Michelle ‘Raging Babe’ Rosado has been an integral part of the Philadelphia fight scene for a minute now, but being a woman in a sport dominated by men certainly is no easy task. So in a recent appearance on Brian Custer’s The Last Stand Podcast, the boxing promoter share some of her perspective on what it’s like to work in the business and where she sees the sport going from here. Check out some excerpts below with the full video interview above.
Rosado on the current state of women’s boxing:
“Women’s boxing needs a platform, there’s nowhere for these girls to fight, they deserve some fairness in our sport. I’m not trying to say they deserve to be paid the same as Canelo, but they shouldn’t be paid 5 thousand dollars to defend their titles either, so in 2021 I’m going to get more involved in women’s boxing and try and be a voice for them because they deserve better and a platform.”
On why club shows like the ones she promotes are so important to the sport:
“Club shows are where you are building those prospects, that’s where you’re developing those fighters you see the top promoters are pulling these opponents from. We’re developing these guys from the ground up, we’re almost like a farm system. Most of these guys you see on TV fighting for millions of dollars, and becoming world champions, a lot of them started at the club level.”
On the difficulty in being a female promoter in boxing:
“I’ve been called every racial slur you can think of, I’ve had tickets thrown in my face, I’ve had my house vandalized, I’ve had a brick thrown through my back window of my car. I’ve been called every kind of groupie you can imagine. She’s slept with everybody in the business and every fighter. I’ve earned my stripes, I’ve worked hard, no handouts, it’s just been all hardwork and I’ve had to learn to turn the cheek. Most people know nine years in that I’m a hustler. You’ll never find a fighter that says she stole from me, she didn’t pay me, she lied to me, you’ll never find a fighter that says that!”
On female boxing promoters:
“Yes we have a lot more women in boxing, yes it still a little more difficult for us, but we’re there you hear us roaring. Behind every big promoter, he’s got a woman either as his right hand man or running the operation. And I mean all of them!”
On her ultimate goal:
“I want to continue to promote good fights, I want to make Philadelphia the legendary fight town that it once was, I want to develop those guys from the ground up, I want old school and new school boxing fans to come to my shows and fall in love with boxing again, and them become interested in the bigger boxing world again because we’re losing that old school boxing fan. I want to uphold the reputation of real fights, real fighters, real fans that’s my passion.”
Her top 5 pound-for-pound fighters in the sport:
1. Terence Crawford
2. Canelo Alvarez
3. Errol Spence Jr.
4. Naoya Inoue
5. Teofimo Lopez
On who’s boxing next big star and the best fighter out of Philly right now
“Boxing’s next big star is Tank….We got a lot of really good fighters in Philly, but Jaron “Boots” Ennis is that dude!”