"I have a problem with HBO in particular, who keep overlooking women when it comes to these commentating positions. Not only did they not show women boxing on HBO, but they refuse to hire one on as a commentator for the network. The only women that you are going to see on HBO Boxing are ring card girls. There are intelligent and beautiful women that work in this sport, such as Laila Ali and Mia St. John, who even went to broadcast journalism school and would be more than qualified. They also have Lucia Riker and Julie Lederman, who would also be qualified to be commentators...It's time for HBO to stop ignoring us. We are here. We can talk sports. We have been involved in other sports for many many years. I just want to say to HBO that the best man for the job is a woman," stated Jacqueline Smith as she shared her thoughts on women in boxing. Being involved with the sport for nearly 20 years and having worked alongside some of the biggest promoters, Jacqueline knows a thing or two about the business of boxing, to say the least. Check out what else she had to say.
PC: Thanks for your time Mrs. Smith. I want to give you the opportunity to tell everyone your position in boxing. So, who are you, where have you been and who do you know?
JS: (Laughing) I have been around boxing forever. Ever since I was a kid, I have always loved boxing, but I've actually worked in the sport for about the last 20 years. I started in the amateur program and I have a son that is a professional athlete. I used to be a coach with USA Boxing back in the 90's and I actually worked the corners, so that was my start, doing that kind of stuff and I did that for about 10 years. Then I came over into the pros. I started working with promoters and learning the business side of the sport because I had been with the kids all throughout the 90's. I was at the Olympic Trials and I made the transition over to the pros because I wanted to learn the business side. So I worked with different promoters on some incredible shows for the past 13 years with fighters such as Roy Jones, Manny Pacquiao, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson. So I've had the chance to work on great shows with great promoters. I love this business. There is no sport in the world that is greater than boxing. Boxing is not going anywhere. It is here to stay.
PC: What was the biggest difference for you transitioning from the amateur to the pro ranks? I'm sure it's grimier in the pro ranks.
JS: Being a woman and loving the sport of boxing is grimey anyway. People tend to overlook you. When I first got started, I was doing freelance writing for the Las Vegas Sun newspaper and I could never get any interviews. This was in the early 80's. All of the fighters used to go down to Johnny Tocco's to train. Well, Johnny Tocco didn't allow women in the gym. His thing was, "No broads or no dames can come in the gym. No girlfriends or anything; no women." I said, "Okay!" But my best friend was a trainer, so I would go down to the gym and I would wait for the guys to come out. Hot, cold, summer, winter or fall, I would stand outside and wait for guys to come out and I would talk to them. This went on for maybe a year where they wouldn't grant me interviews. Finally, one summer, it was like 100 degrees outside and I believe it was Tony Tubbs in the gym and I wanted to get an interview with him. I'm waiting outside in the scorching heat to do an interview and Johnny Tocco leaves the door open. I'm thinking, "Okay, he never leaves this door open. What's going on?" He comes back to the door and he nods his head. He points to this chair over in the corner and says, "Sit there." I said, "Okay." I went in and I sat in that chair and I didn't say anything to anybody and I got my interview. It was hotter in Johnny Tocco's than it was outside. It was an all brick building and you would lose 20 pounds just by sitting in there. But that was my foray into it. I actually got into the doors at Johnny Tocco's and after that day, he started allowing me to come into the gym and do my little interviews and stuff like that.
But to answer your question, going into the pros was definitely grimier. The biggest thing is just being a woman and earning that respect. Even now, and I've been doing this for 20 years, people can look at me and look at me as an attractive woman and wonder what am I doing there. They're not knowing that I'm the promoter's assistant and I'm there working with the promoter until they hear me talk. Once they hear me talk and realize that I know what I'm talking about, then we can get down to business and get things accomplished. Now I have a lot of respectability and credibility with people in the industry, but it's just like anything out there, you have to be dedicated to it and stay at it and it's no different in boxing. It's not personal; it's all business. I'm here people. I love this sport and I'm concerned about the longevity of this sport. I love the fighter's and everything about this sport. It's just as big a part of me as it is in any man. It's gotten easier over the years to fit in, although I still get some negativity occasionally. I have certainly paid my dues in this sport (laughing).
PC: You were adamant about a female getting the commentary job for HBO that opened up when Lennox Lewis' contract was not extended. Can you talk about that for me?
JS: Absolutely. Again, it is very hard for women to be taken seriously in this sport. I have a problem with HBO in particular, who keep overlooking women when it comes to these commentating positions. Not only did they not show women boxing on HBO, but they refuse to hire one on as a commentator for the network. The only women that you are going to see on HBO Boxing are ring card girls. There are intelligent and beautiful women that work in this sport, such as Laila Ali and Mia St. John, who even went to broadcast journalism school and would be more than qualified. They also have Lucia Riker and Julie Lederman, who would also be qualified to be commentators. Long ago, football integrated women and brought in Jane Kennedy. If you look at football and basketball, you see women courtside and at the goal line. Even in the past couple of years, Showtime tried the format of having a woman on deck and I really applaud Showtime for that because that was great. The only problem with that and why it didn't work out is because it wasn't a boxing woman. You can't bring in any woman just to say, "Okay, we got the token woman." You gotta bring in a woman who knows a right hand from a left hook and who knows fights and they can sit there and call it with the fellas. And just recently, I saw on Friday Night Fights where they had a Latina female doing an interview with one of the Latin fighters. So everybody else is including woman and HBO is blatantly refusing too. So you're telling me that in 30 years of HBO boxing, there has not been one woman that was qualified to commentate?
PC: Larry Merchant is a tough guy to get along with and he's a tough guy to commentate with. Do you think a woman could hold her own next to him?
JS: Let me tell you something, there are some strong and tough ladies in boxing. Don King has a woman that has been his right hand for 20 to 30 years. Bob Arum has a woman that's been with him for several years. We have been with them and we're right there next to the promoters in every aspect, from A to Z, in putting on that fight. We are there. We're ordering gear, we're ordering the rings, we're getting the banners, we're getting ring mats, we're talking to sponsors, we're making sure the fighters have everything they need and that they have their proper documentation, so we are there, but that's my problem because it's like we're not there. We are already there and we have always been there, but we should be visible. I have no doubt that the position is not going to go to a woman. If you ask me who I would like to see get the job, since it's not going to a woman, I would have to say Ray Leonard. I think Ray Leonard is an excellent commentator. So if a woman is not going to get it, I wouldn't be mad to see Ray Leonard get the position. He would be excellent. I understand that he's just not interested. It's not going against them. I don't want to battle with them. I don't want to challenge them. I want to be their colleague. I want to reason with you. When you say something that's not accurate, I want to be able to say, "I don't think that." Our differences are what make us great. It's not so much of going up against guys as it is I want to work with him. But HBO seems to have a problem with just having a woman out there period. It's not a welcomed thing. To them, we just don't exist and for the people out there that don't know, we're here. There are women in this sport working as Vice President and doing promotions, so like I said, we're here and it's a shame for a network to just continually ignore the fact that we're here and still working in this sport, and have been and we're still being productive. It's sad. They are content to keep on doing it and that's really unfortunate.
PC: You also applauded Melvina Lathan's stance on wanting to incorporate the USADA drug testing in New York .
JS: Yes. She said that she was open to the possibility of New York going to the random drug testing, which I think is great. My opinion about that is that boxing is not excluded. We have performance enhancing drug usage in every single sport. Keep in mind, a lot of these athletes are not getting caught during the testing process. They're getting caught during testimony or somebody else told it, so if it's running rampart everywhere else, that doesn't exclude us either. We should have random drug testing. We have athletes that have already gotten caught on performance enhancing drugs. We have a problem with that. Boxing is a beautiful sport, it's an honest sport and if I'm cheering for a guy, I want that guy to be drug free. The body of a boxer is a beautiful thing; they train hard and work hard and there is nothing more beautiful than seeing a highly-skilled boxing match. If you're taking performance enhancing drugs, then you're polluting that. That's not fair to anybody. If Melvina Lathan and New York implement that, I think that would be great. The fact that she is a woman...maybe that's what it takes.
If you have someone that's not willing to do it, there is something wrong with that. A lot of people say, "Well, you're saying a person is guilty before they are found guilty." But it's not that. If you're clean, you know you are clean and it's not even a problem. If you are taking any type of anything that can enhance your performance or if you're putting something in your hand wraps, that's gotta go. That's not what this sport is about. We work from skill. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a perfect gameplan put together and watching the skill of a fighter execute it. One that comes to mind for me, and this was some years back, but watching Joe Calzaghe beat Jeff Lacy was masterful. I don't know if anybody could have told Joe Calzaghe to do anything differently that night. It was a technical performance. That's the beauty of it. Some people think our sport is just guys beating on each other and it's brutal, but there is an actual beauty to it. When a fighter is fighting and he's getting caught with an uppercut continuously for the first couple of rounds, and then you see him clasp his elbows together and make the necessary adjustments to stop getting caught with that uppercut, it's a beautiful thing. That's one of the beauties of Floyd Mayweather. He makes great adjustments in the ring. It's truly the sweet science. No one trains their fighter to get busted up and hit in the head. Everybody trains their fighter to hit and don't be hit. I've seen kids from the amateur program that were having problems at home and once they got involved in boxing, those problems went away. You didn't have to worry about them being on drugs because they drug tested them in the amateur program. They travel around the country, and in some cases around the world, and they're getting a chance to see things. I think boxing is good on so many different levels.
PC: I appreciate your time and giving me the opportunity to conduct this interview with you. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
JS: I want to thank you for taking the time to speak to me. It is what it is. It's time for HBO to stop ignoring us. We are here. We can talk sports. We have been involved in other sports for many many years. I just want to say to HBO that the best man for the job is a woman.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]