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Celebrated manager Jackie Kallen predicts unbeaten Mykquan Williams will be her sixth world champion

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MANCHESTER, Conn. (February 12, 2020) – Women’s pioneer Jackie Kallen, the first and arguably most successful female manager in the boxing history, strongly believes unbeaten 21-year-old “Marvelous” Mykquan Williams (15-0-1, 7 KOs) will develop into her sixth world champion.

Williams, fighting out of East Hartford, CT, is the reigning the World Boxing Council (WBC) United States super lightweight champion.

“Mykey has a lot of the qualities as some of the greats in boxing,” Kallen said.  “He has some of the flash and speed of fighters like Ray Leonard, and the training habits and dedication of Thomas Hearns and Mike Tyson.  He also has a killer smile and good looks like Hector Camacho, Sr.

“Mykey can go all the way to a world title.  He has the speed, attitude, and heart, along with exceptional boxing ability.  He has been groomed perfectly by his trainer, Paul Cichon, who has kept Mykey true to his style, working hard to perfect his skill.  Mykey trains hard, eats right, and takes the game seriously.”

“Jackie’s very experienced and knowledgeable in boxing,” Williams remarked.  “She’s worked with some great, world-class fighters, so she knows the route to take for me to get there.”

Cichon added, “I sought out Jackie as our manager because of her love for the sports, as well as the knowledge of that she brings to the table.  She’s very well respected, as she certainly deserves to be.”

Boxing has dramatically changed since Kallen covered her first fight for a Detroit daily newspaper in 1978.  The card showcased Hearns and Mickey Goodwin.  She became an instant fan and wrote about boxing on a regular basis.  A legendary trainer/manager based in Detroit, Emanuel Steward, hired her as a publicist for his famed Kronk Gym.  Some of her best friends to this day are fighters who she worked with back then.  She and Hearns still get together.

After serving as Kronk’s publicist for a decade, Kallen decided to branch out and she started managing fighters.  Her first client was heavyweight Bobby Hitz, who today is a successful promoter and restaurateur in Chicago.  She went on to manage a group of Who’s Who fighters, including world champions James Toney, Bronco McKart, Tom “Boom Boom” Johnson, Pinklon Thomas andNonito Donaire.

Kallen, who overcame sexism in the boxing industry, is best known, perhaps, for her working relationship with Toney, largely because her life during that period was the inspiration for the popular 2004 movie, Against the Ropes, starring Meg Ryan as Kallen.

“Boxing today is a totally different animal,” she explained. “That’s not to say it’s better or worse, just different.  There used to be more gyms in every city, heavy amateur programs, lots of shows on television networks, and enough local club shows to keep a young fighter active.  I had guys back then who fought 8 to 10 times a year, which, of course, is almost impossible in 2020.

“There wasn’t as much information available on opponents either.  If you were lucky, you could buy a tape. If the fighter hadn’t been on television, though, you were out of luck.  There was no Internet, so there was nothing like BoxRec to check opponents’ records.  You just had to believe the matchmaker.  I had fighters expecting to fight a 14-4 guy who found out at the weigh in that he was actually 16-0.”

Boxing, likely the second-oldest profession, has continued to survive, albeit often on a roller-coaster ride.

“Today’s fighters are not as quick to fight each other as they were in the days of Hearns/Hagler/Leonard/Duran,” Kallen noted.  “Back then, fighters wanted to really fight to be the best they could be.  I see fighters today being more analytical and taking less chances.

“There are also more sanctioning organizations today.  Back then it was most the WBA, WBC and IBF.  Not to mention there was never one person who managed dozens and dozens of boxers at the same time.  The game has definitely changed!”

Kallen, though is still heavily invested in the sport she loves.  Confident Williams will be her next world champion, her dream is to be inducted into the Hall of Fame with Toney. 

“In 1992,” Kallen concluded, “I was named ‘Manager of the Year’ and my love for the sport has never waned.  As long as there is talent out there needing guidance, I will stay active.”

INFORMATION:

Twitter:  @MarvelousMyke, @JackieKallen

Instagram: @M.mkw_, @jackie.Kallen

Facebook: /MykquanWilliams, /PaulCichon, /JackieKallen

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A LEGENDARY MARCH THROUGH THE DECADES – SHOWTIME SPORTS® CONTINUES CELEBRATION OF 30 YEARS OF SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING®

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Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Felix Trinidad, Ricardo Lopez, George Foreman & More Showcased In March

 

Click HERE For A Look Back At Some Of The Legendary Moments On SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: http://s.sho.com/1RkA3CE

 

NEW YORK (March 2, 2016) – SHOWTIME Sports rolls out its third installment of a year-long salute commemorating 30 years of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING in March with  “Legends’’.

 

This month will be highlighted by legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Felix Trinidad, Ricardo “Finito” Lopez and George Foreman.  Seven of the most unforgettable and important fights from these legends – some of which have seldom been re-aired since their live presentation – are available now on the network’s on demand platforms and will air will air on “Throwback Thursdays”in March at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME EXTREME.

 

The Thursday, March 10 presentation of Marvin Hagler vs. John Mugabi airs exactly 30 years after the final win of Hagler’s Hall of Fame career on March 10, 1986.  Hagler vs. Mugabi was the first main event to ever air on SHOWTIME®.

 

The classic fights, which are also are available on SHOWTIME ON DEMAND®, SHOWTIME ANYTIME® and via the network’s standalone streaming service, will be wrapped with brief context and commentary from SHOWTIME Sports host Brian Custer.

 

Below is the schedule of SHO EXTREME premieres for the month of March:

  • Tomorrow, Thursday, March 3: Terry Norris vs. Sugar Ray Leonard
  • Thursday, March 10: Marvin Hagler vs. John Mugabi
  • Thursday, March 17: Felix Trinidad vs. David Reid
  • Thursday, March 24: Ricardo Lopez vs. Rosendo Alvarez II
  • Thursday, March 31: Iran Barkley vs. Thomas Hearns I, George Foreman vs. Gerry Cooney (10:15 p.m. ET/PT), Gerald McClellan vs. Julian Jackson I (10:30 p.m. ET/PT)

 

In celebration of the best rivalries on SHOWTIME, see below for a special column from SHOWTIME Sports expert analyst and boxing historian Steve Farhood.

 

LEGENDS

By Steve Farhood

 

Boxing without legends would be like religion without saints.

 

There’s no formula for a fighter to advance from star to superstar to legend. The process depends on timing, circumstance, and sometimes as little as a point or two on the judges’ cards.

 

And oh, yeah: It helps if a guy can really fight.

 

As we celebrate 30 years of boxing on SHOWTIME, we’re focusing on a different theme each month. Throughout March, the theme will be Legends.

 

In the 130 years from John L. Sullivan to Floyd Mayweather, boxing has given us what other sports can’t provide. Consider:

 

  • The Associated Press voted Luis Firpo’s knockdown of Jack Dempsey as the greatest sports moment of the first half of the 20th Century.
  • The Frazier-Ali “Fight Of The Century” in 1971 was easily the most anticipated sporting event in history.
  • Last year’s Mayweather-Pacquiao fight generated more than half-a-billion dollars — in one night!

 

Legends are made by big moments … and how they respond to those moments.

 

On SHOWTIME, we’ve featured three decades worth of legends. Here’s a look at those who will share the spotlight in March.

 

MARVIN HAGLER: Since Vince Lombardi didn’t exactly say, “Timing isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” Hagler should’ve said it.

 

Hagler was a great fighter long before he was a superstar, but it wasn’t until he fought Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, and Sugar Ray Leonard (three of Hagler’s last six bouts) that Marvin became Marvelous.

 

Hagler’s one appearance on SHOWTIME, which happened to be the first bout televised on the network (March 1986), was the final win of his career. Undefeated over 10 years, Hagler had established himself as one of the greatest middleweights in history. And while it could be argued in hindsight that at age 31, the ultimate blue-collar fighter was slightly past his prime, much of what made Hagler special was on display during his savage defense against his unbeaten and ferocious challenger, John Mugabi.

 

Almost three decades after his retirement, Hagler remains the middleweight today’s 160-pounders are measured against.

 

SUGAR RAY LEONARD: If Hagler bloomed late, Leonard was a superstar before he threw a single punch as a professional.

 

Back in the mid-‘70s, that’s what a magnetic smile, an Olympic gold medal, and repeated exposure on prime time television could do for a young fighter.

 

It’s ironic that Leonard was initially viewed by some as a coddled creation of the media. In fact, he was as tough as any fighter of the star-studded early-‘80s. Better yet, he remains the best fighter I’ve covered in 38 years on the boxing beat.

 

Leonard’s appearance on SHOWTIME was the penultimate bout of his career. In electing to end yet another lengthy layoff, Sugar Ray, 34, chose outstanding 23-year-old super welterweight titlist Terry Norris as his opponent. Leonard dropped from 160 to 154 pounds and fought at Madison Square Garden for the first time.

 

The bout served as a reminder that at least in a pre-Bernard Hopkins world, boxing was very much a young man’s game.

 

FELIX TRINIDAD: There are only three Hispanic fighters who became superstars in the USA without speaking English. The first was Panama’s Roberto Duran. The second was Mexico’s Julio Cesar Chavez.

 

The third was Puerto Rico’s Trinidad.

 

Trinidad’s motto might as well have been, “If you can’t be from America, then beat America.”

 

A classic puncher with a boy scout’s smile and a fan-friendly personality, Trinidad made his name by defeating four U.S. Olympians, Pernell Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya (albeit by a terrible decision), David Reid, and Fernando Vargas.

 

Moreover, Whitaker, De La Hoya, and Reid had all been gold medalists.

 

The fight we’ll feature on March 17 on SHO EXTREME, Trinidad vs. Reid, was Trinidad’s 14th and final appearance on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING and SHOWTIME pay-per-view.

 

From his welterweight title-winning kayo of Maurice Blocker in 1993 through his defense against Mahenge Zulu in 1998, 13 of Trinidad’s 14 bouts were aired on SHOWTIME. Twelve of those fights were knockout wins.

 

Where Trinidad ranks with Wilfredo Gomez, Miguel Cotto, Carlos Ortiz, Wilfred Benitez, and the rest of the legends from Puerto Rico is debatable. What is inarguable is that “Tito” generated as much excitement as any fighter of his era.

 

RICARDO LOPEZ: What’s smaller: the chance that a strawweight (105 pounds) becomes an American television star or the fighter himself?

 

There’s never been an American world champion at strawweight (or minimumweight). We just don’t grow fighters that size. In fact, until the emergence of Mexico’s Lopez in the early-’90s, most American boxing fans couldn’t have identified a single strawweight if armed with a map of the world and a set of WBC ratings.

 

Lopez was so complete, so dominant, so technically perfect, that from 1994 to ’99, he was a staple of SHOWTIME’s boxing programming. He fought 13 consecutive bouts on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING or SHOWTIME Pay-Per-View, and the first 11 of those contests were defenses of the strawweight title.

 

And if you think the little guys can’t punch, well, there were some one-punch kayos sprinkled in.

 

Lopez, who retired with a mark of 51-0-1, is universally acknowledged as an all-time great. Too bad he never fought America’s Michael Carbajal at light flyweight. Had he won that bout, he’d likely be acknowledged as one of the two or three greatest Mexican fighters ever.

 

Which is saying a lot for a fighter who never faced an opponent recognized by the American viewing public.

# # #

 

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ and FLIX®, and also offers SHOWTIME ON DEMAND®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ ON DEMAND and FLIX ON DEMAND®, and the network’s authentication service SHOWTIME ANYTIME®. Showtime Digital Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SNI, operates the stand-alone streaming service SHOWTIME®. SHOWTIME is currently available to subscribers via cable, DBS and telco providers, and as a stand-alone streaming service through Apple®, Roku®, Amazon and Google. Consumers can also subscribe to SHOWTIME via Hulu, Sony PlayStation® Vue and Amazon Prime Video. SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks™, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution, which offers Smithsonian Channel™, and offers Smithsonian Earth™through SN Digital LLC. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through SHOWTIME PPV. For more information, go to www.SHO.com.