BoxRec

Michelle 'Warrior Queen' Baron

Michelle Baron is a 28-year-old boxer from Bestwood in Nottingham and her current fight record is a mixed bag with two wins, one draw and one loss.

What would you say to people who think ladies shouldn’t be fighters?
Times change. Women never used to be allowed to go to work. If we were fighting men then I could see problems. But I don’t think women should try and be masculine, there’s no reason to do that. Just be a lady and treat it as a sport.

How often do you train in an average week?
I do my running in the morning before work. Then I work nine ‘til five and go to the gym afterwards. I take every Saturday off and then on a Sunday I do a long run. It all pretty much stays the same for me in the build up to a fight as well.

How do you mentally prepare for a fight?
I’m usually quite relaxed. Mentally I think the best thing to do is to stay calm and be confident in your own abilities. I’m a Christian as well, so I pray a lot.

What background do you have in combat sports?
Aside from the boxing I did Muay Thai, but I fractured my shin in an accident. I also do a bit of Brazilian Jujitsu with some friends who come down from Chesterfield - we show them our boxing techniques and then they show us some of theirs.

How did you first get into this?
Boxing is something I’ve been into since I was about two years old. I remember it was a treat to stay up late and watch it on TV with my parents - and growing up I remained a good observer of it. I was bullied when I was younger and when I got to about fifteen I decided I wasn’t having it anymore and knocked a boy out in school after he bashed my head on a wall. So, after that, my parents sent me to some classes to get my
anger out.

What crosses your mind before you head out to the ring?
I always hope that I won’t break my nose as that wouldn’t look nice. I get nervous about people watching me - I’m probably more scared of tripping up on the carpet on the way in than I am of the fight itself. But once I’m in there and the bell goes I just switch off.

Do you have any pre-fight rituals?
The day before I always have a Dead Sea salt bath. Then on the morning of the fight I always get my hair done. But these are just because they make me feel better rather than for superstitious reasons.

What music do you come out to?
A track called Done With It, a charity song by various Nottingham rappers against gun and knife crime.

While out in town do you find yourself sizing up other people and deciding whether you could have ‘em?
No. When I was younger maybe and when I worked on nightclub doors - as I felt I had something to prove. But now I’m much calmer. If I saw someone getting bullied or beaten up then I’d have to intervene, but I wouldn’t try and hurt anyone.

If you could fight any celebrity who would you choose?
David Beckham - he needs to man up. I don’t like footballers anyway and he’s too much of a girl. I wouldn’t really fight him though; I’d probably just give him a bitchslap.

Anything else you want to say to our readers?
Thanks to my promoter Damian Hucker , My coach Barrington Brown, Nash at King of The Ring and Clayton Byfield, founder and director of Done With It. I think us fighters could all do with more support from Nottingham as a whole. And the reason I’m supporting anti-gun and knife charities is because we’ve had too much street violence in this city. Last year one of my friends, Bernard Langton, was shot and killed on a night out and left behind two kids and partner. There needs to be more education and more workshops out there for the kids. You tend to find that people who do combat sports are much calmer and nicer people for it.

For more information on the charity Michelle supports visit donewithit.co.uk

The Insider wrote:Cool. Has Barrington officially retired and does he train your boxers Damien? He hasn't boxed for about 6 months has he.

ReggieDiggs wrote:Eh, respect to her for training & fighting, but I don't think female boxing ever becomes mainstream even to the level mens boxing is now (which might be its historic low point...in the US anyway) which is pretty far from mainstream. The biggest issue & this is one the UFC brought up & changed their stance on recently is the competition problem. Sure there are some female boxing superstars out there, but there isn't anyone to fight them & even if there is 1 or 2 to fight that isn't enough females for them to fight. You can't really have a sport become popular without competition imho. Boxing being the clusterf#ck it is isn't helping them either. The plus for the UFC is they can just do one division that they feel does have competition & either fold it eventually or grow it from there once they see how it does. Can't really do the same in boxing with how its every man, or person I should say, for themselves.

Also I just kinda think some sports are one sex or the other in viewer appreciation or at least thats the case for me. I don't really wanna see females play basketball or football or box. Hell I don't wanna see men play tennis or volleyball either. And neither sex should be playing golf cuz that sh!t is boring as f#ck.

Riddick Blowe wrote:

ReggieDiggs wrote:Eh, respect to her for training & fighting, but I don't think female boxing ever becomes mainstream even to the level mens boxing is now (which might be its historic low point...in the US anyway) which is pretty far from mainstream. The biggest issue & this is one the UFC brought up & changed their stance on recently is the competition problem. Sure there are some female boxing superstars out there, but there isn't anyone to fight them & even if there is 1 or 2 to fight that isn't enough females for them to fight. You can't really have a sport become popular without competition imho. Boxing being the clusterf#ck it is isn't helping them either. The plus for the UFC is they can just do one division that they feel does have competition & either fold it eventually or grow it from there once they see how it does. Can't really do the same in boxing with how its every man, or person I should say, for themselves.

Also I just kinda think some sports are one sex or the other in viewer appreciation or at least thats the case for me. I don't really wanna see females play basketball or football or box. Hell I don't wanna see men play tennis or volleyball either. And neither sex should be playing golf cuz that sh!t is boring as f#ck.

I'm guessing you're saying you would only watch women's sport if they were hot, in which case I would agree with you.