Kallen still the champ
July 11, 2011 11:02PM
Updated: July 13, 2011 3:45PM
Jackie Kallen, the legendary boxing manager portrayed by Meg Ryan in the 2004 movie “Against the Ropes,” is the queen of the sport. Or close to it.
“My actual title that was given to me by Ring Magazine back in the ’90s is ‘the first lady of boxing,’ ” she told Quick Hits when she was in town for a recent Bobby Hitz fight card.
OK, so where are the second and third and fourth ladies? Few have followed in her footsteps.
“I thought, as the years went by, I was blazing a trail that other women might say, ‘Look at her. She’s having a lot of fun, she’s in a real testosterone-loaded field and getting all this love from all these guys,’ ” said Kallen, whose father was from Chicago. “Very few have tried it. It’s a rough, rough business. Boxing is great. It’s down and dirty, and you’ve got to be strong. If you’re going to get in there and swim with the sharks, you better know how to get out of the way. For me, I just hung in there.”
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