Jackie Kallen

Jackie Kallen (born Jackie Kaplan, April 23, 1946) is one of boxing's first and most successful female managers. Her life was tr the film Against the Ropes in which she had a brief speaking role as a reporter. She also worked as a consultant for Mark Burnett's reality TV series The Contender.

Kallen was raised in a middle-class Jewish family in Detroit. She attended Schulze Elementary and Mumford High School.

A show business journalist for a magazine in the 1970s, Kallen interviewed the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and countless others. In 1977 she was assigned to interview a boxing prospect from the Kronk gym in Detroit, Michigan, Thomas Hearns. Kallen became fascinated with sports and began working as a sports journalist specializing in boxing.

Kallen spent a decade as Hearns' publicist as Hearns went on to face Sugar Ray Leonard in two championship fights. In the process she became well known around Detroit's boxing circles but met with sexism along the way.

Kallen made her managerial debut with heavyweight Bobby Hitz in 1988. She managed her first champion in 1991, James Toney knocking out Michael Nunn in eleven rounds to win the IBF world Middleweight title. Another Kallen fighter, Bronco McKart, won the WBO world Jr. Middleweight title in 1996.

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