 Maureen Shea – Nobody’s Sparring Partner
 The Glassjaw Chronicles by Thomas Gerbasi (March 9. 2007)
 Send this page to friend Give us your feedback
Watch the great Roberto Duran in a public setting for any length of time and you’ll soon realize one thing – he loves everybody. But when it comes to the sport that made him a legend, he turns serious, doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and has little patience. So when he sat down with Maureen Shea during a press tour and willingly dissected his fights for her, it made one thing very obvious: to him, Shea wasn’t just a ‘girl’ fighter; she was a fighter.
“I watched several of his fights with him and that was just an experience in itself,” said Shea of the tour, where she, along with Irish middleweight contender John Duddy, visited bars to screen Duran’s bouts and promote their own upcoming fights. “He was explaining every little thing and it was like he was still in the fight – it was incredible and I felt his energy.”
Duran would stress to the unbeaten Shea the importance of the gym, the jab, and other nuances of the game, nuggets of knowledge the 26-year old immediately took to heart.
“I learned a lot and I’ve actually incorporated a little bit of his style into my style,” said Shea, who despite her obvious feminine charms, is regarded as ‘one of the guys’ by many of her peers.
And that’s just the way she wants it. In fact, it’s the way she wanted to be treated from the first time the Bronx native stepped into the gym at Omni Health and Fitness in Pelham.
“I walked in there with all men – I was the only woman,” she remembered. “I started working out back there, and I saw how these men were treating me. Some were like, ‘oh, she’s cute,’ and were flirting with me. One guy passed me his number, and some of them would just shoo me, or push me away, and I said to myself ‘how am I gonna get respected back here, because I need this for me.’”
Her next course of action was clear.
She would ignore them.
She would watch them.
She would do everything they did.
“I stayed quiet and to myself, and I would get in there and fight,” said Shea. “Every time I sparred I threw it all out there, and I kept doing that and doing that.”
And with that attitude, she eventually earned her respect – respect that is given to most men right off the bat because it’s just assumed that if you’re a male in a boxing gym that you must have some level of toughness about you. If you’re a woman though, not only are you forced to learn the game like everyone else, you have to do it with an extra level of prejudice draped on top because it’s assumed that you’re not as athletically inclined as a man is.
It brings to mind a sparring session I witnessed at Gleason’s Gym years ago between top female amateur Veronica Simmons and a male heavyweight. The opening moments saw Simmons working her opponent, and her counterpart obviously holding back because he was in there with a member of the fairer sex. But by the middle of the round, Simmons really started whacking this guy, drawing ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ by the rest of the folks in the gym, and now thoroughly embarrassed, he started swinging back with bad intentions of his own. End result? Simmons still kicked his tail.
But I digress. When it comes to Shea, it was of the utmost importance to earn that respect and make her name as a fighter, not as a female fighter. And it’s worked so far.
“Since Day One, I looked at myself not as a woman – I am a fighter,” she said. “I bleed the same blood, sweat the same sweat, and cry the same tears, so I put myself right there with them. When I went to my pro debut, I was in camp with (New York City prospects) Dmitriy Salita, Edgar Santana, and Jorge Teron – all men. And you know what? They respect me. How can they not? I respect myself first and foremost as a person, and I respect myself as a fighter, so they can’t not respect me. I’m not going in there flirting with the guys, I’m not in there to meet somebody or get into a relationship – I’m in there to fight, to win, and to keep myself going. I walk into Gleason’s Gym, I say hello and good morning to everybody, I get in there, work out, and I walk right out. I don’t hang out – I have a very separate boxing and personal life. I think that’s why they respect me – because I respect myself as a woman, number one, and as a fighter.”
But even though one hurdle was cleared, as Shea made her way through the tail end of her amateur career and the beginning of her pro career, she was besieged with interview requests, photo ops, and fan mail not because she was a budding talent with great potential, but because she was Hilary Swank’s sparring partner as the Oscar-winning actress prepared for her role in the film ‘Million Dollar Baby’. It was a Catch-22 of epic proportions – do you turn down the publicity because you want to come up the hard way without any help (yeah right, who turns down that type of opportunity?), or do you accept the publicity and hope that people will still want to follow you and your career once the novelty of the movie wears off?
Shea chose the latter, and she has lived to tell the tale. How do you know that? Well, she is still one of the most visible female fighters in the game today, and the ‘Million Dollar Baby’ references are moving further and further down each story. And as far as the fans are concerned, well, suffice to say that they’ll watch someone on television or read a story about them for a while if someone is enjoying their 15 minutes of fame, but they won’t consistently spend their hard-earned cash on tickets just to see a media-created hype. And in New York, Shea is, without question, a ticket-seller. For her, this may be the most pleasant development of her pro career, which is just a little over a year and a half long.
“I wanted to get my respect as an individual and not just as somebody’s sparring partner,” she admits. “Not to say it wasn’t a wonderful experience in respect to Hilary, because it’s something that I’m going to keep with me forever and it’s something that’s helped me in my boxing career, but it’s time for people to recognize me as me and not just say ‘oh, she’s all hype’ and ‘she just got this far because she was Hilary Swank’s sparring partner.’ People tried to play that with me and I knew that was gonna happen, and rightfully so because I had to prove myself. And little by little, with each fight, I’m proving myself. Now that I’m ranked number one by the WBA, how can you turn to me and say ‘you’re just Hilary Swank’s sparring partner?’ You can’t, so I’ve won the respect, and that means a lot to me. At the same time, people are still saying that, they are still gonna be critics, but that’s okay, because I’m in this game for one person – me. If I touch other people out there, if there are fans that support me and want to follow me, I welcome them. But when I step into the ring, it’s all about me.”
People have responded to her though. Whether it’s because of her looks, her Irish / Mexican heritage, her story, or her pleasing fighting style, there’s something about Shea that has struck a chord with fans. It’s made her one of a select few female fighters that has crossed over into the consciousness of those who follow boxing but who have no interest in women’s boxing.
“I’m honored,” she said. “It’s surreal for me because I’m just being me, and this is who I am. People are following me and I’m really happy that I can touch people like that. I do feel the energy and support of my fans in the ring, and it helps me. The fact that these people come to the fights is fuel for my fire as a fighter. Knowing that I have the support, that people believe in me, and that they want to know me as a boxer and a person, that’s an honor. I get fan mail from people that say I’m an inspiration.”
Why Maureen Shea though? What’s the secret?
“I’ve always been very personable and I haven’t changed,” she said. “I have a best friend from when I was born that will tell you that I’m still the same person and people seem to take a liking to me and they want to follow me. As far as marketing myself, I am very feminine, so I bring my femininity out, and I think the mixture of that with being a good athlete, being Mexican and Irish, speaking Spanish, and being a college student, it’s a diverse background and personality that people aren’t used to seeing. I think a lot of people, when they meet me, whether they know I’m a fighter or not beforehand, they want to see me fight because they’re curious.”
She also goes out of her way to interact with her fans. Her myspace.com account currently holds 1,620 of her ‘friends’ at press time, and she makes an effort to answer her fan mail. That of course leads to another issue unique to female fighters – dealing with the resident nuts that tend to gravitate to attractive young women. I can’t really picture Nicolay Valuev getting asked out on too many dates through cyberspace, but fighters like Shea do get their share of unwanted suitors.
“I’m a pretty good judge of character and I always answer the emails I get from my website and my myspace messages with respect,” she said. “And once I get the sense that somebody is getting a little overboard, I’ll address them and say it, because how would they know that they crossed the line? I’m not just gonna ignore them. Where they take it from there is their responsibility. I’m always going to be respectful, but I’m also going to stand my ground because you never know who the sickos are and who aren’t because the sickos are pretty good at hiding it. (Laughs) I had some fan mail that was a little bit crazy, but I know how to handle it, and this is stuff that I need to be on the lookout for. With the way I see my career going, inside and outside the ring, I know there’s gonna be a lot more of that.”
Unfortunately she’s right, but she also knows her way around a left hook and right cross, so that’s a comfort in one respect.
In the ring though, she can see what’s coming at her, and so far she’s delivered to the tune of nine wins with one no contest and no losses. Yet despite her lofty number one ranking at 130 pounds by the WBA, a look at her opposition doesn’t exactly scream ‘Murderer’s Row’. In fact, the one no contest on her record was originally a controversial split decision loss to 2 and 10 Kim Colbert last May, where Shea was dropped in round two. Colbert subsequently tested positive for marijuana, reversing the decision.
So the question has to be, has Shea truly been tested yet?
“I don’t know if I believe in that stuff as far as being tested,” she admits. “Yeah, different parts of my athleticism and my boxing skills have been tested, but I don’t think I’ve been pushed to my limit yet. Every fight is a test at that moment because I grow from every fight. Everyone asks me if I’m ready for a title – I train for every fight like it’s a title. I think you’re always learning in boxing, so every time I fight, I’m tested and I find something new out.”
And hey, let’s face it, if you can progress through this game, get some titles, make a few bucks, and never have to fight through your own personal version of hell, God bless ya.
“People say ‘you haven’t been tested, you’re not good enough,’” she continues. “When people say that, I say ‘What? Do you want to see me get beaten up?’ I’ve been knocked down and I got back up. I don’t know what people expect to see when they say tested. That last fight (a six round decision win over Elizabeth Villarreal), people left pretty impressed. But I’m ready for every fight that comes along and I’m getting the experience as I grow, and I want people to see the best of Maureen Shea.”
We’ll get that chance in the coming weeks and months as she continues to get experience in the ring (she’s fighting at Madison Square Garden on March 16th) and outside of it with trainer Hector Roca. And the most important thing is; she’s not in a rush for a title. She wants to be ready when that time comes. And she will be.
“I’ve experienced so many different types of fighters, I’ve grown as a fighter, and I’ve learned so much so far that I just see myself getting better and better,” she said. “Plus, nobody has higher expectations of me than me. I put the pressure on myself so I don’t look at what other people expect of me. I know I expect the most, and I’m my own worst critic.”
‘Manos De Piedra’ would be proud.
Discuss this Topic - Go to the forums
E-Mail Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com or visit www.myspace.com/gerbasi |
