have her on the show.
Since I started I’ve reached out to Eddie Herr and I’ve sent emails, I’ve sent her messages.
Hopefully, one of these days I’ll be able to connect with her and bring her on the show.
I would love to have her on the show as well, but can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with Katie and what it was like seeing that such a big fight headlining a major card in Ireland? Well, it’s pretty incredible because, when I think back to when I first met her, she was just very young.
She was only about 12, 11 or 12 and uh.
She actually was um, really really keen and she was asking basically how she could get fights and at the time of course, I had left Ireland, but then I was just home.
Visiting and um was fighting in the states, and I hate to tell this poor young girl that uh there’s no fights in Ireland um, but I just I just remember telling her you know just keep at it and if you keep working at it and getting skillful Enough somebody’s gon na, let you fight, I really felt um, that’s what it would take and um.
You know it’s just incredible that she stuck with it as long did and that she, you know all these years later and she’s headlining a card.
Not only has she already been to the Olympics and won Gold now she’s headlining this huge card in Ireland, and that was that little girl I took those years ago so um yeah and I know what she has put laid out.
Some else is going to build on that even um, it’s just amazing it is, it really is, and I’ve been I’ve been watching things.
It is it’s totally amazing.
I’Ve been watching her since, since the Olympics, her Olympic days um and I’ve always thought she was a tremendous fighter.
She and I knew at that time she would.
She will definitely go down as one of the greatest females of all time, um for sure hands down.
No questions asked um.
I was a little bit upset about the last fight, the the one that you were at um.
I thought for sure hands down.
She would have that fight, no problem, not not to put anything against Cameron.
I just felt like she always adjusts.
So well to everybody that she’s fought.
That’S gave her trouble early on she’s always able to adjust, but I felt like for some odd reason like she was off from the moment she started coming out for the ring walk like I.
I don’t know.
I thought.
Maybe she like was sick or wasn’t feeling well um and then, as soon as the fight started, I felt like she was off um.
She wasn’t throwing the combinations that she used to.
She seemed slower.
Did you notice that too or was or was that was it just that that was just that much of a tough fight for her um yeah, I mean I kind of felt her timing.
Wasn’T there and I thought she was.
She got off with some beautiful combinations, but they were just a little too late.
She was kind of responding more Cameron rather than initiating the combinations herself um and uh.
You know Cameron just kept coming and walking her down, and so it might have been a timing issue and maybe just an off night um and you know sometimes you can go into a fight, and you probably know this yourself in the greatest shape of your life And for some reason something happened where you just don’t feel it.
You know you’re, just not there and fights are like that.
Yeah, hey some.
I mean yeah 100, totally agree with that.
Sometimes you’re just you’re not fully there.
I mean it’s something’s just off um and that’s in anything we do so yeah.
I definitely felt that um.
I know they just announced.
I think the rematch clause that she initiated.
I think I want to say, like November – maybe they’re gon na fight.
I can’t remember for sure, but I think like November, so I’m super excited for the rematch.
I’M sure it’s going to be just as big as the first one um and I I hope that she gets herself all together and comes back stronger than ever and yeah gets that timing down and we we see another um tremendous fireworks show from her because all Her fights have been great great fights, yeah um, so I’m super excited for that one yeah another great one for sure yeah.
Absolutely.
I can’t wait for that.
One! I’M super excited um.
I feel like that one and then I don’t know if she’ll, if she’ll do the rematch with Amanda, maybe eventually I know Amanda’s kind of said at this point it’s a hit or miss, but that would be another good one too, but I definitely felt like she Put on a great show for that fight and I I feel like she pulled off the victory for sure on that fight, even though people have seen it both ways.
But if I’ve went back and watched it multiple times and Katie won that, aside from the one big round that Serrano had um, I feel like she definitely won a majority of the other rounds, even though they were close um.
So but it was a great fight.
All her fights are great, so I’m super excited for that one, but back to you um, since retirement, though you have become a trainer, I believe at Raging Cajun gym in Lafayette, Louisiana um.
Can you tell us a little bit about your your experience with coaching? I coached for a long long time, um up till you know.
In 2019 my coach Beau died and um.
We decided to shut the gym down and then I moved away.
So I’m not near any boxing clubs at the moment, but um I coached for a long long time, and the reason I did is because I knew I needed to fill the void of boxing myself.
I didn’t want to kind of get pulled back into fighting when I really wasn’t at my best anymore and it’s easy to do.
I mean it’s it’s hard to walk away from something.
You’Ve poured your whole life into so I um started coaching and it was super rewarding and wonderful and um.
It wasn’t just all the champions We produced.
It was just good good citizens.
Just you know trying to guide young people into a better life and mostly believing in themselves.
That was the biggest thing and the the thing I enjoyed passing on more than anything was teaching people how to kind of make the most of their self and believe in their self yeah.
Absolutely you also um to my knowledge, though, you have a memoir that you co-wrote called my call to the ring, A Memoir of a girl who yearns to box that was published in 2012.
I would absolutely love to get my hands on a copy of that.
Um.
Can you tell us a little bit about the book and where we can purchase it yeah? Well, you can get it on booklocker.
com or on amazon.
com.
Okay and um yeah um, took me four years to write the book and it was a real um, very kind of the cathartic experience.
It was tough, though it was tough, going back into all that real painful stuff and um.
It was a kind of a grueling experience.
I didn’t expect writing a book to be grueling, but it actually was, but I just felt I had to be as courageous and honest with the book.
As I was with the boxing so um, I wrote a kind of a a tell-all and about my back story and everything and not just about boxing, but what was going on in my in my personal life as well.
Okay, I’m definitely gon na have to get a get a copy of it for sure I did not know until I was looking up some things on you for the interview that you had a memoir.
I don’t know why, but I didn’t know there was one so I’ll definitely be getting a copy of that for sure um other than Katie Taylor.
I know impresses, you very much.
Are there any other females in today’s era that you really enjoy or impressed by? Oh, I mean I’m impressed by so many of them um.
You know I try to watch them every chance I get and um I mean.
There’S, there’s many many and there’s more coming up.
Absolutely so that’s the excitement um, but I mean I enjoy watching them all.
You know there’s a lot of potential out there and of course you know the greats are are fighting right now, like Carissa and uh Katie yeah, you know, I mean and um we got a great Irish Irish Fighters too.
Coming up so um nice.
I mean it’s just gon na keep and getting better and um and uh.
You know, but I’m not surprised people ask me.
Oh, are you surprised by how great women’s boxing is now known? I’M not surprised it’s always been doing exactly.
Yes, exactly yeah.
It’S always been that great.
I do feel like sometimes looking back like in your fights and even like my generation of fights.
There was a lot more like gruesome Wars.
Then then, we’ve seen not that they’re, not amazing, spectacular fights now um, but I think the level of because they’re able to train full-time as a boxer, A lot of them now and we work full-time jobs.
Um had our kids and really went to the gym.
Maybe a couple hours a day because that’s all there was time for so we weren’t really fully trained.
I I’d hate to see what kind of beasts we would have been had we been able to train all day three times a day like they’re getting to now.
So it’s phenomenal, but I feel like maybe their skills are showcased even more because they’re able to fully commit to a boxing career um and not have to work elsewhere, some of them, so the fights are more technical, um, they’re, still action-packed, and I love watching female Boxing way more than mailboxing, because there’s just so much action in them and they’re more exciting.
But I feel like back in the our eras and like your air in my area, there were so many like gruesome, just dog fights and – and I haven’t seen a lot today – yeah that way now that you say it all right yeah, it was definitely gruesome, but I think you know the women back then that you know you sacrifice.
I mean all boxers sacrifice boxing’s a massive sacrifice, but I think when you’re you know slogging away at a full-time job.
Five days a week and you’re only weekend, you’re you’re trying to travel to a fight and fight and get back to work by Monday morning I mean you know it’s.
It does bring out a a different kind of person in you, yeah, absolutely and the fights for sure yeah.
I totally agree.
I totally agree.
I’M still waiting and, like I said, the fights are still phenomenal today, like they’re, very exciting and very action-packed.
I’M just waiting till we get one of those just really all-out Wars.
Like I don’t know it’s coming, I’m just waiting until that match-up hits and I’m gon na be super excited to see that um, not that there hasn’t been something but like just that.
I don’t know you know what I mean um.
Can you share any advice or words of wisdom for the aspiring female boxers who are facing obstacles or that just want to strive to make their Mark in the sport um I mean, I would just say, keep working and learning the skills showing what you can do And you’ll you’ll get that opportunity.
Remember it’s still a man’s game in the sense that you have to have a man-like mentality.
You can’t go into boxing thinking that you’ll be should be treated differently because you’re, a girl.
You have to have a masculine mentality for a sport like that.
So that’s the kind of thinking you have to have absolutely that that’s a hundred percent, true 100.
True um! Is there anything that we didn’t discuss that you would like to discuss or let people know that I might have missed that? Like sticks out to you? Oh, I mean I I I can’t think of anything at the moment, because you asked a lot of really good questions.
We covered a lot of ground and um.
No, I just uh want to tell people.
You know I’m really grateful for the women boxers of today that are carrying what we did forward, because you know, if we’d have done all that work and broke all that ground and they weren’t doing it now it would have been kind of wasted.
It would have you know, we’d kind of found out and and wouldn’t have left something behind, so I’m just grateful that they’re doing what they’re doing and and bringing it forward and bringing it to a higher platform that it deserves absolutely yeah.
I’Ve always stated always um in everything I do if it wasn’t for the arrows, like your era and everybody before putting that little brick in the road like all the way up through and through, and through I mean we had to just keep going if it would Have fell off, we would have never been anywhere, but all of us working together.
You know generation after generation continuing to to push forward and and build that path of bricks on that road, to get it to where it was to allow the Olympics for women um and to allow people to be able to be at the height of their careers.
Today, it’s it’s phenomenal to see, and I’ve always said, though I re I it makes you want to come out, I’m getting I’m 42 now.
So I’m past that time I think, but for the last I don’t know five six years that it’s really starting to grow grow.
I’M like man, I would have just killed for one fight like that with that exposure and all of that and and the pay not that all of them are making pay, but some of them are getting million dollar paydays three figure paydays, I mean the more the Most I made was four thousand, so I I can’t – and that was for my WBC Title.
So I’m just amazed and I’m like man.
It could have been like five years earlier or ten years earlier.
I think I’ve been out for 10 years um, but I’m super happy for everybody that it’s our work, everybody all of our work, is paid off um and that it is got to the point where it is today um.
But without you and everybody before you and everybody after you, it wouldn’t be there at all.
So I I for those that pay tribute to the Past boxers.
I I’m so humble and grateful that they do um.
I feel like there are some that kind of forgot about the past um, but a lot of them still pay tribute.
Um Katie, frequently talks about people you from the past and people from the past um.
You know building the way for them um.
So hopefully that continues generation after Generation Um, because just like in the men’s game, there’s there is greatest of all time in every era like they there’s gon na go down and you’re definitely gon na go down forever and ever as one of the greatest of all Time, um, even though you you feel like you, didn’t get all the wins you want.
I feel the same way we didn’t get them all um, but you’re still gon na you’re, still one of the greatest to ever lace up the gloves for sure.
Well, thank you and congratulations on your Hall of Fame.
Thank you yeah it was.
It went by so fast.
I said I still am still trying to soak it in I’m still trying to soak it all in um I’ll be at the inductions.
This year, though, um Sue invited me back for the anniversary as a special guest, so I’ll, be there again this year.
Are you gon na? Are you gon na make it for the for the anniversary? No, I’m not sure about that.
Um I’ll have to look into it, so I have my old son now so my life now, okay, well, maybe maybe we’ll cross paths at the inductions.
That would be phenomenal to meet you in person um, if not I’m just honored, to have had the opportunity to speak with you tonight and you come on here and tell your story.
Um do tell everybody, though, where they can follow you on social media, so they can stay connected and you know see what’s going on with you, okay! Well, I sure appreciate you having me on.
Thank you yeah, absolutely um.
Do you have a on social media? Is it just your private page or do you have like a boxing page people could follow yeah the um public page is um Deirdre gogerty, Morrison, okay, so everybody you guys can go, follow you’re there see what’s going on, follow any news or anything that’s happening.
Um and yeah thanks again for coming, it’s truly been an honor um, hopefully one day we’ll get Katie in here to continue the Irish.
You know background and push the push the Irish speaking over there um, but we’ll see what happens.
Hopefully, hopefully I’ll connect with her one day and I’m super honored to have you and maybe we’ll see you in October fingers crossed you never know yeah.
Oh, you never know all right.
You have a great night and it’s been a pleasure.
I um we’ll talk to you another day, all right.
Thank you for helping me well, everyone.
Thank you.
So much for joining me tonight on no punches pulled with no mercy, hey Angie.
I see you in the comments.
What’S up champ, how are you I’m super excited for your fight coming up, um and everything that’s going on with you um.
I see you over there.
I appreciate you always tuning in um.
I hope everybody enjoy the show tonight.
Um amazing amazing, amazing, icon in the sport, definitely one of the best to ever lace them up um.
Please do make sure that you like subscribe and share the episodes.
Please um spread the word.
We want to get some more people in here next week and the week after that and the week after that, um there is also a donut donate button below.
If you guys would like to donate directly to me, it does go directly to me in my show, be greatly appreciated, if not no biggie, we’re here either way, but do please make sure that you follow me on all my social media platforms, so you can stay Informed about the show and who’s going to be on every single week.
I do Post who’s coming on every week, so you know ahead of time.
You can find me under, of course, my podcast page no punches pulled with no mercy and then my public page Brooke.
No mercy dear dwarf, hashtag, Millbrook um, I post it all over social media, so you guys can always see who’s coming, but again, hey um our scarf one.
Thank you for joining and tuning in.
I appreciate it.
I hope you enjoyed the show uh, but that’s it.
Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for tuning in with me tonight, I will see you all again at the same time, same place next Tuesday, at 8, 30 p.
m.
Eastern Standard Time, with the next amazing episode of no punches no mercy, but until then punch hard.
Nothing else.
Matters have a great night y’all foreign
Transcribed
[, Music, ], foreign, [, Music, ], hey, hey everybody! What’S going on, it’s your girl, no mercy here! It is Tuesday night.
So you already know what time it is.
It’S time for no punches pulled with me, no mercy.
Some of you probably already know who I am for those of you that are new here.
My name is Brooke Millbrook, Formerly Known in the fight business as Brooke no mercy deardorff.
I am a retired professional boxer.
I held the WBC lightweight title until I retired and I was inducted into the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022.
.
I have been through um some good, some bad and, of course, a lot of BS in the sport of women’s boxing.
This is my platform where we talk the talk and walk the walk.
We’Re gon na bring out the truth in women’s boxing we’ll hear from pioneers of the sport past boxers current boxers, even future boxers we’ll be getting down and dirty speaking, the truth of what takes place in women’s boxing.
You don’t want to miss a single episode, so please make sure that you like subscribe and share.
So you don’t miss any Tuesday night here with me, but today guys today we have a very, very special guest in the house.
We have the extraordinary boxing sensation Deirdre dangerous gogerty.
We will discover her inspiring Journey as she battled against the Irish boxing Union’s resistance to women’s professional boxing in her homeland of Ireland and ultimately forging her path to the UK and USA.
We will dive into the intense showdowns that defined her career, including the unforgettable clash with another Legend, Laura Serrano, which cemented her reputation as one of the fiercest competitors of her era and of all time.
Let’S not leave that out there.
We will witness the historic bout that revitalized women’s boxing as she faced the legendary Christy Martin at the MGM Grand Garden on the undercard of a Mike Tyson card, leaving an incredible mark on the sport of women’s boxing.
We’Ll relive that moment that everybody knows where she landed, that powerful punch, splattering Martin’s nose with blood and claiming the title with her and Martin as fight of the night outshining.
The main event with Frank Bruno and Mike Tyson prepare to be inspired by her trailblazing Legacy.
Recognizing with her induction into the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame as well in 2015.
, get ready y’all get ready.
This is going to be a great one.
Help me welcome Deirdre dangerous gogurty to the show Deirdre.
How are you it’s such a pleasure and an honor to have you on the show to share your story with the world? I appreciate you rearranging your schedule to be able to join me.
How are you, oh I’m doing great Brooke.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yes, I am super excited um to hear your journey um and it’s just an honor to have you here with us um.
Let’S start by going back to the beginning, if you could just tell us a little bit about your childhood and what led you to boxing well, that’s kind of um, interesting because I started to just fall in love with boxing, and I don’t really know where it Came from, I didn’t know anybody that even liked boxing there was no boxing tradition in my family at all, so I had no real kind of door to go through from my home life to the boxing life.
I just kind of had to figure it out on my own.
I didn’t know anybody that liked boxing at all, so it just seems to be something I was born with: okay yeah, sometimes it’s just in your blood, so I tell people it’s just you’re born with it.
Um tell us about the first time that you stepped into a boxing gym.
What was your experience? Did you I’m sure, like most of us, have trouble with trainers, other Fighters taking you seriously being a female in the sport? Well, it took me a long time to actually get into the gym uh Bowl.
It took me a long time to urge to even approach a gym, because just women weren’t even allowed in the gym back then, because we were considered a nuisance.
Not because of the worry that we’d want a box.
But it was the worry that we’d want to be boyfriend looking for boyfriends in the gym, so we were kind of considered a nuisance, so um, so just approaching a gym was very, very difficult and it took a lot of Courage, just even talk to the trainer, But finally, I chatted them up one day and I think he was so curious about me and kind of wanted to uh kind of see what was going on with this girl, a daughter of a dentist asking all these questions about boxing.
So he said that much you can come watch the odds train, so I went and watched them train and I just kept coming back and coming back so finally, he said I could train myself.
Okay, you could train yourself.
Well, I mean it’s one step into the gym.
I guess you got to start somewhere yeah definitely, and it was all little dreams one at a time.
You know my first dream was to even get to talk to a genuine boxing person all about boxing and my next dream was actually be in a real boxing gym, watching boxers train and then the next dream is to actually train myself.
So it was all the succession of little Dreams, yeah, absolutely um, baby steps, definitely baby steps um.
So what motivated you then to pursue an actual career in boxing despite the challenges and the resistance you had to Face by to women in the sport? Well, I mean it was the only thing in my life that really truly passionate.
I was just extremely driven and I just had this Vision I had watched.
My fellow Irishman, Barry, mcguigan, left the world title and I wanted to be a world tune just like him, and I didn’t see why um.
I should not get that chance, so I just um kept working and I felt like if I worked hard enough and got skillful enough and gave brought dignity to the sport that surely they’ll.
Let me fight absolutely yeah totally agree.
I mean we all have the same hopes and dreams male or female um and, like I tell everybody, it doesn’t matter what your dream is.
You can do anything if you just don’t give up you just got ta keep fighting for it.
Absolutely.
Can you share your experience of fighting against the Irish boxing Union’s refusal to sanction women’s professional boxing before you ended up leaving Ireland? Well, that was just terribly frustrating um.
You know I tried to get uh.
You know that kept getting back while women aren’t allowed to to fight, and I you know I just wanted an exhibition.
That’S all I wanted is just an exhibition just to because I really felt if I could just pull what I what women were capable of that you know that would knock down all the barriers, because I thought the fear was that we wouldn’t be able to fight You know we’d go out there and slap in and pull in hair or something I don’t know what they thought, but I mean I just felt once I said: no, no, I can really box just let me show you, I thought it would all open wide up, But um even just getting an exhibition every time it seemed like I’d, have an exhibition set up, it would get shut down and there was always some sort of excuse um.
I know it always kept with something medical.
Typically, like fear, we’d uh get breast cancer.
It would damage our ovaries that we were unstable.
While we were on our menstrual period periods and all these crazy things yeah anything they could come up with to say, no any excuse really well.
How did that experience Shaker determines? Do your determination and your resilience to keep going and not give up what I mean I just felt.
I had no choice.
You know.
I knew that uh when boxing had been licensed in the uh since the 70s, so I just felt the only place to go was um American.
I had looked into Europe and other countries because it did seem like a little bit was happening in in France and and Italy and some other places, but it just didn’t seem to come together and it just seemed the most sensible thing would be to go to The states yeah which at that point you did end up relocating to Louisiana.
Eventually um tell us about the decision and your experience traveling to Louisiana, and what made you choose that location? Well, the reason I chose is because I had boxed in London and my coach’s friend knew a guy in Louisiana called Bo Williford, and he uh told me if Beau Williford doesn’t any know anything about it.
Well, it’s not worth knowing, because he knows everything there is to know about the boxing in the United States.
So I wrote to Bo and I didn’t hear back from him for a long time about nine months and I finally heard back from him and um.
He said Deirdre you’re one bad mother because he had watched some footage of so I said.
Well, I guess that’s something good.
So he said I could come over it for a tryout and he would, you know, see how I do and do his best to get me a fight.
I didn’t realize that he was only doing it as a favor to a friend that he really didn’t want me to come so um when I came over.
He put me in really hard.
He put me in with a world champion Kenny Vice.
He was future champion at the time and I’d seen Kenny Vice knocked out Jim Donald in England, and it was a horrifying knockout.
So that was my first boring partner and it was a really really hard In the Heat of Louisiana with the crawfish boiler boiling in the gym and uh.
It was a really tough way to come to and I really felt my gosh.
What have I done? You know, but I cracked it out and I’m going and I just showed them showed him.
I wasn’t going to give up and eventually you know he became my greatest advocate and we boxed all over the United States.
Yeah absolutely and I feel like every single one of us, especially I mean obviously you’re from before my era, but even all the way.
Through my era, we really had to stick it out and prove our worth and um our talents to the coaches, because they they did everything they could to make us quit um.
They just wanted to deter us from doing it, so they tried everything to get you to just give up and quit and not come back, and you really had to earn their respect um and once once you’re in the respect, then then it was.
It was kind of like you know, cake from there, but it took a lot of work for all of us.
I think, especially back in the day, to get that respect for them to actually take us seriously and really put time and effort into us and not just allow us to be in the Gym’s presence right.
Absolutely in uh April of 1995 was the first uh like big fight that I can remember with you, and that was the fight between you and Laura Serrano on an all-female card staged by the wibf at the Aladdin, Hotel and Casino in Vegas.
It’S regarded as a defining moment in your career for sure.
Could you walk us through that match and the impact that you that it had on your reputation as one of the toughest fighters of all time, uh yeah? Well, that was a match against Great fighter and um.
It’S probably the most painful loss of my career, um and painful because um my coach threw in the towel in the seventh round and um.
But up to that point it was a great fight.
I mean it really was and it was close.
Um uh, you know I really boxed well early in the fight.
I was always a very good starter.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever lost the first round against anybody, but um Laura just kept coming with the pressure and I got sucked into getting into her fight and I wanted to beat her at her own game and she beat me at her game yeah.
So um, but it was a fight and, I think um.
Unfortunately, it’s just a fight that doesn’t get much recognition.
You know, in fact I think you’re, one of the few interviewers that have ever asked me about that really.
Joe, is amazing.
That’S a shame because that that fight I mean you were like I mean that was a like changing point in your career.
I think where it showed that you were like truly a phenomenal Fighter um and who knows what had happened? Had the fight not been stopped? I mean it was a very close, competitive fight, yeah um yeah, it was, it was a great fight and um.
It certainly showed, and the whole card was terrific.
Actually it was a brilliant card and it just showed what women were really capable of and uh.
Absolutely you know it was kind of the beginning of the really greatness of the the late 90s.
You know the last half of the 90s when women were really coming out and really looking strong and some amazing Champions on that card.
Yeah absolutely – and I, if I remember right, you never did get a rematch with her right.
No, I never fought again yeah that would have been a that would have been like the ideal rematch I think definitely for for you ever came together, yeah well, not long.
After that, though, you face another Legend, Christy Martin, which is like made women’s boxing boom and in the moment um at the MGM Grand on the undercard of the Mike Tyson fight in 1996.
.
Um.
Everybody is known that that was a very pivotal moment for women’s boxing um.
How do you feel to be a part of the fight that brought women’s boxing back into the spotlight of the media? I mean it was a amazing experience.
You know at the time I just didn’t realize you know in the fight itself I mean we knew it.
It was going to be the first women’s fight on pay-per-view.
That decision was made just a day or so before the actual fight.
But I guess I just didn’t realize I guess I figured after the Serrano fight.
If that didn’t light up the world, I figured you know against Christy.
You know it would be gon na be a great fight but just kind of lost in the mix, but it actually did get the attention it deserved and um, I’m really glad it.
It helped women’s boxing, I’m sad that I lost the fight.
Of course you know every fighter wants to win, but um I’m delighted the impact it had yeah.
Absolutely I mean yeah Christy was getting a lot of Buzz, then obviously um with her promoter, Don King and then the fighting on the undercards and stuff.
So but it was a phenomenal fight, very close fight, um the same thing I wish we would have saw that rematch, because that was another fireworks.
It was.
They were literally fireworks.
Um.
Could you recount the memorable moment, though, when you landed that powerful punch, bloody and Christy’s nose mid fight yeah? Well, I remember kind of setting it [ Music ] closer a little bit closer and when I felt I had her lined up right, then I threw it and it did land perfectly um, so um, but she was so tough and strong.
I mean she really walked right through it.
I’M not.
You know in the fight itself.
I was thinking that bloody noses, no big deal.
It’S not gon na stop her from seeing it’s not sure not gon na stop her from coming after me, so I didn’t think was a big deal, but the audience sure loved it.
You know they thought it was a big deal, yeah absolutely well! I mean if looking back even at the images I mean afterwards.
I think this is the excitement and the explosion of it all was the fact that it bled like profusely for, like the rest of the I fight her, she was covered in blood like in the photos.
So I don’t know, you know how people are that watch Boxing anytime, someone’s hurt or there’s blood or Cuts or anything they just get super excited um, and it just made women’s by.
It was definitely the fight of the night for both of you, um outshining, the Tyson fight, so there was no way that that was undeniable, that women’s boxing was just as good, if not more exciting than the men yeah.
I mean it got a great reaction and people were all talking about that fight and not any of the other fights, and there was some fantastic World title fights on that car, but yeah we’re talking about our fight.
I think it’s just um, like I said me and Christy, we knew women could fight, but I guess you know most people didn’t and they were amazed to see it and I guess the blood added more drama to the event.
Exactly so I mean you think.
Ideally, though, the it didn’t affect the Dynamics of the fight at all or the or the overall response, because I mean she walked right through it and kept coming so really it didn’t other than it being a blood bath.
It didn’t affect her at all.
It didn’t seem um, it probably affected her breathing, but I mean as far as the judges or anything they wouldn’t be pushed.
You know they wouldn’t be swayed by that at all.
So yeah.
Absolutely no! Well! I know um go ahead.
I mean to cut you off.
No, no, I just said it just looked cool, that’s all yeah it did, it definitely did it definitely did and it was just I don’t know it was just explosions fireworks I mean, and it was a a very, very pivotal point point turning point for women’s boxing.
Um, it made a huge difference and without that fight who knows, if women’s boxing would be without you and Christy, and in that fight, who knows, if we’d even be where we are today, um, so that that was huge for us back then many female boxers, though I know who were active in the late 90s and early 2000s, like we were talking um, including Laila Ali and so many others have personally said they were originally inspired to try boxing after seeing your fight with Christy Martin um.
In that sense, you delivered the bloody nose that helped launch the boxing careers of dozens of other Fighters.
Um did you were you aware of that, and how does that make you feel about your your career and your legacy in boxing uh yeah? I mean I’ve heard that over the years from various different uh female Fighters, so it feels great.
You know that um that that many were inspired by it and I always felt I always had a big vision for women’s boxing.
You know I knew one day.
It would be topping cards and – and I knew the uh policy would come up and I’m just glad you know to have helped other women realize there is an opportunity to do this.
I knew there was lots of good Fighters out there.
They just needed a chance to do it, yeah absolutely a chance to be showcased.
That’S really all we ever really needed um in 1997, though uh you finally got an even we’re gon na call it an even matched fight with another great though um one that you had been wanting for a while with Bonnie Canino for the wibf featherweight title.
You did win that um.
A 10 round decision becoming the wibf featherweight Champion, tell us how important winning that belt was for you and how it felt to be officially called a true champion.
Well I mean it was.
The belt was everything you know.
I’D been through a lot, I’d lost to Christy, I’d lost to Laura, I lost to Mariano mcgarr and I’d lost a Stacy Prestige.
So I mean not, you know all these losses had a big big impact on me and um.
This was my third attempt at a world title and I really I really was going in with the mindset.
If I don’t win this, that’s it I’m done.
I mean I just felt like I blew it against Laura and I blew it against uh uh Christy.
You know we’re very hard on ourselves as Fighters.
Absolutely winning is that Winning is Everything how how or you lose losing is just failure.
So I absolutely idle because I mean I gave everything up, leaving my homeland, my family, my friends, all my relationships behind to sacrifice everything to be a fighter.
I was still working a full-time job, doing all this as well and um, so winning the world title.
I mean that was the affirmation of everything I had done and it would just kind of cement my legacy, even though I knew I’d made positive impacts in women’s boxing.
It’S not the same as not being a champion right.
So yes, that type everything to me yeah – and there were so many before you that never even got the even though they were true Champions, never got the opportunity to fight for a title or have a belt um, which is just sad very sad.
So I’m super happy that you guys in that era, had finally got the opportunity to even fight for belts, because there were many who never got the opportunity.
That’S so true.
Many have said, though, that speaking of the fight with Bonnie Canino that the fight was kind of ugly to watch, Bonnie used a clinchfield grabby style at times, uh more reminiscent of like a Muay Thai rather than boxing um.
At one point this, it said that she almost wrestled you through the ropes um.
Can you tell us a little bit about the fight and what you thought about her style yeah? It was a very rough fight, um very uh rough, and she did push me out of the ring at one point and I landed on my back and you know it’s never good to be thrown out of a ring because it does take something out if you Landed on your back like that, but you know I just felt like I I could tell she was bringing her this game because she felt that was what would beat me.
You know and deep Prestige had done, that in our world title fight and I think um.
Maybe she was trying the same thing: kind of a um, a bullying, kind of brutality, yeah and uh.
You know around the fourth and fifth round: it was starting to work.
A little bit and my coach said you better start bringing this back in.
You know you don’t let her take this over, so I mean I had to really uh get back in the fight and really box hard and really out hustle her, but um yeah.
I mean I wish it was a better uh.
As far as a boxing exhibition fight, you know a great match and it was kind of grabby and dirty and um.
I felt like every time I tried to spin her around.
She would push me down, so I didn’t spin her as much as I wanted, but anyway I definitely feel I won the fight handy yeah, absolutely, and sometimes they definitely feel that that I mean sometimes the i i they call it the dirty gritty, like just nasty Style of fights, sometimes people like that, that’s they feel that’s all they can do to win and and if especially, if they had seen someone do it before then in their mindset that was the key to beating you was to be a bully and roughhouse.
You um, and I can tell you from experience – I mean I was a very, not dirty fighter but very aggressive Fighter um and that’s how I beat a lot of the the boxers was because they just couldn’t handle the pressure, but there’s still a difference, though.
Between being dirty and doing dirty tactics versus just straight pressure, but still still it I mean you, you clearly won the fight.
You deserve the victory.
You deserve to be called the the true champion and finally, at that point, yeah.
Thank you yeah during your last fight.
In 1998, you had suffered a torn rotator cuff during training, and then you unfortunately re-injured it during that fight.
After recovering, though, from the injury, you attempted a comeback but decided to retire after seven scheduled fights that fell through um.
Can you tell us a little bit about? Was that just like people didn’t want to fight you or like management um like promoter issues or like what what happened with the seven failed fights? Why was it not working out? Well, that’s a very good question.
Um.
I don’t know if it really had an impact, but it just seemed like you know, none of nobody got paid on the uh, the fight.
I fought Bonnie Canino, nobody on the card got paid and I don’t know if uh that had some kind of impact on on the um on my manager or what happened but um we kept trying to get fights.
I was supposed to fight in Argentina and Germany.
I mean I I trained hard for a lot of fights that fell through and um.
It was just really and I was still injured.
I mean the the shoulder, never thought better, but I I just wanted to defend my title and keep being a champion and uh.
So it’s strange that the end of my career field, climactic, I mean I spent the first four years of my career not being able to fight in the last four of my career not being able to fight, and I um I finally hung up officially hung up My gloves at 35.
um, so you know I hung around a long time trying to get fights.
This didn’t happen very frustrating yeah, very um.
I I did yeah training for fights and going through all that work to have it fall through right like night of or right before and not get a fight.
Is it’s devastating um? You literally give up everything to do training, while you’re working and doing everything else it just takes.
It takes a lot out of you to just get nothing um over and over yeah.
Do you regret giving up at the time or do you feel like retiring was just there was no other option, because there just wasn’t going to be fights well, you know I was training for a fight at one point, and I remember you know I used to Love the training for a fight, I loved the Spartan lifestyle.
I loved the hard regime, the dieting like building your body up to this Crescendo of Fitness, but there was one fight.
I was training for, and I remember out being out running at five in the morning and thinking gosh.
I can’t wait till the day after the fight, and I don’t have to do this and I knew that was the point I needed to retire because yeah I was just um.
You know that’s when you’re when you’re looking past the fight, you know you’re already retired yeah yeah.
If you lose that hunger um and that drive and and determination, there’s there’s no.
Nothing left just you’re.
Just looking for an injury at that point, so yeah that at that point is the best decision to go ahead and hang up the gloves, but you were in being inducted into the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2015.
.
That’S such a remarkable achievement um! I just recently was inducted, so I I it was phenomenal phenomenal um experience.
How does it feel to have your contributions and your legacy recognizing such a prestigious manner? Oh, it’s wonderful! You know it’s wonderful to uh remembered and to get such a purchase of such a good, honor and um to be uh.
You know remembered and respected, and they and um.
You know it’s really important, because you sometimes you feel everything you’ve done does.
Does anybody really um recognize it, and I that you know that’s the ultimate recognition, um yeah other than campaign to erect a statue of me in my hometown and draw the Ireland I mean that would be definitely another ultimate recognition.
So it’s really wonderful and very prestigious.
Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
I know I yeah and I I think that that’s in the works for you hopefully, but I tried to get in my hometown.
I wanted to get even um.
I I tried talking to like the committee and all of them even to get like a bench or something at the park like with with you know my info put on it.
It didn’t even have to be like a statue or anything, and I can still get it, but I have I have to purchase it um and I still have the funds to purchase it right now, so maybe I’ll start saving for it and maybe eventually before my Time is over on this Earth will get something put in my hometown.
This is a really small Hometown, um, nothing like big or anything, but just something to just like leave that stamp in my hometown, um, not that people there don’t know me because it’s a small town but still uh, just the thought of it is special.
So I totally understand the statue that would be amazing, yeah uh, all of us female, if especially female boxers, have faced a lot of BS in the sport things that we just shouldn’t have to go through.
We shouldn’t have to deal with at all um.
I know you kind of mentioned some things with trainers and stuff.
Can you tell us about some of like the worst experiences that you had to go through um back in your time as a female fighter that you just shouldn’t have had to deal with? Oh gosh? Well, there’s a lot um, but um.
I think I remember mostly what was really hard was they made us? Do it this pelvic exam before all our fights and uh the trouble with the pelvic exam? Is it cost more than what I’d get paid for the fight? So I mean I’d be in debt, you know, I remember they would cost four to five hundred dollars and I might only be getting paid two or three hundred dollars, so it was costing me money to and that that was very difficult.
You know especially um.
You know I was working a full-time job, getting paid minimum wage and um.
You know the struggle just financially was extremely hard um, so that was really tough, but there’s there’s lots of other tough things too um, but that yeah there’s there’s so many things I I’ve talked about.
Several several of mine is at some point or another.
Since I started out the show, I think eventually I’ll probably get through a lot of them, but there’s just so many things that we I try to tell people, especially like the newer Fighters, like things to watch out for little things here and there um.
That are said or done in a certain way that it’s just not okay and I think it’s getting better, but it still it’ll never be.
It’S it’ll never be gone just I we have to deal with so much more yeah.
What are um? What are some of your female role models in boxing? Did you have any females that you um looked up to or that were role models for you yeah? Well, that’s a very good question, um! Well, just because um I was one of the first to come along.
In my time.
All my roll battles were male yeah, so I love Harry mcguigan, of course, was my Irish hero and I love Sugar Ray Leonard and um.
The first one I watched was Jack.
Dempsey so um, so, unfortunately, the best female role models, probably the tennis players.
To be quite honest, you know that’s the that’s the great female athletes we got to see back in that yeah, absolutely so yeah it’s females in any sport was hard to come by yeah.
Absolutely so they were ahead of their time in a way, absolutely absolutely.
How do you think the landscape of women’s boxing has evolved since your time in the sport? What changes and improvements would you like to see in the future uh? Well, I think it’s come along immensely.
Well, I mean, I think, nobody bats an eyelid.
Now, at a female fighter and um, I think you know I just went to Kaylee Taylor’s fight in Ireland and I mean atop the card and packed the stadium.
And I that’s exactly what I envisioned.
You know that that’s what women’s boxing could become and I think um the sky’s the limit with it and I think up it keeps building on itself and building on itself and I think um it’s just going to keep growing and growing, getting better and better.
Absolutely I was going to ask you um, but since you brought up Katie Taylor, I was going to ask you about that.
Anyways um.
She has stated in lots of her interviews that you were.
You know her role model growing up.
She had reached out to you at a young age in her teenage boxing years and you are very welcoming and kind of like mentored her a little bit and then made it to her big fight that she just had at home in Ireland.
Um.
Can you tell us a little bit about Katie Taylor? I’Ve always wanted to have her on the show.
Since I started I’ve reached out to Eddie Herr and I’ve sent emails, I’ve sent her messages.
Hopefully, one of these days I’ll be able to connect with her and bring her on the show.
I would love to have her on the show as well, but can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with Katie and what it was like seeing that such a big fight headlining a major card in Ireland? Well, it’s pretty incredible because, when I think back to when I first met her, she was just very young.
She was only about 12, 11 or 12 and uh.
She actually was um, really really keen and she was asking basically how she could get fights and at the time of course, I had left Ireland, but then I was just home.
Visiting and um was fighting in the states, and I hate to tell this poor young girl that uh there’s no fights in Ireland um, but I just I just remember telling her you know just keep at it and if you keep working at it and getting skillful Enough somebody’s gon na, let you fight, I really felt um, that’s what it would take and um.
You know it’s just incredible that she stuck with it as long did and that she, you know all these years later and she’s headlining a card.
Not only has she already been to the Olympics and won Gold now she’s headlining this huge card in Ireland, and that was that little girl I took those years ago so um yeah and I know what she has put laid out.
Some else is going to build on that even um, it’s just amazing it is, it really is, and I’ve been I’ve been watching things.
It is it’s totally amazing.
I’Ve been watching her since, since the Olympics, her Olympic days um and I’ve always thought she was a tremendous fighter.
She and I knew at that time she would.
She will definitely go down as one of the greatest females of all time, um for sure hands down.
No questions asked um.
I was a little bit upset about the last fight, the the one that you were at um.
I thought for sure hands down.
She would have that fight, no problem, not not to put anything against Cameron.
I just felt like she always adjusts.
So well to everybody that she’s fought.
That’S gave her trouble early on she’s always able to adjust, but I felt like for some odd reason like she was off from the moment she started coming out for the ring walk like I.
I don’t know.
I thought.
Maybe she like was sick or wasn’t feeling well um and then, as soon as the fight started, I felt like she was off um.
She wasn’t throwing the combinations that she used to.
She seemed slower.
Did you notice that too or was or was that was it just that that was just that much of a tough fight for her um yeah, I mean I kind of felt her timing.
Wasn’T there and I thought she was.
She got off with some beautiful combinations, but they were just a little too late.
She was kind of responding more Cameron rather than initiating the combinations herself um and uh.
You know Cameron just kept coming and walking her down, and so it might have been a timing issue and maybe just an off night um and you know sometimes you can go into a fight, and you probably know this yourself in the greatest shape of your life And for some reason something happened where you just don’t feel it.
You know you’re, just not there and fights are like that.
Yeah, hey some.
I mean yeah 100, totally agree with that.
Sometimes you’re just you’re not fully there.
I mean it’s something’s just off um and that’s in anything we do so yeah.
I definitely felt that um.
I know they just announced.
I think the rematch clause that she initiated.
I think I want to say, like November – maybe they’re gon na fight.
I can’t remember for sure, but I think like November, so I’m super excited for the rematch.
I’M sure it’s going to be just as big as the first one um and I I hope that she gets herself all together and comes back stronger than ever and yeah gets that timing down and we we see another um tremendous fireworks show from her because all Her fights have been great great fights, yeah um, so I’m super excited for that one yeah another great one for sure yeah.
Absolutely.
I can’t wait for that.
One! I’M super excited um.
I feel like that one and then I don’t know if she’ll, if she’ll do the rematch with Amanda, maybe eventually I know Amanda’s kind of said at this point it’s a hit or miss, but that would be another good one too, but I definitely felt like she Put on a great show for that fight and I I feel like she pulled off the victory for sure on that fight, even though people have seen it both ways.
But if I’ve went back and watched it multiple times and Katie won that, aside from the one big round that Serrano had um, I feel like she definitely won a majority of the other rounds, even though they were close um.
So but it was a great fight.
All her fights are great, so I’m super excited for that one, but back to you um, since retirement, though you have become a trainer, I believe at Raging Cajun gym in Lafayette, Louisiana um.
Can you tell us a little bit about your your experience with coaching? I coached for a long long time, um up till you know.
In 2019 my coach Beau died and um.
We decided to shut the gym down and then I moved away.
So I’m not near any boxing clubs at the moment, but um I coached for a long long time, and the reason I did is because I knew I needed to fill the void of boxing myself.
I didn’t want to kind of get pulled back into fighting when I really wasn’t at my best anymore and it’s easy to do.
I mean it’s it’s hard to walk away from something.
You’Ve poured your whole life into so I um started coaching and it was super rewarding and wonderful and um.
It wasn’t just all the champions We produced.
It was just good good citizens.
Just you know trying to guide young people into a better life and mostly believing in themselves.
That was the biggest thing and the the thing I enjoyed passing on more than anything was teaching people how to kind of make the most of their self and believe in their self yeah.
Absolutely you also um to my knowledge, though, you have a memoir that you co-wrote called my call to the ring, A Memoir of a girl who yearns to box that was published in 2012.
I would absolutely love to get my hands on a copy of that.
Um.
Can you tell us a little bit about the book and where we can purchase it yeah? Well, you can get it on booklocker.
com or on amazon.
com.
Okay and um yeah um, took me four years to write the book and it was a real um, very kind of the cathartic experience.
It was tough, though it was tough, going back into all that real painful stuff and um.
It was a kind of a grueling experience.
I didn’t expect writing a book to be grueling, but it actually was, but I just felt I had to be as courageous and honest with the book.
As I was with the boxing so um, I wrote a kind of a a tell-all and about my back story and everything and not just about boxing, but what was going on in my in my personal life as well.
Okay, I’m definitely gon na have to get a get a copy of it for sure I did not know until I was looking up some things on you for the interview that you had a memoir.
I don’t know why, but I didn’t know there was one so I’ll definitely be getting a copy of that for sure um other than Katie Taylor.
I know impresses, you very much.
Are there any other females in today’s era that you really enjoy or impressed by? Oh, I mean I’m impressed by so many of them um.
You know I try to watch them every chance I get and um I mean.
There’S, there’s many many and there’s more coming up.
Absolutely so that’s the excitement um, but I mean I enjoy watching them all.
You know there’s a lot of potential out there and of course you know the greats are are fighting right now, like Carissa and uh Katie yeah, you know, I mean and um we got a great Irish Irish Fighters too.
Coming up so um nice.
I mean it’s just gon na keep and getting better and um and uh.
You know, but I’m not surprised people ask me.
Oh, are you surprised by how great women’s boxing is now known? I’M not surprised it’s always been doing exactly.
Yes, exactly yeah.
It’S always been that great.
I do feel like sometimes looking back like in your fights and even like my generation of fights.
There was a lot more like gruesome Wars.
Then then, we’ve seen not that they’re, not amazing, spectacular fights now um, but I think the level of because they’re able to train full-time as a boxer, A lot of them now and we work full-time jobs.
Um had our kids and really went to the gym.
Maybe a couple hours a day because that’s all there was time for so we weren’t really fully trained.
I I’d hate to see what kind of beasts we would have been had we been able to train all day three times a day like they’re getting to now.
So it’s phenomenal, but I feel like maybe their skills are showcased even more because they’re able to fully commit to a boxing career um and not have to work elsewhere, some of them, so the fights are more technical, um, they’re, still action-packed, and I love watching female Boxing way more than mailboxing, because there’s just so much action in them and they’re more exciting.
But I feel like back in the our eras and like your air in my area, there were so many like gruesome, just dog fights and – and I haven’t seen a lot today – yeah that way now that you say it all right yeah, it was definitely gruesome, but I think you know the women back then that you know you sacrifice.
I mean all boxers sacrifice boxing’s a massive sacrifice, but I think when you’re you know slogging away at a full-time job.
Five days a week and you’re only weekend, you’re you’re trying to travel to a fight and fight and get back to work by Monday morning I mean you know it’s.
It does bring out a a different kind of person in you, yeah, absolutely and the fights for sure yeah.
I totally agree.
I totally agree.
I’M still waiting and, like I said, the fights are still phenomenal today, like they’re, very exciting and very action-packed.
I’M just waiting till we get one of those just really all-out Wars.
Like I don’t know it’s coming, I’m just waiting until that match-up hits and I’m gon na be super excited to see that um, not that there hasn’t been something but like just that.
I don’t know you know what I mean um.
Can you share any advice or words of wisdom for the aspiring female boxers who are facing obstacles or that just want to strive to make their Mark in the sport um I mean, I would just say, keep working and learning the skills showing what you can do And you’ll you’ll get that opportunity.
Remember it’s still a man’s game in the sense that you have to have a man-like mentality.
You can’t go into boxing thinking that you’ll be should be treated differently because you’re, a girl.
You have to have a masculine mentality for a sport like that.
So that’s the kind of thinking you have to have absolutely that that’s a hundred percent, true 100.
True um! Is there anything that we didn’t discuss that you would like to discuss or let people know that I might have missed that? Like sticks out to you? Oh, I mean I I I can’t think of anything at the moment, because you asked a lot of really good questions.
We covered a lot of ground and um.
No, I just uh want to tell people.
You know I’m really grateful for the women boxers of today that are carrying what we did forward, because you know, if we’d have done all that work and broke all that ground and they weren’t doing it now it would have been kind of wasted.
It would have you know, we’d kind of found out and and wouldn’t have left something behind, so I’m just grateful that they’re doing what they’re doing and and bringing it forward and bringing it to a higher platform that it deserves absolutely yeah.
I’Ve always stated always um in everything I do if it wasn’t for the arrows, like your era and everybody before putting that little brick in the road like all the way up through and through, and through I mean we had to just keep going if it would Have fell off, we would have never been anywhere, but all of us working together.
You know generation after generation continuing to to push forward and and build that path of bricks on that road, to get it to where it was to allow the Olympics for women um and to allow people to be able to be at the height of their careers.
Today, it’s it’s phenomenal to see, and I’ve always said, though I re I it makes you want to come out, I’m getting I’m 42 now.
So I’m past that time I think, but for the last I don’t know five six years that it’s really starting to grow grow.
I’M like man, I would have just killed for one fight like that with that exposure and all of that and and the pay not that all of them are making pay, but some of them are getting million dollar paydays three figure paydays, I mean the more the Most I made was four thousand, so I I can’t – and that was for my WBC Title.
So I’m just amazed and I’m like man.
It could have been like five years earlier or ten years earlier.
I think I’ve been out for 10 years um, but I’m super happy for everybody that it’s our work, everybody all of our work, is paid off um and that it is got to the point where it is today um.
But without you and everybody before you and everybody after you, it wouldn’t be there at all.
So I I for those that pay tribute to the Past boxers.
I I’m so humble and grateful that they do um.
I feel like there are some that kind of forgot about the past um, but a lot of them still pay tribute.
Um Katie, frequently talks about people you from the past and people from the past um.
You know building the way for them um.
So hopefully that continues generation after Generation Um, because just like in the men’s game, there’s there is greatest of all time in every era like they there’s gon na go down and you’re definitely gon na go down forever and ever as one of the greatest of all Time, um, even though you you feel like you, didn’t get all the wins you want.
I feel the same way we didn’t get them all um, but you’re still gon na you’re, still one of the greatest to ever lace up the gloves for sure.
Well, thank you and congratulations on your Hall of Fame.
Thank you yeah it was.
It went by so fast.
I said I still am still trying to soak it in I’m still trying to soak it all in um I’ll be at the inductions.
This year, though, um Sue invited me back for the anniversary as a special guest, so I’ll, be there again this year.
Are you gon na? Are you gon na make it for the for the anniversary? No, I’m not sure about that.
Um I’ll have to look into it, so I have my old son now so my life now, okay, well, maybe maybe we’ll cross paths at the inductions.
That would be phenomenal to meet you in person um, if not I’m just honored, to have had the opportunity to speak with you tonight and you come on here and tell your story.
Um do tell everybody, though, where they can follow you on social media, so they can stay connected and you know see what’s going on with you, okay! Well, I sure appreciate you having me on.
Thank you yeah, absolutely um.
Do you have a on social media? Is it just your private page or do you have like a boxing page people could follow yeah the um public page is um Deirdre gogerty, Morrison, okay, so everybody you guys can go, follow you’re there see what’s going on, follow any news or anything that’s happening.
Um and yeah thanks again for coming, it’s truly been an honor um, hopefully one day we’ll get Katie in here to continue the Irish.
You know background and push the push the Irish speaking over there um, but we’ll see what happens.
Hopefully, hopefully I’ll connect with her one day and I’m super honored to have you and maybe we’ll see you in October fingers crossed you never know yeah.
Oh, you never know all right.
You have a great night and it’s been a pleasure.
I um we’ll talk to you another day, all right.
Thank you for helping me well, everyone.
Thank you.
So much for joining me tonight on no punches pulled with no mercy, hey Angie.
I see you in the comments.
What’S up champ, how are you I’m super excited for your fight coming up, um and everything that’s going on with you um.
I see you over there.
I appreciate you always tuning in um.
I hope everybody enjoy the show tonight.
Um amazing amazing, amazing, icon in the sport, definitely one of the best to ever lace them up um.
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No mercy dear dwarf, hashtag, Millbrook um, I post it all over social media, so you guys can always see who’s coming, but again, hey um our scarf one.
Thank you for joining and tuning in.
I appreciate it.
I hope you enjoyed the show uh, but that’s it.
Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for tuning in with me tonight, I will see you all again at the same time, same place next Tuesday, at 8, 30 p.
m.
Eastern Standard Time, with the next amazing episode of no punches no mercy, but until then punch hard.
Nothing else.
Matters have a great night y’all foreign
Transcribed
[, Music, ], foreign, [, Music, ], hey, hey everybody! What’S going on, it’s your girl, no mercy here! It is Tuesday night.
So you already know what time it is.
It’S time for no punches pulled with me, no mercy.
Some of you probably already know who I am for those of you that are new here.
My name is Brooke Millbrook, Formerly Known in the fight business as Brooke no mercy deardorff.
I am a retired professional boxer.
I held the WBC lightweight title until I retired and I was inducted into the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022.
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I have been through um some good, some bad and, of course, a lot of BS in the sport of women’s boxing.
This is my platform where we talk the talk and walk the walk.
We’Re gon na bring out the truth in women’s boxing we’ll hear from pioneers of the sport past boxers current boxers, even future boxers we’ll be getting down and dirty speaking, the truth of what takes place in women’s boxing.
You don’t want to miss a single episode, so please make sure that you like subscribe and share.
So you don’t miss any Tuesday night here with me, but today guys today we have a very, very special guest in the house.
We have the extraordinary boxing sensation Deirdre dangerous gogerty.
We will discover her inspiring Journey as she battled against the Irish boxing Union’s resistance to women’s professional boxing in her homeland of Ireland and ultimately forging her path to the UK and USA.
We will dive into the intense showdowns that defined her career, including the unforgettable clash with another Legend, Laura Serrano, which cemented her reputation as one of the fiercest competitors of her era and of all time.
Let’S not leave that out there.
We will witness the historic bout that revitalized women’s boxing as she faced the legendary Christy Martin at the MGM Grand Garden on the undercard of a Mike Tyson card, leaving an incredible mark on the sport of women’s boxing.
We’Ll relive that moment that everybody knows where she landed, that powerful punch, splattering Martin’s nose with blood and claiming the title with her and Martin as fight of the night outshining.
The main event with Frank Bruno and Mike Tyson prepare to be inspired by her trailblazing Legacy.
Recognizing with her induction into the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame as well in 2015.
, get ready y’all get ready.
This is going to be a great one.
Help me welcome Deirdre dangerous gogurty to the show Deirdre.
How are you it’s such a pleasure and an honor to have you on the show to share your story with the world? I appreciate you rearranging your schedule to be able to join me.
How are you, oh I’m doing great Brooke.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yes, I am super excited um to hear your journey um and it’s just an honor to have you here with us um.
Let’S start by going back to the beginning, if you could just tell us a little bit about your childhood and what led you to boxing well, that’s kind of um, interesting because I started to just fall in love with boxing, and I don’t really know where it Came from, I didn’t know anybody that even liked boxing there was no boxing tradition in my family at all, so I had no real kind of door to go through from my home life to the boxing life.
I just kind of had to figure it out on my own.
I didn’t know anybody that liked boxing at all, so it just seems to be something I was born with: okay yeah, sometimes it’s just in your blood, so I tell people it’s just you’re born with it.
Um tell us about the first time that you stepped into a boxing gym.
What was your experience? Did you I’m sure, like most of us, have trouble with trainers, other Fighters taking you seriously being a female in the sport? Well, it took me a long time to actually get into the gym uh Bowl.
It took me a long time to urge to even approach a gym, because just women weren’t even allowed in the gym back then, because we were considered a nuisance.
Not because of the worry that we’d want a box.
But it was the worry that we’d want to be boyfriend looking for boyfriends in the gym, so we were kind of considered a nuisance, so um, so just approaching a gym was very, very difficult and it took a lot of Courage, just even talk to the trainer, But finally, I chatted them up one day and I think he was so curious about me and kind of wanted to uh kind of see what was going on with this girl, a daughter of a dentist asking all these questions about boxing.
So he said that much you can come watch the odds train, so I went and watched them train and I just kept coming back and coming back so finally, he said I could train myself.
Okay, you could train yourself.
Well, I mean it’s one step into the gym.
I guess you got to start somewhere yeah definitely, and it was all little dreams one at a time.
You know my first dream was to even get to talk to a genuine boxing person all about boxing and my next dream was actually be in a real boxing gym, watching boxers train and then the next dream is to actually train myself.
So it was all the succession of little Dreams, yeah, absolutely um, baby steps, definitely baby steps um.
So what motivated you then to pursue an actual career in boxing despite the challenges and the resistance you had to Face by to women in the sport? Well, I mean it was the only thing in my life that really truly passionate.
I was just extremely driven and I just had this Vision I had watched.
My fellow Irishman, Barry, mcguigan, left the world title and I wanted to be a world tune just like him, and I didn’t see why um.
I should not get that chance, so I just um kept working and I felt like if I worked hard enough and got skillful enough and gave brought dignity to the sport that surely they’ll.
Let me fight absolutely yeah totally agree.
I mean we all have the same hopes and dreams male or female um and, like I tell everybody, it doesn’t matter what your dream is.
You can do anything if you just don’t give up you just got ta keep fighting for it.
Absolutely.
Can you share your experience of fighting against the Irish boxing Union’s refusal to sanction women’s professional boxing before you ended up leaving Ireland? Well, that was just terribly frustrating um.
You know I tried to get uh.
You know that kept getting back while women aren’t allowed to to fight, and I you know I just wanted an exhibition.
That’S all I wanted is just an exhibition just to because I really felt if I could just pull what I what women were capable of that you know that would knock down all the barriers, because I thought the fear was that we wouldn’t be able to fight You know we’d go out there and slap in and pull in hair or something I don’t know what they thought, but I mean I just felt once I said: no, no, I can really box just let me show you, I thought it would all open wide up, But um even just getting an exhibition every time it seemed like I’d, have an exhibition set up, it would get shut down and there was always some sort of excuse um.
I know it always kept with something medical.
Typically, like fear, we’d uh get breast cancer.
It would damage our ovaries that we were unstable.
While we were on our menstrual period periods and all these crazy things yeah anything they could come up with to say, no any excuse really well.
How did that experience Shaker determines? Do your determination and your resilience to keep going and not give up what I mean I just felt.
I had no choice.
You know.
I knew that uh when boxing had been licensed in the uh since the 70s, so I just felt the only place to go was um American.
I had looked into Europe and other countries because it did seem like a little bit was happening in in France and and Italy and some other places, but it just didn’t seem to come together and it just seemed the most sensible thing would be to go to The states yeah which at that point you did end up relocating to Louisiana.
Eventually um tell us about the decision and your experience traveling to Louisiana, and what made you choose that location? Well, the reason I chose is because I had boxed in London and my coach’s friend knew a guy in Louisiana called Bo Williford, and he uh told me if Beau Williford doesn’t any know anything about it.
Well, it’s not worth knowing, because he knows everything there is to know about the boxing in the United States.
So I wrote to Bo and I didn’t hear back from him for a long time about nine months and I finally heard back from him and um.
He said Deirdre you’re one bad mother because he had watched some footage of so I said.
Well, I guess that’s something good.
So he said I could come over it for a tryout and he would, you know, see how I do and do his best to get me a fight.
I didn’t realize that he was only doing it as a favor to a friend that he really didn’t want me to come so um when I came over.
He put me in really hard.
He put me in with a world champion Kenny Vice.
He was future champion at the time and I’d seen Kenny Vice knocked out Jim Donald in England, and it was a horrifying knockout.
So that was my first boring partner and it was a really really hard In the Heat of Louisiana with the crawfish boiler boiling in the gym and uh.
It was a really tough way to come to and I really felt my gosh.
What have I done? You know, but I cracked it out and I’m going and I just showed them showed him.
I wasn’t going to give up and eventually you know he became my greatest advocate and we boxed all over the United States.
Yeah absolutely and I feel like every single one of us, especially I mean obviously you’re from before my era, but even all the way.
Through my era, we really had to stick it out and prove our worth and um our talents to the coaches, because they they did everything they could to make us quit um.
They just wanted to deter us from doing it, so they tried everything to get you to just give up and quit and not come back, and you really had to earn their respect um and once once you’re in the respect, then then it was.
It was kind of like you know, cake from there, but it took a lot of work for all of us.
I think, especially back in the day, to get that respect for them to actually take us seriously and really put time and effort into us and not just allow us to be in the Gym’s presence right.
Absolutely in uh April of 1995 was the first uh like big fight that I can remember with you, and that was the fight between you and Laura Serrano on an all-female card staged by the wibf at the Aladdin, Hotel and Casino in Vegas.
It’S regarded as a defining moment in your career for sure.
Could you walk us through that match and the impact that you that it had on your reputation as one of the toughest fighters of all time, uh yeah? Well, that was a match against Great fighter and um.
It’S probably the most painful loss of my career, um and painful because um my coach threw in the towel in the seventh round and um.
But up to that point it was a great fight.
I mean it really was and it was close.
Um uh, you know I really boxed well early in the fight.
I was always a very good starter.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever lost the first round against anybody, but um Laura just kept coming with the pressure and I got sucked into getting into her fight and I wanted to beat her at her own game and she beat me at her game yeah.
So um, but it was a fight and, I think um.
Unfortunately, it’s just a fight that doesn’t get much recognition.
You know, in fact I think you’re, one of the few interviewers that have ever asked me about that really.
Joe, is amazing.
That’S a shame because that that fight I mean you were like I mean that was a like changing point in your career.
I think where it showed that you were like truly a phenomenal Fighter um and who knows what had happened? Had the fight not been stopped? I mean it was a very close, competitive fight, yeah um yeah, it was, it was a great fight and um.
It certainly showed, and the whole card was terrific.
Actually it was a brilliant card and it just showed what women were really capable of and uh.
Absolutely you know it was kind of the beginning of the really greatness of the the late 90s.
You know the last half of the 90s when women were really coming out and really looking strong and some amazing Champions on that card.
Yeah absolutely – and I, if I remember right, you never did get a rematch with her right.
No, I never fought again yeah that would have been a that would have been like the ideal rematch I think definitely for for you ever came together, yeah well, not long.
After that, though, you face another Legend, Christy Martin, which is like made women’s boxing boom and in the moment um at the MGM Grand on the undercard of the Mike Tyson fight in 1996.
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Um.
Everybody is known that that was a very pivotal moment for women’s boxing um.
How do you feel to be a part of the fight that brought women’s boxing back into the spotlight of the media? I mean it was a amazing experience.
You know at the time I just didn’t realize you know in the fight itself I mean we knew it.
It was going to be the first women’s fight on pay-per-view.
That decision was made just a day or so before the actual fight.
But I guess I just didn’t realize I guess I figured after the Serrano fight.
If that didn’t light up the world, I figured you know against Christy.
You know it would be gon na be a great fight but just kind of lost in the mix, but it actually did get the attention it deserved and um, I’m really glad it.
It helped women’s boxing, I’m sad that I lost the fight.
Of course you know every fighter wants to win, but um I’m delighted the impact it had yeah.
Absolutely I mean yeah Christy was getting a lot of Buzz, then obviously um with her promoter, Don King and then the fighting on the undercards and stuff.
So but it was a phenomenal fight, very close fight, um the same thing I wish we would have saw that rematch, because that was another fireworks.
It was.
They were literally fireworks.
Um.
Could you recount the memorable moment, though, when you landed that powerful punch, bloody and Christy’s nose mid fight yeah? Well, I remember kind of setting it [ Music ] closer a little bit closer and when I felt I had her lined up right, then I threw it and it did land perfectly um, so um, but she was so tough and strong.
I mean she really walked right through it.
I’M not.
You know in the fight itself.
I was thinking that bloody noses, no big deal.
It’S not gon na stop her from seeing it’s not sure not gon na stop her from coming after me, so I didn’t think was a big deal, but the audience sure loved it.
You know they thought it was a big deal, yeah absolutely well! I mean if looking back even at the images I mean afterwards.
I think this is the excitement and the explosion of it all was the fact that it bled like profusely for, like the rest of the I fight her, she was covered in blood like in the photos.
So I don’t know, you know how people are that watch Boxing anytime, someone’s hurt or there’s blood or Cuts or anything they just get super excited um, and it just made women’s by.
It was definitely the fight of the night for both of you, um outshining, the Tyson fight, so there was no way that that was undeniable, that women’s boxing was just as good, if not more exciting than the men yeah.
I mean it got a great reaction and people were all talking about that fight and not any of the other fights, and there was some fantastic World title fights on that car, but yeah we’re talking about our fight.
I think it’s just um, like I said me and Christy, we knew women could fight, but I guess you know most people didn’t and they were amazed to see it and I guess the blood added more drama to the event.
Exactly so I mean you think.
Ideally, though, the it didn’t affect the Dynamics of the fight at all or the or the overall response, because I mean she walked right through it and kept coming so really it didn’t other than it being a blood bath.
It didn’t affect her at all.
It didn’t seem um, it probably affected her breathing, but I mean as far as the judges or anything they wouldn’t be pushed.
You know they wouldn’t be swayed by that at all.
So yeah.
Absolutely no! Well! I know um go ahead.
I mean to cut you off.
No, no, I just said it just looked cool, that’s all yeah it did, it definitely did it definitely did and it was just I don’t know it was just explosions fireworks I mean, and it was a a very, very pivotal point point turning point for women’s boxing.
Um, it made a huge difference and without that fight who knows, if women’s boxing would be without you and Christy, and in that fight, who knows, if we’d even be where we are today, um, so that that was huge for us back then many female boxers, though I know who were active in the late 90s and early 2000s, like we were talking um, including Laila Ali and so many others have personally said they were originally inspired to try boxing after seeing your fight with Christy Martin um.
In that sense, you delivered the bloody nose that helped launch the boxing careers of dozens of other Fighters.
Um did you were you aware of that, and how does that make you feel about your your career and your legacy in boxing uh yeah? I mean I’ve heard that over the years from various different uh female Fighters, so it feels great.
You know that um that that many were inspired by it and I always felt I always had a big vision for women’s boxing.
You know I knew one day.
It would be topping cards and – and I knew the uh policy would come up and I’m just glad you know to have helped other women realize there is an opportunity to do this.
I knew there was lots of good Fighters out there.
They just needed a chance to do it, yeah absolutely a chance to be showcased.
That’S really all we ever really needed um in 1997, though uh you finally got an even we’re gon na call it an even matched fight with another great though um one that you had been wanting for a while with Bonnie Canino for the wibf featherweight title.
You did win that um.
A 10 round decision becoming the wibf featherweight Champion, tell us how important winning that belt was for you and how it felt to be officially called a true champion.
Well I mean it was.
The belt was everything you know.
I’D been through a lot, I’d lost to Christy, I’d lost to Laura, I lost to Mariano mcgarr and I’d lost a Stacy Prestige.
So I mean not, you know all these losses had a big big impact on me and um.
This was my third attempt at a world title and I really I really was going in with the mindset.
If I don’t win this, that’s it I’m done.
I mean I just felt like I blew it against Laura and I blew it against uh uh Christy.
You know we’re very hard on ourselves as Fighters.
Absolutely winning is that Winning is Everything how how or you lose losing is just failure.
So I absolutely idle because I mean I gave everything up, leaving my homeland, my family, my friends, all my relationships behind to sacrifice everything to be a fighter.
I was still working a full-time job, doing all this as well and um, so winning the world title.
I mean that was the affirmation of everything I had done and it would just kind of cement my legacy, even though I knew I’d made positive impacts in women’s boxing.
It’S not the same as not being a champion right.
So yes, that type everything to me yeah – and there were so many before you that never even got the even though they were true Champions, never got the opportunity to fight for a title or have a belt um, which is just sad very sad.
So I’m super happy that you guys in that era, had finally got the opportunity to even fight for belts, because there were many who never got the opportunity.
That’S so true.
Many have said, though, that speaking of the fight with Bonnie Canino that the fight was kind of ugly to watch, Bonnie used a clinchfield grabby style at times, uh more reminiscent of like a Muay Thai rather than boxing um.
At one point this, it said that she almost wrestled you through the ropes um.
Can you tell us a little bit about the fight and what you thought about her style yeah? It was a very rough fight, um very uh rough, and she did push me out of the ring at one point and I landed on my back and you know it’s never good to be thrown out of a ring because it does take something out if you Landed on your back like that, but you know I just felt like I I could tell she was bringing her this game because she felt that was what would beat me.
You know and deep Prestige had done, that in our world title fight and I think um.
Maybe she was trying the same thing: kind of a um, a bullying, kind of brutality, yeah and uh.
You know around the fourth and fifth round: it was starting to work.
A little bit and my coach said you better start bringing this back in.
You know you don’t let her take this over, so I mean I had to really uh get back in the fight and really box hard and really out hustle her, but um yeah.
I mean I wish it was a better uh.
As far as a boxing exhibition fight, you know a great match and it was kind of grabby and dirty and um.
I felt like every time I tried to spin her around.
She would push me down, so I didn’t spin her as much as I wanted, but anyway I definitely feel I won the fight handy yeah, absolutely, and sometimes they definitely feel that that I mean sometimes the i i they call it the dirty gritty, like just nasty Style of fights, sometimes people like that, that’s they feel that’s all they can do to win and and if especially, if they had seen someone do it before then in their mindset that was the key to beating you was to be a bully and roughhouse.
You um, and I can tell you from experience – I mean I was a very, not dirty fighter but very aggressive Fighter um and that’s how I beat a lot of the the boxers was because they just couldn’t handle the pressure, but there’s still a difference, though.
Between being dirty and doing dirty tactics versus just straight pressure, but still still it I mean you, you clearly won the fight.
You deserve the victory.
You deserve to be called the the true champion and finally, at that point, yeah.
Thank you yeah during your last fight.
In 1998, you had suffered a torn rotator cuff during training, and then you unfortunately re-injured it during that fight.
After recovering, though, from the injury, you attempted a comeback but decided to retire after seven scheduled fights that fell through um.
Can you tell us a little bit about? Was that just like people didn’t want to fight you or like management um like promoter issues or like what what happened with the seven failed fights? Why was it not working out? Well, that’s a very good question.
Um.
I don’t know if it really had an impact, but it just seemed like you know, none of nobody got paid on the uh, the fight.
I fought Bonnie Canino, nobody on the card got paid and I don’t know if uh that had some kind of impact on on the um on my manager or what happened but um we kept trying to get fights.
I was supposed to fight in Argentina and Germany.
I mean I I trained hard for a lot of fights that fell through and um.
It was just really and I was still injured.
I mean the the shoulder, never thought better, but I I just wanted to defend my title and keep being a champion and uh.
So it’s strange that the end of my career field, climactic, I mean I spent the first four years of my career not being able to fight in the last four of my career not being able to fight, and I um I finally hung up officially hung up My gloves at 35.
um, so you know I hung around a long time trying to get fights.
This didn’t happen very frustrating yeah, very um.
I I did yeah training for fights and going through all that work to have it fall through right like night of or right before and not get a fight.
Is it’s devastating um? You literally give up everything to do training, while you’re working and doing everything else it just takes.
It takes a lot out of you to just get nothing um over and over yeah.
Do you regret giving up at the time or do you feel like retiring was just there was no other option, because there just wasn’t going to be fights well, you know I was training for a fight at one point, and I remember you know I used to Love the training for a fight, I loved the Spartan lifestyle.
I loved the hard regime, the dieting like building your body up to this Crescendo of Fitness, but there was one fight.
I was training for, and I remember out being out running at five in the morning and thinking gosh.
I can’t wait till the day after the fight, and I don’t have to do this and I knew that was the point I needed to retire because yeah I was just um.
You know that’s when you’re when you’re looking past the fight, you know you’re already retired yeah yeah.
If you lose that hunger um and that drive and and determination, there’s there’s no.
Nothing left just you’re.
Just looking for an injury at that point, so yeah that at that point is the best decision to go ahead and hang up the gloves, but you were in being inducted into the international women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2015.
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That’S such a remarkable achievement um! I just recently was inducted, so I I it was phenomenal phenomenal um experience.
How does it feel to have your contributions and your legacy recognizing such a prestigious manner? Oh, it’s wonderful! You know it’s wonderful to uh remembered and to get such a purchase of such a good, honor and um to be uh.
You know remembered and respected, and they and um.
You know it’s really important, because you sometimes you feel everything you’ve done does.
Does anybody really um recognize it, and I that you know that’s the ultimate recognition, um yeah other than campaign to erect a statue of me in my hometown and draw the Ireland I mean that would be definitely another ultimate recognition.
So it’s really wonderful and very prestigious.
Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
I know I yeah and I I think that that’s in the works for you hopefully, but I tried to get in my hometown.
I wanted to get even um.
I I tried talking to like the committee and all of them even to get like a bench or something at the park like with with you know my info put on it.
It didn’t even have to be like a statue or anything, and I can still get it, but I have I have to purchase it um and I still have the funds to purchase it right now, so maybe I’ll start saving for it and maybe eventually before my Time is over on this Earth will get something put in my hometown.
This is a really small Hometown, um, nothing like big or anything, but just something to just like leave that stamp in my hometown, um, not that people there don’t know me because it’s a small town but still uh, just the thought of it is special.
So I totally understand the statue that would be amazing, yeah uh, all of us female, if especially female boxers, have faced a lot of BS in the sport things that we just shouldn’t have to go through.
We shouldn’t have to deal with at all um.
I know you kind of mentioned some things with trainers and stuff.
Can you tell us about some of like the worst experiences that you had to go through um back in your time as a female fighter that you just shouldn’t have had to deal with? Oh gosh? Well, there’s a lot um, but um.
I think I remember mostly what was really hard was they made us? Do it this pelvic exam before all our fights and uh the trouble with the pelvic exam? Is it cost more than what I’d get paid for the fight? So I mean I’d be in debt, you know, I remember they would cost four to five hundred dollars and I might only be getting paid two or three hundred dollars, so it was costing me money to and that that was very difficult.
You know especially um.
You know I was working a full-time job, getting paid minimum wage and um.
You know the struggle just financially was extremely hard um, so that was really tough, but there’s there’s lots of other tough things too um, but that yeah there’s there’s so many things I I’ve talked about.
Several several of mine is at some point or another.
Since I started out the show, I think eventually I’ll probably get through a lot of them, but there’s just so many things that we I try to tell people, especially like the newer Fighters, like things to watch out for little things here and there um.
That are said or done in a certain way that it’s just not okay and I think it’s getting better, but it still it’ll never be.
It’S it’ll never be gone just I we have to deal with so much more yeah.
What are um? What are some of your female role models in boxing? Did you have any females that you um looked up to or that were role models for you yeah? Well, that’s a very good question, um! Well, just because um I was one of the first to come along.
In my time.
All my roll battles were male yeah, so I love Harry mcguigan, of course, was my Irish hero and I love Sugar Ray Leonard and um.
The first one I watched was Jack.
Dempsey so um, so, unfortunately, the best female role models, probably the tennis players.
To be quite honest, you know that’s the that’s the great female athletes we got to see back in that yeah, absolutely so yeah it’s females in any sport was hard to come by yeah.
Absolutely so they were ahead of their time in a way, absolutely absolutely.
How do you think the landscape of women’s boxing has evolved since your time in the sport? What changes and improvements would you like to see in the future uh? Well, I think it’s come along immensely.
Well, I mean, I think, nobody bats an eyelid.
Now, at a female fighter and um, I think you know I just went to Kaylee Taylor’s fight in Ireland and I mean atop the card and packed the stadium.
And I that’s exactly what I envisioned.
You know that that’s what women’s boxing could become and I think um the sky’s the limit with it and I think up it keeps building on itself and building on itself and I think um it’s just going to keep growing and growing, getting better and better.
Absolutely I was going to ask you um, but since you brought up Katie Taylor, I was going to ask you about that.
Anyways um.
She has stated in lots of her interviews that you were.
You know her role model growing up.
She had reached out to you at a young age in her teenage boxing years and you are very welcoming and kind of like mentored her a little bit and then made it to her big fight that she just had at home in Ireland.
Um.
Can you tell us a little bit about Katie Taylor? I’Ve always wanted to have her on the show.
Since I started I’ve reached out to Eddie Herr and I’ve sent emails, I’ve sent her messages.
Hopefully, one of these days I’ll be able to connect with her and bring her on the show.
I would love to have her on the show as well, but can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with Katie and what it was like seeing that such a big fight headlining a major card in Ireland? Well, it’s pretty incredible because, when I think back to when I first met her, she was just very young.
She was only about 12, 11 or 12 and uh.
She actually was um, really really keen and she was asking basically how she could get fights and at the time of course, I had left Ireland, but then I was just home.
Visiting and um was fighting in the states, and I hate to tell this poor young girl that uh there’s no fights in Ireland um, but I just I just remember telling her you know just keep at it and if you keep working at it and getting skillful Enough somebody’s gon na, let you fight, I really felt um, that’s what it would take and um.
You know it’s just incredible that she stuck with it as long did and that she, you know all these years later and she’s headlining a card.
Not only has she already been to the Olympics and won Gold now she’s headlining this huge card in Ireland, and that was that little girl I took those years ago so um yeah and I know what she has put laid out.
Some else is going to build on that even um, it’s just amazing it is, it really is, and I’ve been I’ve been watching things.
It is it’s totally amazing.
I’Ve been watching her since, since the Olympics, her Olympic days um and I’ve always thought she was a tremendous fighter.
She and I knew at that time she would.
She will definitely go down as one of the greatest females of all time, um for sure hands down.
No questions asked um.
I was a little bit upset about the last fight, the the one that you were at um.
I thought for sure hands down.
She would have that fight, no problem, not not to put anything against Cameron.
I just felt like she always adjusts.
So well to everybody that she’s fought.
That’S gave her trouble early on she’s always able to adjust, but I felt like for some odd reason like she was off from the moment she started coming out for the ring walk like I.
I don’t know.
I thought.
Maybe she like was sick or wasn’t feeling well um and then, as soon as the fight started, I felt like she was off um.
She wasn’t throwing the combinations that she used to.
She seemed slower.
Did you notice that too or was or was that was it just that that was just that much of a tough fight for her um yeah, I mean I kind of felt her timing.
Wasn’T there and I thought she was.
She got off with some beautiful combinations, but they were just a little too late.
She was kind of responding more Cameron rather than initiating the combinations herself um and uh.
You know Cameron just kept coming and walking her down, and so it might have been a timing issue and maybe just an off night um and you know sometimes you can go into a fight, and you probably know this yourself in the greatest shape of your life And for some reason something happened where you just don’t feel it.
You know you’re, just not there and fights are like that.
Yeah, hey some.
I mean yeah 100, totally agree with that.
Sometimes you’re just you’re not fully there.
I mean it’s something’s just off um and that’s in anything we do so yeah.
I definitely felt that um.
I know they just announced.
I think the rematch clause that she initiated.
I think I want to say, like November – maybe they’re gon na fight.
I can’t remember for sure, but I think like November, so I’m super excited for the rematch.
I’M sure it’s going to be just as big as the first one um and I I hope that she gets herself all together and comes back stronger than ever and yeah gets that timing down and we we see another um tremendous fireworks show from her because all Her fights have been great great fights, yeah um, so I’m super excited for that one yeah another great one for sure yeah.
Absolutely.
I can’t wait for that.
One! I’M super excited um.
I feel like that one and then I don’t know if she’ll, if she’ll do the rematch with Amanda, maybe eventually I know Amanda’s kind of said at this point it’s a hit or miss, but that would be another good one too, but I definitely felt like she Put on a great show for that fight and I I feel like she pulled off the victory for sure on that fight, even though people have seen it both ways.
But if I’ve went back and watched it multiple times and Katie won that, aside from the one big round that Serrano had um, I feel like she definitely won a majority of the other rounds, even though they were close um.
So but it was a great fight.
All her fights are great, so I’m super excited for that one, but back to you um, since retirement, though you have become a trainer, I believe at Raging Cajun gym in Lafayette, Louisiana um.
Can you tell us a little bit about your your experience with coaching? I coached for a long long time, um up till you know.
In 2019 my coach Beau died and um.
We decided to shut the gym down and then I moved away.
So I’m not near any boxing clubs at the moment, but um I coached for a long long time, and the reason I did is because I knew I needed to fill the void of boxing myself.
I didn’t want to kind of get pulled back into fighting when I really wasn’t at my best anymore and it’s easy to do.
I mean it’s it’s hard to walk away from something.
You’Ve poured your whole life into so I um started coaching and it was super rewarding and wonderful and um.
It wasn’t just all the champions We produced.
It was just good good citizens.
Just you know trying to guide young people into a better life and mostly believing in themselves.
That was the biggest thing and the the thing I enjoyed passing on more than anything was teaching people how to kind of make the most of their self and believe in their self yeah.
Absolutely you also um to my knowledge, though, you have a memoir that you co-wrote called my call to the ring, A Memoir of a girl who yearns to box that was published in 2012.
I would absolutely love to get my hands on a copy of that.
Um.
Can you tell us a little bit about the book and where we can purchase it yeah? Well, you can get it on booklocker.
com or on amazon.
com.
Okay and um yeah um, took me four years to write the book and it was a real um, very kind of the cathartic experience.
It was tough, though it was tough, going back into all that real painful stuff and um.
It was a kind of a grueling experience.
I didn’t expect writing a book to be grueling, but it actually was, but I just felt I had to be as courageous and honest with the book.
As I was with the boxing so um, I wrote a kind of a a tell-all and about my back story and everything and not just about boxing, but what was going on in my in my personal life as well.
Okay, I’m definitely gon na have to get a get a copy of it for sure I did not know until I was looking up some things on you for the interview that you had a memoir.
I don’t know why, but I didn’t know there was one so I’ll definitely be getting a copy of that for sure um other than Katie Taylor.
I know impresses, you very much.
Are there any other females in today’s era that you really enjoy or impressed by? Oh, I mean I’m impressed by so many of them um.
You know I try to watch them every chance I get and um I mean.
There’S, there’s many many and there’s more coming up.
Absolutely so that’s the excitement um, but I mean I enjoy watching them all.
You know there’s a lot of potential out there and of course you know the greats are are fighting right now, like Carissa and uh Katie yeah, you know, I mean and um we got a great Irish Irish Fighters too.
Coming up so um nice.
I mean it’s just gon na keep and getting better and um and uh.
You know, but I’m not surprised people ask me.
Oh, are you surprised by how great women’s boxing is now known? I’M not surprised it’s always been doing exactly.
Yes, exactly yeah.
It’S always been that great.
I do feel like sometimes looking back like in your fights and even like my generation of fights.
There was a lot more like gruesome Wars.
Then then, we’ve seen not that they’re, not amazing, spectacular fights now um, but I think the level of because they’re able to train full-time as a boxer, A lot of them now and we work full-time jobs.
Um had our kids and really went to the gym.
Maybe a couple hours a day because that’s all there was time for so we weren’t really fully trained.
I I’d hate to see what kind of beasts we would have been had we been able to train all day three times a day like they’re getting to now.
So it’s phenomenal, but I feel like maybe their skills are showcased even more because they’re able to fully commit to a boxing career um and not have to work elsewhere, some of them, so the fights are more technical, um, they’re, still action-packed, and I love watching female Boxing way more than mailboxing, because there’s just so much action in them and they’re more exciting.
But I feel like back in the our eras and like your air in my area, there were so many like gruesome, just dog fights and – and I haven’t seen a lot today – yeah that way now that you say it all right yeah, it was definitely gruesome, but I think you know the women back then that you know you sacrifice.
I mean all boxers sacrifice boxing’s a massive sacrifice, but I think when you’re you know slogging away at a full-time job.
Five days a week and you’re only weekend, you’re you’re trying to travel to a fight and fight and get back to work by Monday morning I mean you know it’s.
It does bring out a a different kind of person in you, yeah, absolutely and the fights for sure yeah.
I totally agree.
I totally agree.
I’M still waiting and, like I said, the fights are still phenomenal today, like they’re, very exciting and very action-packed.
I’M just waiting till we get one of those just really all-out Wars.
Like I don’t know it’s coming, I’m just waiting until that match-up hits and I’m gon na be super excited to see that um, not that there hasn’t been something but like just that.
I don’t know you know what I mean um.
Can you share any advice or words of wisdom for the aspiring female boxers who are facing obstacles or that just want to strive to make their Mark in the sport um I mean, I would just say, keep working and learning the skills showing what you can do And you’ll you’ll get that opportunity.
Remember it’s still a man’s game in the sense that you have to have a man-like mentality.
You can’t go into boxing thinking that you’ll be should be treated differently because you’re, a girl.
You have to have a masculine mentality for a sport like that.
So that’s the kind of thinking you have to have absolutely that that’s a hundred percent, true 100.
True um! Is there anything that we didn’t discuss that you would like to discuss or let people know that I might have missed that? Like sticks out to you? Oh, I mean I I I can’t think of anything at the moment, because you asked a lot of really good questions.
We covered a lot of ground and um.
No, I just uh want to tell people.
You know I’m really grateful for the women boxers of today that are carrying what we did forward, because you know, if we’d have done all that work and broke all that ground and they weren’t doing it now it would have been kind of wasted.
It would have you know, we’d kind of found out and and wouldn’t have left something behind, so I’m just grateful that they’re doing what they’re doing and and bringing it forward and bringing it to a higher platform that it deserves absolutely yeah.
I’Ve always stated always um in everything I do if it wasn’t for the arrows, like your era and everybody before putting that little brick in the road like all the way up through and through, and through I mean we had to just keep going if it would Have fell off, we would have never been anywhere, but all of us working together.
You know generation after generation continuing to to push forward and and build that path of bricks on that road, to get it to where it was to allow the Olympics for women um and to allow people to be able to be at the height of their careers.
Today, it’s it’s phenomenal to see, and I’ve always said, though I re I it makes you want to come out, I’m getting I’m 42 now.
So I’m past that time I think, but for the last I don’t know five six years that it’s really starting to grow grow.
I’M like man, I would have just killed for one fight like that with that exposure and all of that and and the pay not that all of them are making pay, but some of them are getting million dollar paydays three figure paydays, I mean the more the Most I made was four thousand, so I I can’t – and that was for my WBC Title.
So I’m just amazed and I’m like man.
It could have been like five years earlier or ten years earlier.
I think I’ve been out for 10 years um, but I’m super happy for everybody that it’s our work, everybody all of our work, is paid off um and that it is got to the point where it is today um.
But without you and everybody before you and everybody after you, it wouldn’t be there at all.
So I I for those that pay tribute to the Past boxers.
I I’m so humble and grateful that they do um.
I feel like there are some that kind of forgot about the past um, but a lot of them still pay tribute.
Um Katie, frequently talks about people you from the past and people from the past um.
You know building the way for them um.
So hopefully that continues generation after Generation Um, because just like in the men’s game, there’s there is greatest of all time in every era like they there’s gon na go down and you’re definitely gon na go down forever and ever as one of the greatest of all Time, um, even though you you feel like you, didn’t get all the wins you want.
I feel the same way we didn’t get them all um, but you’re still gon na you’re, still one of the greatest to ever lace up the gloves for sure.
Well, thank you and congratulations on your Hall of Fame.
Thank you yeah it was.
It went by so fast.
I said I still am still trying to soak it in I’m still trying to soak it all in um I’ll be at the inductions.
This year, though, um Sue invited me back for the anniversary as a special guest, so I’ll, be there again this year.
Are you gon na? Are you gon na make it for the for the anniversary? No, I’m not sure about that.
Um I’ll have to look into it, so I have my old son now so my life now, okay, well, maybe maybe we’ll cross paths at the inductions.
That would be phenomenal to meet you in person um, if not I’m just honored, to have had the opportunity to speak with you tonight and you come on here and tell your story.
Um do tell everybody, though, where they can follow you on social media, so they can stay connected and you know see what’s going on with you, okay! Well, I sure appreciate you having me on.
Thank you yeah, absolutely um.
Do you have a on social media? Is it just your private page or do you have like a boxing page people could follow yeah the um public page is um Deirdre gogerty, Morrison, okay, so everybody you guys can go, follow you’re there see what’s going on, follow any news or anything that’s happening.
Um and yeah thanks again for coming, it’s truly been an honor um, hopefully one day we’ll get Katie in here to continue the Irish.
You know background and push the push the Irish speaking over there um, but we’ll see what happens.
Hopefully, hopefully I’ll connect with her one day and I’m super honored to have you and maybe we’ll see you in October fingers crossed you never know yeah.
Oh, you never know all right.
You have a great night and it’s been a pleasure.
I um we’ll talk to you another day, all right.
Thank you for helping me well, everyone.
Thank you.
So much for joining me tonight on no punches pulled with no mercy, hey Angie.
I see you in the comments.
What’S up champ, how are you I’m super excited for your fight coming up, um and everything that’s going on with you um.
I see you over there.
I appreciate you always tuning in um.
I hope everybody enjoy the show tonight.
Um amazing amazing, amazing, icon in the sport, definitely one of the best to ever lace them up um.
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