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EPISODE: Episode 1
No Punches Pulled with No Mercy is back with an all-new episode featuring an exclusive interview with Yvonne Trevino, AKA The Terminator. In this episode, No Mercy will get up close and personal with Yvonne as she shares her story. We will discuss her battles inside and outside the ring. No Punches Pulled with No Mercy – don’t miss it!
Come talk women’s boxing and boxing, in general, each week with me, Brooke “No Mercy” Dierdorff-Millbrook, a retired Professional WBC Champion, inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022. Whether interviewing pioneers or boxers beginning their careers, we’ll be talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of female boxing. With legendary boxers from the past, we’ll uncover and explore all the things we went through and dealt with piece by piece, in fact from each generation, paving the way to where boxing is today for women in this sport. It’s time that everyone knows what it took and what we went through to get from the beginning to where we are today. You will enjoy our debates of great fights and our analysis of upcoming fights; be assured, you name it, on my show we will discuss it! Let’s talk! No Punches Pulled With No Mercy putting it all on the table!
#WomenBoxers #WomenInBoxing #GirlBoxers #LadiesOfTheRing #FemaleBoxers #SheBoxes #BoxingWomen #WomenBoxingMatters #WomenFighters #WomenBoxingHistory
Transcribed
Foreign [ Music ] Trevino um, since we had some malfunctions last week on Tuesday um.
Some of you may know who I am for those of you that don’t my name is Brooke Millbrook, formerly known as Brooke no mercy dear dwarf in the boxing world.
I am a retired, WBC, uh lightweight champion, also a 2022 International women’s Boxing Hall of Famer.
I personally have been through some good, a lot of bad and a lot of BS in the sport of women’s boxing um.
This is my platform where we talk to talk and walk the walk.
We want to bring out the truth in women’s boxing um, so you’re going to hear some interviews from some pioneers of the sport past boxers current boxers, even future female boxers.
This is where we get down and dirty and speak the truth on what takes place behind the scenes in women’s boxing.
You definitely don’t want to miss an episode, and you definitely don’t want to miss this one, as we recap with Yvonne Trevino.
She has such a such an awesome story, um to tell us which we started off last Tuesday, but we had a lot of cutting out and just not a very good connection.
So we did cut that show short and we are back redoing that recapping that so you guys can really hear her true potential and her story um.
You don’t want to miss this one so make sure you tune in and get the full scoop here today.
Welcome in Yvonne, hey Brooke, hey all right, so, let’s, let’s do this again! I think we we got everything set.
We got a good signal today.
I think we should be good to go um and I did have a bunch of people personally message me saying how upset they were, that the the feed wasn’t very good, so they were looking forward to us redoing and reposting the video.
So there are people that were asking me, so that’s good news um.
So I guess we’ll just quickly kind of recap: like the things we started talking about, we’ll go through those just because they couldn’t really get the full scoop of what you were saying fully with the cutting in and out um.
So first I guess we’ll just rewind and just recap shortly about the beginning of your journey, your childhood, your upbringing and how you got into um, martial arts and boxing cool.
My fourth grade teacher was a really good um motivator at a young age.
She uh solved athletic talent and begged my parents to let me play in school, but of course my parents wanted us kids to become missionaries, so you know I get their struggle too.
They wanted to protect us and and um uh.
You know just they come from a religious background, but uh I couldn’t play sports and it was a really it was a bummer so to say the least, oh yeah I mean that was the one thing that like really kept me just so motivated.
Well, you know, by the time we were teenagers and just my bro, both my brother and I left home um.
We both kind of went our separate ways.
You know he he became a young parent pretty early and I was out and about um.
You know trying to snap out of uh just leaving home and just trying to get back on my feet, and you know you learn right away being young, dumb and naive that there’s just sometimes you can’t trust friends that you think are friends and uh.
I found myself in a situation where I was uh at it, a place where someone had slipped a roofie in my drink and it knocked me out, and I had no idea where I woke up and what happened um.
It was really a difficult circumstance to deal with and then on top of getting myself out of there I didn’t go, seek the counseling so that really affected me in such a way to the point to where I was just um.
I found it real hard to deal with and I was drinking a lot and just really spiraling down a major depression, but the one thing that kept me going, of course, was Sports.
So I got back into high school sports, got picked up on scholarships, basketball, softball cross country um, and that’s where I met my daughter’s father and uh.
He was a one of the softball coaches as well from one of the college teams, and we got married and all of a sudden everything just changed, and I found myself in this relationship that was very abusive where it just uh.
I think it might have been a cultural thing, I’m not sure what reasons or excuses I definitely won’t make any, but he found everything I that I would wanted to do or anything that um well just to explain a minor.
I mean an explanation of what an example of what I was going through is again uh.
I knew how to fix my own cars.
I mean my brother and I knew how to change builds when they were easier to work with change oil, alternators, simple stuff, and when we were married I always wanted to be out there with him.
While he worked on cars – and you know handing him tools and whatnot and um, but he felt that, of course, A Woman’s Place is the kitchen and again the same thing we were battling and that at that time women’s boxing is just.
It was real hard to get past male chauvinism of the industry, so yeah and trying to help him out and he says well, do you want to get down underneath here and and change the fuel pump and, I said sure – and he told me what bolts and Nuts, to loosen up – and next thing – I know the fuel fell on my eyes and he just thought that was so funny.
I ran in the house and tried to rinse the fuel out, and I thought, oh, my God, I’m going to be blind now and be able to see what what the hell am.
I even in this marriage, for because all we did was argue and debate and I couldn’t wear a shirt that had one button unbuttoned and then it was like drama.
So eventually you know I just ended up saying felt.
You know that I wasn’t uh.
This is not going to work and decided to get a divorce, but it became a real bitter divorce and child custody battle, and everywhere I moved or went it was scrutinized to the point we had to get CPS involved and you know I played by the rules.
I had to make sure um that during our visitations or if we went to their location, that the relationship between my daughter and I was pretty much out in the open and uh everywhere I went I had I had so many offers to go.
Train a with Bonnie Camino at her gym, uh.
Of course, the gym that I was working at fairchex, moita and Camp were both my daughter and I were living closed due to some type of description with the current management.
So I kind of find my found myself here in Arizona looking for a pretty good team that would that could train me and that I could rely on to negotiate my fights here in Arizona.
The promoters were no better.
I had promoters that weren’t paying the fighters, and then there was courts, uh um battles over that the same promoter uh and my manager in Vegas were arguing over one simple plane ticket, and I couldn’t take this fight because it was a battle between a plane ticket Or taking a two-hour drive to get over here for one of my fights in Arizona, and these two guys were fighting over something that I just wanted to fight, I needed to stay busy um.
That was pretty much the name of the game.
It was really difficult to stay busy yeah.
This manager screwed up my fight against Jolene Blackshear uh.
By not getting my weights uh this the proper weight and telling me it was 117 when really it was.
I was fighting flyweight 112.
So when I arrived at that ifba match against Julian Blackshear, I had to drop five pounds and of course I went back to the room.
Layered up turned on the heater and shadow box.
Until I dropped five pounds, um it it was miserable.
I mean there was a lot of mistakes made um.
Oh, what else um trying to think what else we went over um that I mean that’s good start there for the beginning, um you first started off um doing kickboxing um tell us a little bit about your kickboxing titles and your um kickboxing career, okay, um.
I’Ve had a couple of kickboxing matches: uh, I’m 9-3 on on my kickboxing, nine wins and three losses, and I fought for an Arizona State title.
The United States title – and I remember going to the local um uh professional fighter, Michael call Bahar Hall here in Arizona, and I kept bringing all my belts to him and his brother Danny, who was his manager at the time.
Uh hey.
I won this Arizona State kickboxing title and women’s boxing is coming around it’s starting to become very popular.
Can you guys help me get sponsorships, I’d love to work out at the gym and they Danny at that time? Uh just thought: well, it’s not really going on anywhere and of course, they’re thinking if they can’t get their 10 percent cut out of you know, cornering me or being there for a fight, then obviously they don’t they’re, not motivated.
So I just stayed busy.
I had a I already had one, my uh International Muay Thai title against Kim Messer Kim Messer and I both fought originally uh for the iska title and she she beat me on that title and then we had an international Muay Thai title several months later to Fight while this was going on um, she was uh, also fighting flyweight and was had a opportunity to fight Regina Hallman in Germany, but that was canceled and she found out.
It was because the ifba in 1995 went came here to the United States to the Aladdin Hotel in Vegas and they fought for the first world title wibf women’s boxing title so uh, that’s the fight.
I won against Regina homich and it was an interesting fight because in the end she said it was.
It was not her day and that it was just luck and I remember Bridget Riley commentating on that fight and she put two cents in there and said.
You know when you fight it’s, not luck, it’s skill yeah, but she found it really hard to accept the loss and when we thought about it or looking back on it, she had the media, all kinds of people um that I guess sponsors and she had a Lot of skin in the game and the loss affected her um after the fight.
I remember both picking up our hands and saying we were both Champions here, but my business concern is.
I was realizing that, even though she suffered a loss, look wibf is what one out of this.
We need to make sure that we presented ourselves in it and made it a draw for the audience to want to see something like that again.
Yes, it was uh interesting to be able to um to have that uh World title yes, yeah, absolutely um yeah! That was a big fight and she just at that particular point in time.
Just didn’t even know what hit her like.
They weren’t expecting that at all.
I mean you were probably the warm-up fight um, it’s supposed to be like a warm-up fight, um, but that’s why they always tell us.
Never Overlook.
Never underestimate any opponent, because everybody’s coming to win well, you don’t have to resume anybody, but right sometimes people Overlook people and that’s probably what she did there was was overlooking you and that wasn’t the right answer at that moment in time.
So, whoever ever since that fight Brooke um the rematch, never fruitioned, uh right after that him Messer fought her.
Everybody fought everybody in the flyweight was fighting in Germany and it just always went to the scorecards and always went to Regina’s favor, but the whole time from winning that title 1995 to about 1998.
We were Jimmy Finn at the time.
Didn’T do anything for the flyweight division, which was my division, I’m not sure about the other fighters in the diff, their weight categories.
There was no fights happening and the ifba was coming on the scene and I wanted to stay busy.
So I accepted uh to run for to fight a title fight for the International Federation of women’s boxing, the ifba organization, and Jimmy Finn said no.
You can’t do that you’re exclusively the wibf and I was like wow.
You know the guys have all these organizations that they can fight for what is the problem and the only time I ever re was able to defend that title was one time for ABC Wide World Sports against uh, Brenda Rouse and she was Tommy Morrison spider in Under his stable, so that was the only fight, and there was a previous fight before that.
We’D asked Jimmy Finn to help uh sanction and it was against Delia Gonzalez on the undercard of uh Bob arum and Jesse James leija undercard, and that didn’t fruition.
So I just don’t understand what the reasoning was why he never kept us busy here on the flyweight here in the United States, but in Germany I mean Regina was being built up.
All her fights were being built up, so I assume it was to eventually uh.
Perhaps you don’t gain a rematch, but Dennis Diaz wibf over didn’t get a hold of me until about mid late 1998 and said you know: do you want to fight come back in and fight for the wibf title or redefend it, and I said well honestly: I’m Not even that way anymore, I had accepted the ifba, took the bantamweight bout or fight and uh uh.
I was stripped of that tide and I said so, are you guys officially giving it back and he was saying yeah, you know we’ll we’ll give it back, but I said well, I’m no longer that weight, I’m just going to go ahead and stick with just one Uh weight, category and that’ll be the bantamweight, so I declined but um yeah.
I mean things like that.
Just really kind of stops, the momentum.
You need you to keep the momentum going right, right and um.
I would I mean most.
People would have assumed that, after the you beat homage for the title that you would have fought Messer instead of Regina fighting her right after that right, you would think Kim would have wanted to fight you because you had, but instead they stuck with uh with Regina.
Even though she didn’t have the title so that that’s kind of confusing when you’re looking back those are missed opportunities, you know you have to while the iron’s hot, that’s when you got to strike yeah exactly um.
So I know, as we discussed before, you had several issues with um like managers or promoters, and things like that and signing contracts with people um.
Can you kind of retouch on those issues that you had with those people and what was going on behind the scenes with all that stuff, gotcha yeah, I uh signed a uh.
Once the uh fairtex Muay Thai Camp had dispersed all the fighters went to all their different locations.
I found myself having to stay here in Arizona because I was going through a court battle, so I couldn’t really leave town and I wasn’t allowed to leave the state of Arizona with my daughter because we didn’t set up the paperwork that way I kind of failed To make that um thinking ahead of time, that you know that I was going to need to make sure it was legal and whatnot and um.
So I just signed a contract in in Vegas and I’d stay there, and then I would come back periodically and make sure I spent time with my daughter um in in the meantime uh.
This manager was a friend that was uh there in the corner of uh.
My wibf title match uh.
He was a friend of my trainer, so I trusted that this person was was um, knew that knew the industry and would be able to help manage my fights.
But all I found was that he was getting in arguments over a plane ticket and not rather than driving, to Arizona for one of my fights.
You know him and the promoter were fighting over a simple plane, plane ticket and that I couldn’t take the fight um.
Then then, him and Jimmy uh Finn got into debates and arguments over sanctioning that uh Delia Gonzalez fight and I’m sitting there listening to Jimmy Fenn talk about how we weren’t marketable, that after that wiba fight.
When you look at one of the pitchers there, we all had our warm-up suits.
We all had our hair was wet pulled back.
Some of us had baseball caps on and, of course, we don’t look, um, presentable or marketable at the time we just got done fighting but yeah you weren’t, going to a beauty pageant.
You were.
You were fighting, no, no um.
So when he made that comment that we weren’t marketable, we looked like we couldn’t tell the difference between little boys and and women, and you know after that I started making sure I presented myself marketable.
I I dressed up nice for my weigh-ins and that could be a double-edged sword too, because then we weren’t taken serious in the industry yeah.
It was just the way they were promoting at that time, uh even the commentating.
I remember having a uh uh.
What’S his name, uh Ray Boom Boom Mancini was commenting on both Bridget and Riley and I’s fight, and he said I don’t know.
If I I, like the idea of my wife being able to tell me you better, take out the garbage and that if I don’t that she’d be able to beat me up and send me out there, you know just talking about something as negative as that during The match broadcast say something more positive, but it was funny because I met with uh Ray Boom Boom Mancini here in Arizona for a fundraiser for the boys and girls club and boy he apologized, he felt so bad, and he said you know I’m okay.
With Title Nine and you, ladies having your your chance at fighting – and he goes, I actually think it’s great and I I totally promoted, I think, and it’s wonderful and it it just it just takes time.
It’S unfortunate that it’s taking it’s taking now this generation to kind of pick up where we left off and bring it to the the level that it needs to be.
At this point, yeah exactly exactly um.
You also had worked with the realtor.
That’S not the same person right.
Yes, he’s he’s the same person.
Okay, same person, okay, yeah! I was thinking.
Let me give you an example of some of the stuff I was going through.
It’S just um.
You know I I you know.
I kept my personal life.
Pretty private and he was aware that I was going through a custody battle and he he was aware that I had a partner and my partner was driving out there every other weekend to Vegas to spend time with me.
While I was still training – and it was constant drama with him now – because he wanted to understand why, after I got a divorce, why I decided to turn into a lesbian and now have a partner, and really it was none of his business.
You you and I have a really a agreement with boxing a professional agreement boxing, not my personal life, and he I’d come home, sometimes from work or after training and he’d have this porn on on on the television and he’d say well, do you find the men’s Body, like does not, does that not turn you on and you know, do you have problem with me? I go I.
I said I really don’t it’s just I’m not interested it’s not something that you know.
I just found it real yeah yeah I mean you didn’t, owe him any explanation whatsoever, and that was a total inappropriate question for him to ask, but he wanted as a fight as his fighter, I guess and as a manager he wanted to get to know what Made me tick, but you know you’re bringing up something that has nothing to do right and I eventually um.
You know after uh, after that I just ended up packing up and leaving.
But I left without my my passport and paperwork and photos and he kept all of that and I remember I had a fight in Japan, a kickboxing fight that I was going to take in between my boxing matches, because I was doing both and he says I Don’T have it and I says you know I couldn’t get it fast enough to get out there to Japan and then he was claiming that he I owed him three thousand dollars for several months of staying there and I had to end up going back to the Back Nevada boxing commission and have Mark Ratner review the um the contract, because he’s the guy that approved it and asked me, are you sure, you’re you’re ready to sign this kind of contract and then we had to sever it? Obviously so we went to court and finally uh it took about it, took a a an agreement of 800, a gallon of it.
So after several fights, I got out of that contract and I just didn’t sign anything after that, not even with the ifba – and I remember the ifba wanted to sign a lot of us girls to be a, I guess, exclusive or I’m not sure what the deal Was but I just said, no I’ll fight, uh and agree to dollar amounts for per round, but not any type of uh um contract to be exclusive after the lesson with the wibf yeah.
But at that time, because I didn’t – I was finding out that I wasn’t getting invited and promoted as one of the other gals that did sign.
So it was.
It was a double-edged sword for me.
You know if I stayed exclusive um.
If I stayed a free agent or independent uh, then you know I didn’t get the best promotions and there was times where I, when I did go to the ifba, you know you I I get the I get.
The game promoters have to have enough funds to have an escrow for insurances and to cover everyone, judges, the commission, a lot of expense goes out and then, at the end, it trickles down to the fighters right but to sit there and get all these limousines.
Or these huge expenses I started thinking uh there was a limousine that was waiting for us one time and I just felt so uncomfortable getting in.
I remember telling you about it that yeah the team was on the bus and this limousine was parked up front and I was like wow.
That’S a nice limousine.
They go.
Oh, that’s that’s for Trevino’s camp and I was like no way you’re like I didn’t want to go.
I told my family, you know what I’m gon na go get in the the bus with the rest of the fighters and they’re like no Yvonne.
It’S yours.
Just just take it and I’m sitting here thinking, but why why this expense, when all of this could have trickled down to the fighters? You know we all probably could have got an extra hundred out of it.
So you know I started questioning yeah.
I know you guys want to promote women’s boxing but promote it in other aspects where you’re getting um the media and the uh public more involved, not the stuff, that’s going to take us to the hotel and back so I just was really torn about that.
That really got me yeah yeah, absolutely um yeah I mean sometimes you’re.
I mean you’re thankful for it and you’re like yeah.
This is cool, but at the same time you’re like I could have just like, we could have just made more money yeah.
We could have so a little stretch there with it.
Nice nice thought nice yeah, it was, but it didn’t serve any purpose of anything.
Do you see what I’m saying it would have been better if you would have promoted the women with with that kind of income versus sinking it into something? That’S a little extra money in the pocket would have went a long way yeah, it always does um.
So, let’s see you I’m trying to go in order again, since I don’t have my notes um after so after the wiba win um, we always touched on the Kim Messer thing you should have been next in line for Kim.
We talked about that um um in 1997, is when you fought Suzanne riccio for the ifba title um and the struggles with getting that by may.
We talked about that with the issues with the wibf, not warning you to fight for the ifba um.
So there was the struggle there um we talked about Bridget Riley.
We talked about her um.
Well, I do want to bring up a point.
Remember about the point, with Susanna Ricky on major that when you have a referee that comes to your um dressing room when you’re getting your hands wrapped and they’re, explaining the rules that listen to their commands.
If they tell you to go to the neutral Corner, go to the neutral corner, make sure your your hits and shots are above the waist um.
If I tell you to break break and uh, we had the referee Mitch Halpern at the time, the late Mitch Halpern great great referee, and he explained it very well.
He even he even mentioned.
If I see that you’re in the corner or against the ropes – and you don’t answer to after about 10 punches, I’m gon na assume something’s wrong and that you’re hurt and I’m gon na stop the fight.
And I remember the rules and I thought to myself: wow they’re being way overprotective, but you know I get it.
I got the assignment um.
What happened in the ring is Suzanne reached your major after one of the during one of the rounds she decided to either take a break um, maybe to test a little bit of her skills, wanted to see how much pun you know power.
I had behind my punches, but I just kept firing away, creating holes and she didn’t answer after 10 punches.
So I just kept continuing and I guess Mitch Halpern stepped in stopped the fight and thought that she was in trouble.
So obviously that was a controversial fight that was left where we both I wanted a rematch as well and so did Suzanne, but again that’s how strict and how over cautious being yeah at the time yes um.
We had also talked about another fight.
I can’t remember right off top my head, but another fight that you felt was controversial.
Um, I’m trying to remember.
Do you remember which other one besides the Rio fight that you were talking about last time, Suzanne riccio, major um, Jolene Blackshear, where I lost five? Try to drop five pounds yeah that was right, yeah, where you had to lose weight because the Arizona, the Arizona promoter that was helping my uh, my aunt and the team uh was negotiating the fight with the ifba in the in uh.
I was told I was all I needed to be was 117 pounds and I thought: okay, that’s close to the bantamweight fight, so, okay, I can handle that.
But in reality, when I showed up it was a flyweight bout, so I needed to be 112 and when I got there, there’s like no excuses, you can say, and then on top of that I didn’t want my opponent to know holy [ __ ], I’m going To go back to my hotel room and try to lose five pounds before the weigh-ins that’s hard.
Oh, it was the worst nightmare you could possibly think of, but I did it.
I needed the money I wasn’t gon na make any excuses.
I didn’t want the disqualification on my part, and I just had to do what I had to do.
Go go make weight and I made the wait and it was just controversial uh.
She suffered a uh, a cut under the eye due to an edible shot um.
She was a shorter fighter and honestly I was trying to survive and get out of the her way, and you were literally right in between that time.
She came underneath my elbow if you ever look at that fight and she suffered a cut in the eye and they stopped the fight um.
With both camps upset, saying you know, you should have just let it go on, but again um.
That was another controversial fight.
I never had the opportunity to rematch again and when I stopped and looked back at all the records, the flyweight division at that time was having a hard time getting bouts.
I mean she was like for a year and a half before uh some of her bouts.
There was a lot of time frame in between so again both organizations wibf ifba needed to keep Fighters busy.
So she even struggled with getting bouts in between I mean a year and a half off.
Sometimes that’s a lot.
You need to stay busy.
It would be great to have a fight like maybe every six months, yeah yeah, that’s that was the flyweight division at that time got you um.
So I know that the ifba, that is Barbara, butt tricks or not, or the wi kipedia ba, not the Ife.
I think it’s two, the wiva was Barbara buttrick’s baby.
That was like her thing.
Um and I know looking back like most people know some people do some people, don’t about Barbara butcher being like one of like the very first like one of the very first ever um, and not very many people, know her story, but you were obviously worked with Her one-on-one and knew her well.
Can you give everybody like a little backstory on her yeah, Barbara buttrick back in the early days of I don’t want to age her too bad, but I think it was the 30s or 40s she was fighting at that time and for that era she was definitely One of the Pioneers for women’s boxing and there’s actually some ladies prior to that, once they start doing research, um Sue Fox on her WBA and network, has a lot of that information on it.
So definitely look that up on the women’s boxing archive Network for a lot of this information, but Barbara buttrick was one of the pioneers and this wibf women’s international boxing Federation was her baby.
She put it together and Jimmy Finn was her um, CEO or marketer or negotiator um.
He had a couple of hats that he was working with there.
She started this so when we think how far that came by the time 1995 came around her being the Pioneer she was.
She had her barriers, they looked at her belts as circus acts and it wasn’t a circus act.
She was serious.
She needed the the the the men of that era or that time frame the boxing industry to take her seriously, and it was hard for her to find opponents yes, but to be put on a sideshow.
Uh pedestal was just terrible, but again that’s the strides that this industry has made and for her to put this first, women’s uh international boxing Federation together was was awesome of her to have done that, and it was definitely a um.
A mile marker for all of us, it wasn’t just a um, wasn’t just how do I say it uh.
You know that we’re not the only ones it it came around at the perfect time.
It was starting to um, give us notoriety and I do want to actually that time broke uh.
If you remember it was April, 20th, 1995.
, the day before uh the bouts uh, Barbara buttrick wibf, made sure Life Magazine all the media was there to cover the fights and on the 19th, that’s when the Oklahoma bombing happened and all the media left left.
The boxing event, so we really didn’t, have a lot of coverage, but you get circumstances like that where it’s ready to be put out in public and then something happens and it doesn’t uh fruition.
Yeah same thing same thing with the ifba.
When I went to go fight and um in Mississippi against Suzanne riccio major again, they pulled the media.
Together, Life Magazine ringside, all these magazines, the Associated Press, everybody was going to be there and um.
They were there.
Obviously they interviewed us individually and then a couple weeks after our bout, we were supposed to be on the cover of Life magazine.
Let me see if I can find that and Princess Diana dies right and it ends up being that she takes the cover of the magazine yeah instead, instead, so we were just there, we were just running into barriers, it was just uh, Clarissa Shield, Savannah Marshall, fight Um, you know all the it’s similar to that I mean.
Obviously it was different, different back in the day, but all the build up to that fight and then the queen died and they had to postpone it another.
Like I don’t know, two three three four.
Two three four weeks because I mean they were over there like head – did the weigh-ins and everything and then she passed, and so then they had shut down all sports over there.
So then they everybody had to go home and wait another.
What I don’t know, two or four weeks or something um and that’s got to be hard too, because I could only imagine all the work you do for the camp and then you have to go back in Camp after the weigh-in, yeah and fight two.
Three weeks later so similarities there um not necessarily that they didn’t deserve the spotlight, but just barriers that got in the way of him um huge epic moments for women, because that was a huge one of the very first huge fights for women’s boxing today.
Um at the O2 London I mean it was, it was epic so, but there was, it always seems like there’s something that happens right when you’re about to get another big step, something happens and it like yeah um.
So it’s definitely similar to that.
But you got to keep doing.
I mean this generation, this generation yeah this generation’s pushing for it.
Um I’ve noticed that it’s kind of slowed down and UFC has taken over but um.
The ladies have to stick together.
What’S wonderful is um Sue Fox and Marianne Owen called me up one time and said: um Yvonne, you have the opportunity to uh uh the Ray Kroc ring and Joan Croc McDonald’s and the Salvation Army was donating a community center here in Arizona, so they uh put Me connected me with the historian, who needed photos of all the fighters out of Arizona.
They were going to put our pictures in the on the gym wall and for one of the grand openings for the facility, and I made contact with them, and you know the things that uh that again Sue Fox and Marianne Owen are doing they’re supporting the fighters.
They’Re doing everything they can to make connections to help us Network um without them my gosh, we wouldn’t have been here and then for them to put together this Boxing Hall of Fame.
I mean I really commend them, because these ladies, are carrying on the torch they’re.
Helping us move forward and they didn’t have the chance to get titles back in the day, but Sue Fox recently was acknowledged for the fact of of her hard work and effort and sacrifice she made to get us women out there.
Yeah go ahead, go ahead um! I was gon na just say yes, with Sue Sue, Fox um I mean she’s been even for me like she was there from the very beginning of my amateur days like all the way through, and I don’t and she does that for all everybody.
It’S not just one fighter, it’s all of the fighters um and without her there.
I don’t think anybody would really know about women’s boxing at all um, because she is like the one and only that actually you can find anything you need to know about women’s boxing on her website.
She supports everybody, um win or lose, or what? What’S your record or whatever I mean all of it, um and she is just a very big advocate for women’s boxing and I’m glad she got noticed um with the international women’s boxes Hall of Fame.
You know because we couldn’t ever get in the hall of fame um, so she allowed women to be able to get in the Hall of Fame and now just recently they’re starting to allow women into you know the the Boxing Hall of Fame uh, but only like Within the last couple years, um after her, so yes just a huge shout out, I think I shout out every week to sue Fox on my show yeah I think, like literally every week we talk about her um, but it’s because without her I don’t think anybody Would know anything about women’s boxing because yeah yeah they’re going to celebrate her 25 years of the industry, of keeping this going at this up and coming October, one where I am where I’m also going to be there as well.
So I yes, I’m going to be there too, so yeah yeah, if it wasn’t for uh Sue Fox, like I said I wouldn’t have been uh on the um part of this gym this community center here in Arizona.
What came up is I almost lost the opportunity to be on that wall and be uh represented.
There is because I remember a while back both uh myself and Mia St John were asked to pose for Playboy.
I turned it down and Mia St John accepted it and the uh his the boxing historian here in Arizona, said that the Salvation Army is a Christian organization and they didn’t uh want my picture there.
If I had posed for Playboy – and I thought wow – I mean you – try what you can to get yourself out there, but um and in back in that time that’s how people were getting exposure yeah.
They were anything that people were selling.
That’S anything you can get yeah.
Definitely I mean it wasn’t the best look as per se, because then it made people not take our women seriously, because you know they were really beautiful and pretty so they’re like well.
They can’t fight because they’re they’re like gorgeous models right, so I mean it was like a give and take there.
I mean it was good in some ways because you got the exposure, but it was negative in some ways because they didn’t take.
You seriously then uh, because you didn’t look like Fighters, you look like women um so but yeah that go on, but yeah.
He didn’t want to have you up there if you had done right well, they they did put me on the wall, and I I just thought to myself: okay, after this kind of interview, because I never came out to uh the boxing industry or anybody in the Boxing industry um and it shouldn’t matter, but at this point I often wonder well, if they find out, says it’s a Christian, uh type of uh organization, if they find out, I’m I’m gay or I’m lesbian.
I wonder if they’re going to put me up, pull me off the wall and I sit there and think.
Well, if you are the other fighter that was on the wall, had assault charges, he got in a debate or an argument with a police officer and charges were filed, but you have that person on the wall, so you can’t yeah.
You know something like that.
Comes up it’s it’s a shame.
It shouldn’t um.
It should definitely people need to learn, um their place, um and what’s appropriate, to to know and what’s not appropriate, to know or ask somebody um, and I don’t think they also have to learn to separate um.
Basically, business from pleasure or business from personal um, because it doesn’t matter what somebody’s background or who they’re talking to or what they’re doing behind closed doors that has nothing to do with their career and that’s not that’s not their business, so um.
I would really hope that they wouldn’t do anything considering the fact I mean you’ve already proven yourself that which I wouldn’t think it would matter.
If you were in Playboy, I mean that shouldn’t even matter, because everybody had to make money and that’s what they were asking women to do back then, because they’re, chauvinistic and they’re men and that’s what they wanted to see.
So therefore they were asking the women to pose in Playboy or to pose in magazines that I needed.
I needed the money at that time, but I made the decision not to yeah yeah, so I mean you just went with the roads that people were asking to take to get the exposure.
If this is what you have to do to get exposure.
Well, I’m going to think real hard about doing so because I need the money one and two we need women’s boxing to grow.
So if this is the path that we have to take temporarily, then so be it that’s what we have to do, which is what I mean the same thing Mia did um, I don’t see, there’s anything wrong with it.
I mean right, that’s what they were.
That’S what people wanted to see then and that’s it did help us grow.
I mean yes, they didn’t really take it so seriously, but you just prove yourself in the ring that, yes, we are seriously yeah, Mia St John obviously, or was wanting to be an actress.
So it helped her format.
It obviously boosted hers, that’s just like when a member of the model – oh, I forget her name um.
I I remember telling Vanessa Williams when she posed for Playboy and it was going to cost her her career yeah.
We have to get over look how that’s the past now and how we’ve gotten over that hump and she wanted to be an actress at the time.
So yeah, and I mean you do what you got to do um and just hope that it doesn’t backfire later.
I mean that’s really all you can do.
You were also which I know we did not discuss um last week, um.
You were also also on a documentary um Showtime boxing, a different look um.
Can you tell everybody about the documentary what it was about um? I know you can watch it on YouTube, um, probably other places.
But can you tell us a little about a bit about the documentary and how that came about yeah? That would that documentary uh was set up with the manager that I had in Vegas, and it was a a documentary about four Fighters.
It was uh butter, bean yep.
It was the tough man contest.
The gentleman there that fought all around the state for tough men and as an aspiring fighter and then a uh, a young kid who was going to become an amateur fighter and in myself, so I was kind of packed and put in with those four categories.
So again you took whatever documentary interviews anything that you can to keep the women’s boxing uh on you know marketable or marketed so that the public knew that we were out there and yeah.
That was that was a real good, interesting uh documentary.
You know again um the manager I was with being interviewed at that time and he just uh uh, took it upon himself to bring up a little bit of my past on that show, and I didn’t want that brought up, but he was saying how he he Uh received a phone call from me and that I was in such Dire Straits and he was going to do what he can to help my career out, but in reality it wasn’t.
It was something else, obviously going on.
It was the custody battle and yeah.
There was days where I was frustrated and it it was difficult and I was trying to work full-time still get in for training in the gym and be a parent as well for my daughter.
So it was difficult and driving back and forth, and you know I made it work as best I could um.
You know you do what you can yeah.
There was times where her father ended up uh uh during some of my bouts.
He didn’t uh.
You know during the custody battle he was supposed to have paid his child support, but he owed back child support because once I decided to file joint custody, I knew I wasn’t going to get anything out of him.
Um we filed joint custody and we eventually this.
They got a hold of his wages and were garnishing it and the time that my daughter spent with him.
He says: look at your mother, making all kinds of money and I’m over here getting my paycheck garnished and my daughter started really questioning mom.
You know.
Why would you do that to us and he really twisted her up really bad to the point to where I started feeling really guilty actually pursuing my fight career and that I should spend time home at and be a mother to my daughter, and it was.
I was torn, I was really really torn.
That was gut-wrenching.
That really got me to the heart, but he just knew how to manipulate the circumstance and it’s unfortunate.
But you know you persevere, I mean now.
Our relationship is great um.
She felt the wrath of her father and one day you know gotten a confrontation with him and now they’ve got a court order of protection against him and now he’s not involved anymore, because we have a grandson now, which is just wonderful, it’s a blessing um.
I can’t tell you explain the feelings of being a grandparent now yeah, it’s wonderful yeah and I’m so glad that um I mean I and it’s really hard.
I mean I don’t know how old she was at the time um, but I know like for my oldest.
I I retired after I had my second daughter, so my oldest one was the only one that really um grew up in the gym.
Like I mean it was work full time get off at five, go straight to the gym, with her with my husband trained for two three hours go home grab something eat, get everybody in bed and do it all over again I mean so that was the life.
I mean you know how it is.
I mean that was the struggle um of trying to be a female fighter.
You we didn’t, have the luxury of training, and that was our job.
I mean you had to work and be a mom and do all this stuff.
But I can remember like when I fought Mia St John um, the second time like in Mexico or like when I went to Canada any time we went far um and she wasn’t able to go especially like the Mexico one.
I was there for like 10 days.
I think because we had to do you, know the public work out and then the pre pre-way in and then the way in and then the interview after interview – and I mean there was so much stuff going on, and so I had to go by myself.
My husband stayed home with her um and I mean that’s Chevelle hollback went with me, Nate Campbell went with me, so I mean I had people there um, but it was very difficult um for me to be away from her.
You know in the phone calls like you know, I miss you and, and then it does make you kind of second guess, like I mean, is this really worth being away from my kids like because that’s like the main thing that you’re thinking about, and it also Makes it very hard to focus as a female when you’re really trying to dedicate all that time to training and you’re already working and that’s more time away from them? But, like I said like my situation, she was with me at the gym every day, so we weren’t Tech.
You know, I guess technically spending one-on-one quality time together, but she was always with me um.
So but yes, after my second one I did retire because I had already won the WBC um and I had two kids now I had to think about, and you know anything can happen in boxing um and then I’m just like I’m not making any money like.
I really love the sport, but I’m really losing money, because by the time you get over there and you’re off work for two weeks.
I really just actually paid money out instead of getting money in, because that you didn’t make enough to even cover the two weeks.
You know I mean you know how it is um.
So after I had her, I’m like you know what we’re just gon na hang them up.
I I made I got the title.
I fought literally the best of everybody.
That’S out there um.
So I think I made made enough of a legacy for for me for now.
Um do I miss it every day, every single day um, but that’s what you got ta.
Do you know as a mom, so I totally understand your struggles there, but I’m so glad that she’s now realized that he was just doing that out of hate and jealousy and just trying to turn her against you and you were actually doing what was best for Her yeah and supporting her um and showing her what it’s like to be a true woman, warrior Champion never giving up on your dreams, never giving up on your goals pushing for all of that.
You were being a good role model for her um.
More women need that kind of role model in their life, women that don’t ever give up, and they don’t take no for an answer and they keep pushing for the things they want and believe in and that you guys have now got a good relationship because it’s Totally messed that up – and she understands that he was just talking about his butt that whole time and we were the ones looking out for her in the end.
So I’m really glad that that worked out for you guys now and you guys are addicted.
Yes, because I told you well now with you keeping up this uh this fight talk, this is definitely a uh, something that we need, obviously, because it’s uh women’s boxing still needs to be pushed forward and again we it’s an honor just to be a Pioneer and Be a part of that and sharing that, so what you’re doing here is wonderful.
I mean you’re keeping the momentum you’re, keeping the the fighters out there talking about their personal lives.
We all have a story to tell.
Yes, everyone do our barriers and I’m just glad that you’re doing something like this and it’s an honor for you to have invited me to be on here.
I appreciate that yeah, I’m honored to have you here.
I mean your story is phenomenal.
Um, I mean people got a little bit of it before um, but yeah.
That’S what I try to tell everybody um and the reason that behind me wanting to do the show when, when I was asked about you know, trying to do the show and I’m like well, if I’m gon na, do the show it’s going to be done right And it’s going to be about the truth and the behind the scenes stuff that nobody understands, and nobody knows about um – that we have to go through as women in boxing boxing as a whole.
Um is a dirty business um, but it’s even worse.
On the women’s side and people don’t quite realize what all we had to go through to get it to where it is today.
Um and I definitely feel like some of the current Fighters kind of forgot about the path that was built for them um to get it to where it is today.
It didn’t just happen overnight, and they didn’t do it by themselves, like it was hundreds of us put together that kind of built our own little um.
You know brick and layer in the path to get it to where it is today, um and I don’t even think they quite realize um how much that we’ve all been through and what we had to go through um to keep pushing for women’s boxing to grow.
So that’s kind of where I am with it, and that was my goal – is just getting everybody to really realize and understand the truth about women’s boxing and how hard it was um for every single one of us from all the way.
Back to the very beginning.
All the way up to today, we’ve all got struggles um and it gets a little bit easier as we go along.
I think um, but it’s definitely not worth 100 where it needs to be yet, but we’re getting there we’re definitely getting there we’re getting steps um.
So I guess I is there anything you can think off the top of your head, that we missed that we talked about before that you want to cover as far as the boxing side of things, no just just for a lot of the upcoming fighters.
To just be cautious about signing contracts, who’s representing you are they good negotiators, you don’t want them costing.
You fights um nowadays, something like Playboy any type of opportunity where you can promote yourself and the the sport itself behind you, my God jump in you know, do what you can yeah and just you know always keep in mind that Pioneers like Sue Fox, Barbara butt Trick everybody else behind is supporting you right.
It has been trying and doing their best and they’re supporting you and right behind you all the way to keep uh wishing for this yeah, absolutely absolutely um.
So now I guess just briefly just because I know um, for you just kind of tell us a little bit about like what you do after retirement.
What do you do with your with your days after you stop watching yeah um the whole time I fought Brooke.
I mean I had to make sure that I took the type of jobs that would let me leave.
So I would take a lot of uh Labor Ready, Labor Force, where I would work for like a couple of weeks and then you know I told them.
I won’t be here for like a whole week, I’ll be out and a lot of time I was asked to become a manager or a supervisor, and I couldn’t commit because they weren’t going to give me the time off right.
So now I um I’ve done everything from uh driving getting my CDL Class A license and driving over the road um.
I worked for uh, the the Native American Indian Community and I was a telecommunications technician for them, slinging a telephone line and hooking up the internet and that got phased out, but they had asked me if I would uh stay within the community.
They need to women recruits for Patrol and um.
I did that and I had a major injury that that cost me about two surgeries to get back on my feet and I didn’t go back to law enforcement.
It was uh, it was a real, difficult battle to get back on my feet at that time, so um what else I’ve always been uh in the technical field.
So I always uh everything from like my uh apprenticeship for electrician and that kind of land me landed.
The job I have now, I’m an electrician technician.
Space field for I’ve just been very fortunate.
My work ethic, how I speak with people, your leadership, skills, um, negotiating skills.
That kind of got me in the door where I’m at and with benefits.
So I’m really fortunate because of that I didn’t have a degree in anything um.
I never finished college, so I didn’t get my associates out of the way, but if I had, I would have loved to have been like a sports medicine, doc uh sports medicine, physical therapy, because I knew so much about that.
But I utilized that for my own injuries to get myself back on my feet right law enforcement was an aspiration uh.
What else um? I know you said you got ta.
You got certificates um.
As for you, work with the youth or right something yeah.
Well, it touched it touched home to be uh involved with CPS, even though it happened, because you know you had a a spouse, accusing you of being the worst mother in the world, terrible.
How dare I follow my goals and dreams and leave my child and, and it wasn’t like that, um uh, because of that I was able to see that it helped keep the family together.
It helped um keep the family balance, and nowadays these programs are are out there for families at this point, that are there’s a lot of addiction and it’s breaking a lot of families up and what uh.
This attorney that I work with now.
Transcribed
Foreign [ Music ] Trevino um, since we had some malfunctions last week on Tuesday um.
Some of you may know who I am for those of you that don’t my name is Brooke Millbrook, formerly known as Brooke no mercy dear dwarf in the boxing world.
I am a retired, WBC, uh lightweight champion, also a 2022 International women’s Boxing Hall of Famer.
I personally have been through some good, a lot of bad and a lot of BS in the sport of women’s boxing um.
This is my platform where we talk to talk and walk the walk.
We want to bring out the truth in women’s boxing um, so you’re going to hear some interviews from some pioneers of the sport past boxers current boxers, even future female boxers.
This is where we get down and dirty and speak the truth on what takes place behind the scenes in women’s boxing.
You definitely don’t want to miss an episode, and you definitely don’t want to miss this one, as we recap with Yvonne Trevino.
She has such a such an awesome story, um to tell us which we started off last Tuesday, but we had a lot of cutting out and just not a very good connection.
So we did cut that show short and we are back redoing that recapping that so you guys can really hear her true potential and her story um.
You don’t want to miss this one so make sure you tune in and get the full scoop here today.
Welcome in Yvonne, hey Brooke, hey all right, so, let’s, let’s do this again! I think we we got everything set.
We got a good signal today.
I think we should be good to go um and I did have a bunch of people personally message me saying how upset they were, that the the feed wasn’t very good, so they were looking forward to us redoing and reposting the video.
So there are people that were asking me, so that’s good news um.
So I guess we’ll just quickly kind of recap: like the things we started talking about, we’ll go through those just because they couldn’t really get the full scoop of what you were saying fully with the cutting in and out um.
So first I guess we’ll just rewind and just recap shortly about the beginning of your journey, your childhood, your upbringing and how you got into um, martial arts and boxing cool.
My fourth grade teacher was a really good um motivator at a young age.
She uh solved athletic talent and begged my parents to let me play in school, but of course my parents wanted us kids to become missionaries, so you know I get their struggle too.
They wanted to protect us and and um uh.
You know just they come from a religious background, but uh I couldn’t play sports and it was a really it was a bummer so to say the least, oh yeah I mean that was the one thing that like really kept me just so motivated.
Well, you know, by the time we were teenagers and just my bro, both my brother and I left home um.
We both kind of went our separate ways.
You know he he became a young parent pretty early and I was out and about um.
You know trying to snap out of uh just leaving home and just trying to get back on my feet, and you know you learn right away being young, dumb and naive that there’s just sometimes you can’t trust friends that you think are friends and uh.
I found myself in a situation where I was uh at it, a place where someone had slipped a roofie in my drink and it knocked me out, and I had no idea where I woke up and what happened um.
It was really a difficult circumstance to deal with and then on top of getting myself out of there I didn’t go, seek the counseling so that really affected me in such a way to the point to where I was just um.
I found it real hard to deal with and I was drinking a lot and just really spiraling down a major depression, but the one thing that kept me going, of course, was Sports.
So I got back into high school sports, got picked up on scholarships, basketball, softball cross country um, and that’s where I met my daughter’s father and uh.
He was a one of the softball coaches as well from one of the college teams, and we got married and all of a sudden everything just changed, and I found myself in this relationship that was very abusive where it just uh.
I think it might have been a cultural thing, I’m not sure what reasons or excuses I definitely won’t make any, but he found everything I that I would wanted to do or anything that um well just to explain a minor.
I mean an explanation of what an example of what I was going through is again uh.
I knew how to fix my own cars.
I mean my brother and I knew how to change builds when they were easier to work with change oil, alternators, simple stuff, and when we were married I always wanted to be out there with him.
While he worked on cars – and you know handing him tools and whatnot and um, but he felt that, of course, A Woman’s Place is the kitchen and again the same thing we were battling and that at that time women’s boxing is just.
It was real hard to get past male chauvinism of the industry, so yeah and trying to help him out and he says well, do you want to get down underneath here and and change the fuel pump and, I said sure – and he told me what bolts and Nuts, to loosen up – and next thing – I know the fuel fell on my eyes and he just thought that was so funny.
I ran in the house and tried to rinse the fuel out, and I thought, oh, my God, I’m going to be blind now and be able to see what what the hell am.
I even in this marriage, for because all we did was argue and debate and I couldn’t wear a shirt that had one button unbuttoned and then it was like drama.
So eventually you know I just ended up saying felt.
You know that I wasn’t uh.
This is not going to work and decided to get a divorce, but it became a real bitter divorce and child custody battle, and everywhere I moved or went it was scrutinized to the point we had to get CPS involved and you know I played by the rules.
I had to make sure um that during our visitations or if we went to their location, that the relationship between my daughter and I was pretty much out in the open and uh everywhere I went I had I had so many offers to go.
Train a with Bonnie Camino at her gym, uh.
Of course, the gym that I was working at fairchex, moita and Camp were both my daughter and I were living closed due to some type of description with the current management.
So I kind of find my found myself here in Arizona looking for a pretty good team that would that could train me and that I could rely on to negotiate my fights here in Arizona.
The promoters were no better.
I had promoters that weren’t paying the fighters, and then there was courts, uh um battles over that the same promoter uh and my manager in Vegas were arguing over one simple plane ticket, and I couldn’t take this fight because it was a battle between a plane ticket Or taking a two-hour drive to get over here for one of my fights in Arizona, and these two guys were fighting over something that I just wanted to fight, I needed to stay busy um.
That was pretty much the name of the game.
It was really difficult to stay busy yeah.
This manager screwed up my fight against Jolene Blackshear uh.
By not getting my weights uh this the proper weight and telling me it was 117 when really it was.
I was fighting flyweight 112.
So when I arrived at that ifba match against Julian Blackshear, I had to drop five pounds and of course I went back to the room.
Layered up turned on the heater and shadow box.
Until I dropped five pounds, um it it was miserable.
I mean there was a lot of mistakes made um.
Oh, what else um trying to think what else we went over um that I mean that’s good start there for the beginning, um you first started off um doing kickboxing um tell us a little bit about your kickboxing titles and your um kickboxing career, okay, um.
I’Ve had a couple of kickboxing matches: uh, I’m 9-3 on on my kickboxing, nine wins and three losses, and I fought for an Arizona State title.
The United States title – and I remember going to the local um uh professional fighter, Michael call Bahar Hall here in Arizona, and I kept bringing all my belts to him and his brother Danny, who was his manager at the time.
Uh hey.
I won this Arizona State kickboxing title and women’s boxing is coming around it’s starting to become very popular.
Can you guys help me get sponsorships, I’d love to work out at the gym and they Danny at that time? Uh just thought: well, it’s not really going on anywhere and of course, they’re thinking if they can’t get their 10 percent cut out of you know, cornering me or being there for a fight, then obviously they don’t they’re, not motivated.
So I just stayed busy.
I had a I already had one, my uh International Muay Thai title against Kim Messer Kim Messer and I both fought originally uh for the iska title and she she beat me on that title and then we had an international Muay Thai title several months later to Fight while this was going on um, she was uh, also fighting flyweight and was had a opportunity to fight Regina Hallman in Germany, but that was canceled and she found out.
It was because the ifba in 1995 went came here to the United States to the Aladdin Hotel in Vegas and they fought for the first world title wibf women’s boxing title so uh, that’s the fight.
I won against Regina homich and it was an interesting fight because in the end she said it was.
It was not her day and that it was just luck and I remember Bridget Riley commentating on that fight and she put two cents in there and said.
You know when you fight it’s, not luck, it’s skill yeah, but she found it really hard to accept the loss and when we thought about it or looking back on it, she had the media, all kinds of people um that I guess sponsors and she had a Lot of skin in the game and the loss affected her um after the fight.
I remember both picking up our hands and saying we were both Champions here, but my business concern is.
I was realizing that, even though she suffered a loss, look wibf is what one out of this.
We need to make sure that we presented ourselves in it and made it a draw for the audience to want to see something like that again.
Yes, it was uh interesting to be able to um to have that uh World title yes, yeah, absolutely um yeah! That was a big fight and she just at that particular point in time.
Just didn’t even know what hit her like.
They weren’t expecting that at all.
I mean you were probably the warm-up fight um, it’s supposed to be like a warm-up fight, um, but that’s why they always tell us.
Never Overlook.
Never underestimate any opponent, because everybody’s coming to win well, you don’t have to resume anybody, but right sometimes people Overlook people and that’s probably what she did there was was overlooking you and that wasn’t the right answer at that moment in time.
So, whoever ever since that fight Brooke um the rematch, never fruitioned, uh right after that him Messer fought her.
Everybody fought everybody in the flyweight was fighting in Germany and it just always went to the scorecards and always went to Regina’s favor, but the whole time from winning that title 1995 to about 1998.
We were Jimmy Finn at the time.
Didn’T do anything for the flyweight division, which was my division, I’m not sure about the other fighters in the diff, their weight categories.
There was no fights happening and the ifba was coming on the scene and I wanted to stay busy.
So I accepted uh to run for to fight a title fight for the International Federation of women’s boxing, the ifba organization, and Jimmy Finn said no.
You can’t do that you’re exclusively the wibf and I was like wow.
You know the guys have all these organizations that they can fight for what is the problem and the only time I ever re was able to defend that title was one time for ABC Wide World Sports against uh, Brenda Rouse and she was Tommy Morrison spider in Under his stable, so that was the only fight, and there was a previous fight before that.
We’D asked Jimmy Finn to help uh sanction and it was against Delia Gonzalez on the undercard of uh Bob arum and Jesse James leija undercard, and that didn’t fruition.
So I just don’t understand what the reasoning was why he never kept us busy here on the flyweight here in the United States, but in Germany I mean Regina was being built up.
All her fights were being built up, so I assume it was to eventually uh.
Perhaps you don’t gain a rematch, but Dennis Diaz wibf over didn’t get a hold of me until about mid late 1998 and said you know: do you want to fight come back in and fight for the wibf title or redefend it, and I said well honestly: I’m Not even that way anymore, I had accepted the ifba, took the bantamweight bout or fight and uh uh.
I was stripped of that tide and I said so, are you guys officially giving it back and he was saying yeah, you know we’ll we’ll give it back, but I said well, I’m no longer that weight, I’m just going to go ahead and stick with just one Uh weight, category and that’ll be the bantamweight, so I declined but um yeah.
I mean things like that.
Just really kind of stops, the momentum.
You need you to keep the momentum going right, right and um.
I would I mean most.
People would have assumed that, after the you beat homage for the title that you would have fought Messer instead of Regina fighting her right after that right, you would think Kim would have wanted to fight you because you had, but instead they stuck with uh with Regina.
Even though she didn’t have the title so that that’s kind of confusing when you’re looking back those are missed opportunities, you know you have to while the iron’s hot, that’s when you got to strike yeah exactly um.
So I know, as we discussed before, you had several issues with um like managers or promoters, and things like that and signing contracts with people um.
Can you kind of retouch on those issues that you had with those people and what was going on behind the scenes with all that stuff, gotcha yeah, I uh signed a uh.
Once the uh fairtex Muay Thai Camp had dispersed all the fighters went to all their different locations.
I found myself having to stay here in Arizona because I was going through a court battle, so I couldn’t really leave town and I wasn’t allowed to leave the state of Arizona with my daughter because we didn’t set up the paperwork that way I kind of failed To make that um thinking ahead of time, that you know that I was going to need to make sure it was legal and whatnot and um.
So I just signed a contract in in Vegas and I’d stay there, and then I would come back periodically and make sure I spent time with my daughter um in in the meantime uh.
This manager was a friend that was uh there in the corner of uh.
My wibf title match uh.
He was a friend of my trainer, so I trusted that this person was was um, knew that knew the industry and would be able to help manage my fights.
But all I found was that he was getting in arguments over a plane ticket and not rather than driving, to Arizona for one of my fights.
You know him and the promoter were fighting over a simple plane, plane ticket and that I couldn’t take the fight um.
Then then, him and Jimmy uh Finn got into debates and arguments over sanctioning that uh Delia Gonzalez fight and I’m sitting there listening to Jimmy Fenn talk about how we weren’t marketable, that after that wiba fight.
When you look at one of the pitchers there, we all had our warm-up suits.
We all had our hair was wet pulled back.
Some of us had baseball caps on and, of course, we don’t look, um, presentable or marketable at the time we just got done fighting but yeah you weren’t, going to a beauty pageant.
You were.
You were fighting, no, no um.
So when he made that comment that we weren’t marketable, we looked like we couldn’t tell the difference between little boys and and women, and you know after that I started making sure I presented myself marketable.
I I dressed up nice for my weigh-ins and that could be a double-edged sword too, because then we weren’t taken serious in the industry yeah.
It was just the way they were promoting at that time, uh even the commentating.
I remember having a uh uh.
What’S his name, uh Ray Boom Boom Mancini was commenting on both Bridget and Riley and I’s fight, and he said I don’t know.
If I I, like the idea of my wife being able to tell me you better, take out the garbage and that if I don’t that she’d be able to beat me up and send me out there, you know just talking about something as negative as that during The match broadcast say something more positive, but it was funny because I met with uh Ray Boom Boom Mancini here in Arizona for a fundraiser for the boys and girls club and boy he apologized, he felt so bad, and he said you know I’m okay.
With Title Nine and you, ladies having your your chance at fighting – and he goes, I actually think it’s great and I I totally promoted, I think, and it’s wonderful and it it just it just takes time.
It’S unfortunate that it’s taking it’s taking now this generation to kind of pick up where we left off and bring it to the the level that it needs to be.
At this point, yeah exactly exactly um.
You also had worked with the realtor.
That’S not the same person right.
Yes, he’s he’s the same person.
Okay, same person, okay, yeah! I was thinking.
Let me give you an example of some of the stuff I was going through.
It’S just um.
You know I I you know.
I kept my personal life.
Pretty private and he was aware that I was going through a custody battle and he he was aware that I had a partner and my partner was driving out there every other weekend to Vegas to spend time with me.
While I was still training – and it was constant drama with him now – because he wanted to understand why, after I got a divorce, why I decided to turn into a lesbian and now have a partner, and really it was none of his business.
You you and I have a really a agreement with boxing a professional agreement boxing, not my personal life, and he I’d come home, sometimes from work or after training and he’d have this porn on on on the television and he’d say well, do you find the men’s Body, like does not, does that not turn you on and you know, do you have problem with me? I go I.
I said I really don’t it’s just I’m not interested it’s not something that you know.
I just found it real yeah yeah I mean you didn’t, owe him any explanation whatsoever, and that was a total inappropriate question for him to ask, but he wanted as a fight as his fighter, I guess and as a manager he wanted to get to know what Made me tick, but you know you’re bringing up something that has nothing to do right and I eventually um.
You know after uh, after that I just ended up packing up and leaving.
But I left without my my passport and paperwork and photos and he kept all of that and I remember I had a fight in Japan, a kickboxing fight that I was going to take in between my boxing matches, because I was doing both and he says I Don’T have it and I says you know I couldn’t get it fast enough to get out there to Japan and then he was claiming that he I owed him three thousand dollars for several months of staying there and I had to end up going back to the Back Nevada boxing commission and have Mark Ratner review the um the contract, because he’s the guy that approved it and asked me, are you sure, you’re you’re ready to sign this kind of contract and then we had to sever it? Obviously so we went to court and finally uh it took about it, took a a an agreement of 800, a gallon of it.
So after several fights, I got out of that contract and I just didn’t sign anything after that, not even with the ifba – and I remember the ifba wanted to sign a lot of us girls to be a, I guess, exclusive or I’m not sure what the deal Was but I just said, no I’ll fight, uh and agree to dollar amounts for per round, but not any type of uh um contract to be exclusive after the lesson with the wibf yeah.
But at that time, because I didn’t – I was finding out that I wasn’t getting invited and promoted as one of the other gals that did sign.
So it was.
It was a double-edged sword for me.
You know if I stayed exclusive um.
If I stayed a free agent or independent uh, then you know I didn’t get the best promotions and there was times where I, when I did go to the ifba, you know you I I get the I get.
The game promoters have to have enough funds to have an escrow for insurances and to cover everyone, judges, the commission, a lot of expense goes out and then, at the end, it trickles down to the fighters right but to sit there and get all these limousines.
Or these huge expenses I started thinking uh there was a limousine that was waiting for us one time and I just felt so uncomfortable getting in.
I remember telling you about it that yeah the team was on the bus and this limousine was parked up front and I was like wow.
That’S a nice limousine.
They go.
Oh, that’s that’s for Trevino’s camp and I was like no way you’re like I didn’t want to go.
I told my family, you know what I’m gon na go get in the the bus with the rest of the fighters and they’re like no Yvonne.
It’S yours.
Just just take it and I’m sitting here thinking, but why why this expense, when all of this could have trickled down to the fighters? You know we all probably could have got an extra hundred out of it.
So you know I started questioning yeah.
I know you guys want to promote women’s boxing but promote it in other aspects where you’re getting um the media and the uh public more involved, not the stuff, that’s going to take us to the hotel and back so I just was really torn about that.
That really got me yeah yeah, absolutely um yeah I mean sometimes you’re.
I mean you’re thankful for it and you’re like yeah.
This is cool, but at the same time you’re like I could have just like, we could have just made more money yeah.
We could have so a little stretch there with it.
Nice nice thought nice yeah, it was, but it didn’t serve any purpose of anything.
Do you see what I’m saying it would have been better if you would have promoted the women with with that kind of income versus sinking it into something? That’S a little extra money in the pocket would have went a long way yeah, it always does um.
So, let’s see you I’m trying to go in order again, since I don’t have my notes um after so after the wiba win um, we always touched on the Kim Messer thing you should have been next in line for Kim.
We talked about that um um in 1997, is when you fought Suzanne riccio for the ifba title um and the struggles with getting that by may.
We talked about that with the issues with the wibf, not warning you to fight for the ifba um.
So there was the struggle there um we talked about Bridget Riley.
We talked about her um.
Well, I do want to bring up a point.
Remember about the point, with Susanna Ricky on major that when you have a referee that comes to your um dressing room when you’re getting your hands wrapped and they’re, explaining the rules that listen to their commands.
If they tell you to go to the neutral Corner, go to the neutral corner, make sure your your hits and shots are above the waist um.
If I tell you to break break and uh, we had the referee Mitch Halpern at the time, the late Mitch Halpern great great referee, and he explained it very well.
He even he even mentioned.
If I see that you’re in the corner or against the ropes – and you don’t answer to after about 10 punches, I’m gon na assume something’s wrong and that you’re hurt and I’m gon na stop the fight.
And I remember the rules and I thought to myself: wow they’re being way overprotective, but you know I get it.
I got the assignment um.
What happened in the ring is Suzanne reached your major after one of the during one of the rounds she decided to either take a break um, maybe to test a little bit of her skills, wanted to see how much pun you know power.
I had behind my punches, but I just kept firing away, creating holes and she didn’t answer after 10 punches.
So I just kept continuing and I guess Mitch Halpern stepped in stopped the fight and thought that she was in trouble.
So obviously that was a controversial fight that was left where we both I wanted a rematch as well and so did Suzanne, but again that’s how strict and how over cautious being yeah at the time yes um.
We had also talked about another fight.
I can’t remember right off top my head, but another fight that you felt was controversial.
Um, I’m trying to remember.
Do you remember which other one besides the Rio fight that you were talking about last time, Suzanne riccio, major um, Jolene Blackshear, where I lost five? Try to drop five pounds yeah that was right, yeah, where you had to lose weight because the Arizona, the Arizona promoter that was helping my uh, my aunt and the team uh was negotiating the fight with the ifba in the in uh.
I was told I was all I needed to be was 117 pounds and I thought: okay, that’s close to the bantamweight fight, so, okay, I can handle that.
But in reality, when I showed up it was a flyweight bout, so I needed to be 112 and when I got there, there’s like no excuses, you can say, and then on top of that I didn’t want my opponent to know holy [ __ ], I’m going To go back to my hotel room and try to lose five pounds before the weigh-ins that’s hard.
Oh, it was the worst nightmare you could possibly think of, but I did it.
I needed the money I wasn’t gon na make any excuses.
I didn’t want the disqualification on my part, and I just had to do what I had to do.
Go go make weight and I made the wait and it was just controversial uh.
She suffered a uh, a cut under the eye due to an edible shot um.
She was a shorter fighter and honestly I was trying to survive and get out of the her way, and you were literally right in between that time.
She came underneath my elbow if you ever look at that fight and she suffered a cut in the eye and they stopped the fight um.
With both camps upset, saying you know, you should have just let it go on, but again um.
That was another controversial fight.
I never had the opportunity to rematch again and when I stopped and looked back at all the records, the flyweight division at that time was having a hard time getting bouts.
I mean she was like for a year and a half before uh some of her bouts.
There was a lot of time frame in between so again both organizations wibf ifba needed to keep Fighters busy.
So she even struggled with getting bouts in between I mean a year and a half off.
Sometimes that’s a lot.
You need to stay busy.
It would be great to have a fight like maybe every six months, yeah yeah, that’s that was the flyweight division at that time got you um.
So I know that the ifba, that is Barbara, butt tricks or not, or the wi kipedia ba, not the Ife.
I think it’s two, the wiva was Barbara buttrick’s baby.
That was like her thing.
Um and I know looking back like most people know some people do some people, don’t about Barbara butcher being like one of like the very first like one of the very first ever um, and not very many people, know her story, but you were obviously worked with Her one-on-one and knew her well.
Can you give everybody like a little backstory on her yeah, Barbara buttrick back in the early days of I don’t want to age her too bad, but I think it was the 30s or 40s she was fighting at that time and for that era she was definitely One of the Pioneers for women’s boxing and there’s actually some ladies prior to that, once they start doing research, um Sue Fox on her WBA and network, has a lot of that information on it.
So definitely look that up on the women’s boxing archive Network for a lot of this information, but Barbara buttrick was one of the pioneers and this wibf women’s international boxing Federation was her baby.
She put it together and Jimmy Finn was her um, CEO or marketer or negotiator um.
He had a couple of hats that he was working with there.
She started this so when we think how far that came by the time 1995 came around her being the Pioneer she was.
She had her barriers, they looked at her belts as circus acts and it wasn’t a circus act.
She was serious.
She needed the the the the men of that era or that time frame the boxing industry to take her seriously, and it was hard for her to find opponents yes, but to be put on a sideshow.
Uh pedestal was just terrible, but again that’s the strides that this industry has made and for her to put this first, women’s uh international boxing Federation together was was awesome of her to have done that, and it was definitely a um.
A mile marker for all of us, it wasn’t just a um, wasn’t just how do I say it uh.
You know that we’re not the only ones it it came around at the perfect time.
It was starting to um, give us notoriety and I do want to actually that time broke uh.
If you remember it was April, 20th, 1995.
, the day before uh the bouts uh, Barbara buttrick wibf, made sure Life Magazine all the media was there to cover the fights and on the 19th, that’s when the Oklahoma bombing happened and all the media left left.
The boxing event, so we really didn’t, have a lot of coverage, but you get circumstances like that where it’s ready to be put out in public and then something happens and it doesn’t uh fruition.
Yeah same thing same thing with the ifba.
When I went to go fight and um in Mississippi against Suzanne riccio major again, they pulled the media.
Together, Life Magazine ringside, all these magazines, the Associated Press, everybody was going to be there and um.
They were there.
Obviously they interviewed us individually and then a couple weeks after our bout, we were supposed to be on the cover of Life magazine.
Let me see if I can find that and Princess Diana dies right and it ends up being that she takes the cover of the magazine yeah instead, instead, so we were just there, we were just running into barriers, it was just uh, Clarissa Shield, Savannah Marshall, fight Um, you know all the it’s similar to that I mean.
Obviously it was different, different back in the day, but all the build up to that fight and then the queen died and they had to postpone it another.
Like I don’t know, two three three four.
Two three four weeks because I mean they were over there like head – did the weigh-ins and everything and then she passed, and so then they had shut down all sports over there.
So then they everybody had to go home and wait another.
What I don’t know, two or four weeks or something um and that’s got to be hard too, because I could only imagine all the work you do for the camp and then you have to go back in Camp after the weigh-in, yeah and fight two.
Three weeks later so similarities there um not necessarily that they didn’t deserve the spotlight, but just barriers that got in the way of him um huge epic moments for women, because that was a huge one of the very first huge fights for women’s boxing today.
Um at the O2 London I mean it was, it was epic so, but there was, it always seems like there’s something that happens right when you’re about to get another big step, something happens and it like yeah um.
So it’s definitely similar to that.
But you got to keep doing.
I mean this generation, this generation yeah this generation’s pushing for it.
Um I’ve noticed that it’s kind of slowed down and UFC has taken over but um.
The ladies have to stick together.
What’S wonderful is um Sue Fox and Marianne Owen called me up one time and said: um Yvonne, you have the opportunity to uh uh the Ray Kroc ring and Joan Croc McDonald’s and the Salvation Army was donating a community center here in Arizona, so they uh put Me connected me with the historian, who needed photos of all the fighters out of Arizona.
They were going to put our pictures in the on the gym wall and for one of the grand openings for the facility, and I made contact with them, and you know the things that uh that again Sue Fox and Marianne Owen are doing they’re supporting the fighters.
They’Re doing everything they can to make connections to help us Network um without them my gosh, we wouldn’t have been here and then for them to put together this Boxing Hall of Fame.
I mean I really commend them, because these ladies, are carrying on the torch they’re.
Helping us move forward and they didn’t have the chance to get titles back in the day, but Sue Fox recently was acknowledged for the fact of of her hard work and effort and sacrifice she made to get us women out there.
Yeah go ahead, go ahead um! I was gon na just say yes, with Sue Sue, Fox um I mean she’s been even for me like she was there from the very beginning of my amateur days like all the way through, and I don’t and she does that for all everybody.
It’S not just one fighter, it’s all of the fighters um and without her there.
I don’t think anybody would really know about women’s boxing at all um, because she is like the one and only that actually you can find anything you need to know about women’s boxing on her website.
She supports everybody, um win or lose, or what? What’S your record or whatever I mean all of it, um and she is just a very big advocate for women’s boxing and I’m glad she got noticed um with the international women’s boxes Hall of Fame.
You know because we couldn’t ever get in the hall of fame um, so she allowed women to be able to get in the Hall of Fame and now just recently they’re starting to allow women into you know the the Boxing Hall of Fame uh, but only like Within the last couple years, um after her, so yes just a huge shout out, I think I shout out every week to sue Fox on my show yeah I think, like literally every week we talk about her um, but it’s because without her I don’t think anybody Would know anything about women’s boxing because yeah yeah they’re going to celebrate her 25 years of the industry, of keeping this going at this up and coming October, one where I am where I’m also going to be there as well.
So I yes, I’m going to be there too, so yeah yeah, if it wasn’t for uh Sue Fox, like I said I wouldn’t have been uh on the um part of this gym this community center here in Arizona.
What came up is I almost lost the opportunity to be on that wall and be uh represented.
There is because I remember a while back both uh myself and Mia St John were asked to pose for Playboy.
I turned it down and Mia St John accepted it and the uh his the boxing historian here in Arizona, said that the Salvation Army is a Christian organization and they didn’t uh want my picture there.
If I had posed for Playboy – and I thought wow – I mean you – try what you can to get yourself out there, but um and in back in that time that’s how people were getting exposure yeah.
They were anything that people were selling.
That’S anything you can get yeah.
Definitely I mean it wasn’t the best look as per se, because then it made people not take our women seriously, because you know they were really beautiful and pretty so they’re like well.
They can’t fight because they’re they’re like gorgeous models right, so I mean it was like a give and take there.
I mean it was good in some ways because you got the exposure, but it was negative in some ways because they didn’t take.
You seriously then uh, because you didn’t look like Fighters, you look like women um so but yeah that go on, but yeah.
He didn’t want to have you up there if you had done right well, they they did put me on the wall, and I I just thought to myself: okay, after this kind of interview, because I never came out to uh the boxing industry or anybody in the Boxing industry um and it shouldn’t matter, but at this point I often wonder well, if they find out, says it’s a Christian, uh type of uh organization, if they find out, I’m I’m gay or I’m lesbian.
I wonder if they’re going to put me up, pull me off the wall and I sit there and think.
Well, if you are the other fighter that was on the wall, had assault charges, he got in a debate or an argument with a police officer and charges were filed, but you have that person on the wall, so you can’t yeah.
You know something like that.
Comes up it’s it’s a shame.
It shouldn’t um.
It should definitely people need to learn, um their place, um and what’s appropriate, to to know and what’s not appropriate, to know or ask somebody um, and I don’t think they also have to learn to separate um.
Basically, business from pleasure or business from personal um, because it doesn’t matter what somebody’s background or who they’re talking to or what they’re doing behind closed doors that has nothing to do with their career and that’s not that’s not their business, so um.
I would really hope that they wouldn’t do anything considering the fact I mean you’ve already proven yourself that which I wouldn’t think it would matter.
If you were in Playboy, I mean that shouldn’t even matter, because everybody had to make money and that’s what they were asking women to do back then, because they’re, chauvinistic and they’re men and that’s what they wanted to see.
So therefore they were asking the women to pose in Playboy or to pose in magazines that I needed.
I needed the money at that time, but I made the decision not to yeah yeah, so I mean you just went with the roads that people were asking to take to get the exposure.
If this is what you have to do to get exposure.
Well, I’m going to think real hard about doing so because I need the money one and two we need women’s boxing to grow.
So if this is the path that we have to take temporarily, then so be it that’s what we have to do, which is what I mean the same thing Mia did um, I don’t see, there’s anything wrong with it.
I mean right, that’s what they were.
That’S what people wanted to see then and that’s it did help us grow.
I mean yes, they didn’t really take it so seriously, but you just prove yourself in the ring that, yes, we are seriously yeah, Mia St John obviously, or was wanting to be an actress.
So it helped her format.
It obviously boosted hers, that’s just like when a member of the model – oh, I forget her name um.
I I remember telling Vanessa Williams when she posed for Playboy and it was going to cost her her career yeah.
We have to get over look how that’s the past now and how we’ve gotten over that hump and she wanted to be an actress at the time.
So yeah, and I mean you do what you got to do um and just hope that it doesn’t backfire later.
I mean that’s really all you can do.
You were also which I know we did not discuss um last week, um.
You were also also on a documentary um Showtime boxing, a different look um.
Can you tell everybody about the documentary what it was about um? I know you can watch it on YouTube, um, probably other places.
But can you tell us a little about a bit about the documentary and how that came about yeah? That would that documentary uh was set up with the manager that I had in Vegas, and it was a a documentary about four Fighters.
It was uh butter, bean yep.
It was the tough man contest.
The gentleman there that fought all around the state for tough men and as an aspiring fighter and then a uh, a young kid who was going to become an amateur fighter and in myself, so I was kind of packed and put in with those four categories.
So again you took whatever documentary interviews anything that you can to keep the women’s boxing uh on you know marketable or marketed so that the public knew that we were out there and yeah.
That was that was a real good, interesting uh documentary.
You know again um the manager I was with being interviewed at that time and he just uh uh, took it upon himself to bring up a little bit of my past on that show, and I didn’t want that brought up, but he was saying how he he Uh received a phone call from me and that I was in such Dire Straits and he was going to do what he can to help my career out, but in reality it wasn’t.
It was something else, obviously going on.
It was the custody battle and yeah.
There was days where I was frustrated and it it was difficult and I was trying to work full-time still get in for training in the gym and be a parent as well for my daughter.
So it was difficult and driving back and forth, and you know I made it work as best I could um.
You know you do what you can yeah.
There was times where her father ended up uh uh during some of my bouts.
He didn’t uh.
You know during the custody battle he was supposed to have paid his child support, but he owed back child support because once I decided to file joint custody, I knew I wasn’t going to get anything out of him.
Um we filed joint custody and we eventually this.
They got a hold of his wages and were garnishing it and the time that my daughter spent with him.
He says: look at your mother, making all kinds of money and I’m over here getting my paycheck garnished and my daughter started really questioning mom.
You know.
Why would you do that to us and he really twisted her up really bad to the point to where I started feeling really guilty actually pursuing my fight career and that I should spend time home at and be a mother to my daughter, and it was.
I was torn, I was really really torn.
That was gut-wrenching.
That really got me to the heart, but he just knew how to manipulate the circumstance and it’s unfortunate.
But you know you persevere, I mean now.
Our relationship is great um.
She felt the wrath of her father and one day you know gotten a confrontation with him and now they’ve got a court order of protection against him and now he’s not involved anymore, because we have a grandson now, which is just wonderful, it’s a blessing um.
I can’t tell you explain the feelings of being a grandparent now yeah, it’s wonderful yeah and I’m so glad that um I mean I and it’s really hard.
I mean I don’t know how old she was at the time um, but I know like for my oldest.
I I retired after I had my second daughter, so my oldest one was the only one that really um grew up in the gym.
Like I mean it was work full time get off at five, go straight to the gym, with her with my husband trained for two three hours go home grab something eat, get everybody in bed and do it all over again I mean so that was the life.
I mean you know how it is.
I mean that was the struggle um of trying to be a female fighter.
You we didn’t, have the luxury of training, and that was our job.
I mean you had to work and be a mom and do all this stuff.
But I can remember like when I fought Mia St John um, the second time like in Mexico or like when I went to Canada any time we went far um and she wasn’t able to go especially like the Mexico one.
I was there for like 10 days.
I think because we had to do you, know the public work out and then the pre pre-way in and then the way in and then the interview after interview – and I mean there was so much stuff going on, and so I had to go by myself.
My husband stayed home with her um and I mean that’s Chevelle hollback went with me, Nate Campbell went with me, so I mean I had people there um, but it was very difficult um for me to be away from her.
You know in the phone calls like you know, I miss you and, and then it does make you kind of second guess, like I mean, is this really worth being away from my kids like because that’s like the main thing that you’re thinking about, and it also Makes it very hard to focus as a female when you’re really trying to dedicate all that time to training and you’re already working and that’s more time away from them? But, like I said like my situation, she was with me at the gym every day, so we weren’t Tech.
You know, I guess technically spending one-on-one quality time together, but she was always with me um.
So but yes, after my second one I did retire because I had already won the WBC um and I had two kids now I had to think about, and you know anything can happen in boxing um and then I’m just like I’m not making any money like.
I really love the sport, but I’m really losing money, because by the time you get over there and you’re off work for two weeks.
I really just actually paid money out instead of getting money in, because that you didn’t make enough to even cover the two weeks.
You know I mean you know how it is um.
So after I had her, I’m like you know what we’re just gon na hang them up.
I I made I got the title.
I fought literally the best of everybody.
That’S out there um.
So I think I made made enough of a legacy for for me for now.
Um do I miss it every day, every single day um, but that’s what you got ta.
Do you know as a mom, so I totally understand your struggles there, but I’m so glad that she’s now realized that he was just doing that out of hate and jealousy and just trying to turn her against you and you were actually doing what was best for Her yeah and supporting her um and showing her what it’s like to be a true woman, warrior Champion never giving up on your dreams, never giving up on your goals pushing for all of that.
You were being a good role model for her um.
More women need that kind of role model in their life, women that don’t ever give up, and they don’t take no for an answer and they keep pushing for the things they want and believe in and that you guys have now got a good relationship because it’s Totally messed that up – and she understands that he was just talking about his butt that whole time and we were the ones looking out for her in the end.
So I’m really glad that that worked out for you guys now and you guys are addicted.
Yes, because I told you well now with you keeping up this uh this fight talk, this is definitely a uh, something that we need, obviously, because it’s uh women’s boxing still needs to be pushed forward and again we it’s an honor just to be a Pioneer and Be a part of that and sharing that, so what you’re doing here is wonderful.
I mean you’re keeping the momentum you’re, keeping the the fighters out there talking about their personal lives.
We all have a story to tell.
Yes, everyone do our barriers and I’m just glad that you’re doing something like this and it’s an honor for you to have invited me to be on here.
I appreciate that yeah, I’m honored to have you here.
I mean your story is phenomenal.
Um, I mean people got a little bit of it before um, but yeah.
That’S what I try to tell everybody um and the reason that behind me wanting to do the show when, when I was asked about you know, trying to do the show and I’m like well, if I’m gon na, do the show it’s going to be done right And it’s going to be about the truth and the behind the scenes stuff that nobody understands, and nobody knows about um – that we have to go through as women in boxing boxing as a whole.
Um is a dirty business um, but it’s even worse.
On the women’s side and people don’t quite realize what all we had to go through to get it to where it is today.
Um and I definitely feel like some of the current Fighters kind of forgot about the path that was built for them um to get it to where it is today.
It didn’t just happen overnight, and they didn’t do it by themselves, like it was hundreds of us put together that kind of built our own little um.
You know brick and layer in the path to get it to where it is today, um and I don’t even think they quite realize um how much that we’ve all been through and what we had to go through um to keep pushing for women’s boxing to grow.
So that’s kind of where I am with it, and that was my goal – is just getting everybody to really realize and understand the truth about women’s boxing and how hard it was um for every single one of us from all the way.
Back to the very beginning.
All the way up to today, we’ve all got struggles um and it gets a little bit easier as we go along.
I think um, but it’s definitely not worth 100 where it needs to be yet, but we’re getting there we’re definitely getting there we’re getting steps um.
So I guess I is there anything you can think off the top of your head, that we missed that we talked about before that you want to cover as far as the boxing side of things, no just just for a lot of the upcoming fighters.
To just be cautious about signing contracts, who’s representing you are they good negotiators, you don’t want them costing.
You fights um nowadays, something like Playboy any type of opportunity where you can promote yourself and the the sport itself behind you, my God jump in you know, do what you can yeah and just you know always keep in mind that Pioneers like Sue Fox, Barbara butt Trick everybody else behind is supporting you right.
It has been trying and doing their best and they’re supporting you and right behind you all the way to keep uh wishing for this yeah, absolutely absolutely um.
So now I guess just briefly just because I know um, for you just kind of tell us a little bit about like what you do after retirement.
What do you do with your with your days after you stop watching yeah um the whole time I fought Brooke.
I mean I had to make sure that I took the type of jobs that would let me leave.
So I would take a lot of uh Labor Ready, Labor Force, where I would work for like a couple of weeks and then you know I told them.
I won’t be here for like a whole week, I’ll be out and a lot of time I was asked to become a manager or a supervisor, and I couldn’t commit because they weren’t going to give me the time off right.
So now I um I’ve done everything from uh driving getting my CDL Class A license and driving over the road um.
I worked for uh, the the Native American Indian Community and I was a telecommunications technician for them, slinging a telephone line and hooking up the internet and that got phased out, but they had asked me if I would uh stay within the community.
They need to women recruits for Patrol and um.
I did that and I had a major injury that that cost me about two surgeries to get back on my feet and I didn’t go back to law enforcement.
It was uh, it was a real, difficult battle to get back on my feet at that time, so um what else I’ve always been uh in the technical field.
So I always uh everything from like my uh apprenticeship for electrician and that kind of land me landed.
The job I have now, I’m an electrician technician.
Space field for I’ve just been very fortunate.
My work ethic, how I speak with people, your leadership, skills, um, negotiating skills.
That kind of got me in the door where I’m at and with benefits.
So I’m really fortunate because of that I didn’t have a degree in anything um.
I never finished college, so I didn’t get my associates out of the way, but if I had, I would have loved to have been like a sports medicine, doc uh sports medicine, physical therapy, because I knew so much about that.
But I utilized that for my own injuries to get myself back on my feet right law enforcement was an aspiration uh.
What else um? I know you said you got ta.
You got certificates um.
As for you, work with the youth or right something yeah.
Well, it touched it touched home to be uh involved with CPS, even though it happened, because you know you had a a spouse, accusing you of being the worst mother in the world, terrible.
How dare I follow my goals and dreams and leave my child and, and it wasn’t like that, um uh, because of that I was able to see that it helped keep the family together.
It helped um keep the family balance, and nowadays these programs are are out there for families at this point, that are there’s a lot of addiction and it’s breaking a lot of families up and what uh.
This attorney that I work with now.
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