SWIMMING WITH SHARKS

STANDING over James Toney as he receives instructions between rounds, Jackie Kallen cuts an intimidating figure, snarling across the ring at his opponent, while dressed all in black to match her fighter’s trunks. The black hides the second-hand sweat bouncing from the glistening skin of both men during their championship contest; it also hides the blood.

Below her, neither trainer nor boxer are paying attention to the man trying to punch holes in Toney; they are using 60 precious seconds to drag themselves back to the same page during a brief hiatus from the heat of battle. Kallen however, an angel on the shoulder of the troubled Michigan great, doesn’t flinch. Her piercing eyes shoot a look from somewhere in the centre of her mass of golden hair, which sits perfectly as though she’d been attending a movie premiere or a glitzy ball.

Despite looking out of place in this picture she would never let boxing count her out and has since helped create roles for women behind the scenes in a sport she remarked was formerly “all males.” Boxing is a different sport now, but Kallen remains as fearless as she was back then, perched on the ring apron, ready to pounce like a defensive mother.

Now approaching 75 that times have changed, but her principles of effective management remain the same: “With boxers, I try and see what kind of life they had, where they’re coming from, what they’ve been through. Do they want nurturing or that motherly kind of treatment or do they to be left alone and to feel independent? You have to try and figure them out.