One week after Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano made
history as Madison Square Garden’s first female main eventers and women’s
boxing’s first million dollar co-headliners, Bronx-born southpaw Maureen Shea, known
as ‘The Real Million Dollar Baby,’ returned to her old stomping grounds—more or
less—for the first time in twelve years to pound out an eight-round decision over Calista Silgado at St.
Johns University’s Carnesecca Arena in Queens.
But don’t call it a comeback. The 41-year-old former world champion insists on referring to her triumphant homecoming, not to mention career victory number thirty, as a “take back.” Looking to be in the best condition of her life and still competing at super-bantamweight, Maureen is back in action after two and a half years, since stopping Martina Horgasz in a pre-pandemic bout, with her eyes on the prize—namely a run at another world title. Maryelin Rivas, Yamileth Mercado, Cherneka Johnson, and Segolene Lefebvre, you have been put on notice.
Shea’s fighting spirit was something of a birthright, encoded into her DNA thanks to an ethnically diverse heritage responsible for her being blessed with what she calls “Mexican soul and Irish pride.”
Bullied as a young schoolgirl, Maureen always tried her
best to fight back against her attackers, even when she was ganged up on and
hopelessly outnumbered. Her teens brought about a reversal of fortune in terms
of popularity and Shea admits to indulging in too much partying for her own
good. It was at one of these get togethers that the Tyson/Holyfield bite fight
happened to be playing on TV, and Iron Mike’s display of primal rage stirred
something deep within her.
Initially, Maureen first stepped into a gym in a
misguided effort to maintain her physical appearance and thereby please the
abusive “juicehead” boyfriend with whom she would spend three years before
extricating herself from the volatile situation and instead continue her
newfound love affair with boxing.
After proving her worth in a trial by fire sparring
session at Gleason’s Gym, Shea was given the opportunity to work with renowned
trainer Hector Roca. It just so happened that Roca had been tasked with
overseeing Hilary Swank’s preparation for her role in Clint Eastwood’s Million
Dollar Baby, and arranged for Shea to become her sparring partner
throughout the process. Swank would end up modeling part of her character of
Maggie Fitzgerald after Maureen, hence Shea’s ring moniker.
Eight months following the theatrical release of Million
Dollar Baby, and four weeks after the cancelation of the Christy Martin vs.
Lucia Rijker super-fight which borrowed its promotional tagline ‘Million Dollar
Lady’ from Eastwood’s movie, Shea debuted as a professional prizefighter with a
first-round knockout of Camille Casson at the Westchester County Center in
White Plains.
Despite being dropped and outpointed by Kim Colbert on
two scorecards in May 2006, the split decision in favor of her adversary was
later ruled a no contest when Colbert failed a post-fight drug test, preserving
Maureen’s unbeaten streak which would extend to thirteen fights, racking up
impressive victories over the likes of Olga Heron and Olivia Gerula along the
way, and lead to her first world title opportunity.
Featured third from the top on a February 21, 2009 card
at Madison Square Garden with Miguel Cotto and ‘Irish’ John Duddy occupying the
two main event slots, Shea was pitted against 8-3 Kina Malpartida for ownership
of the vacant WBA world super-featherweight title. It was a good, close scrap
but Maureen was already slightly behind on the cards when she was sent to the
deck with just twenty-five seconds remaining in the tenth and final round. Eddie
Cotton waved off the fight to give Malpartida the win and the world
championship, the first for a Peruvian woman.
Back in action six months later, Shea’s fortunes
continued to take a temporary downturn with another stoppage loss, this time to
future super-featherweight world champion Lindsay Garbatt at Connecticut’s Mohegan
Sun Casino. However, this stands as the last defeat on Maureen’s ledger, as she
has gone 16-0-1 over the twelve intervening years, all the while claiming the
NABF featherweight strap, WBC interim world featherweight title, and IFBA world
super-bantamweight championship.
A tough customer and former world title challenger with eleven years’ worth of sprightly slugfests to her credit, Calista Silgado was an inspired choice to oppose Shea for this “take back” fight in Queens Saturday evening. Coming into the bout with a career record of 19-13-3, the 34-year-old Colombian’s resume is peppered with heavy hitters like Alejandra Marina Oliveras, Paulina Cardona, Yazmin Rivas, Maryelin Rivas, Jennifer Han, Shelly Vincent, Mikaela Mayer, Hyun Mi Choi, and both Serrano sisters—Cindy and Amanda.
Maureen Shea dug deep to best the rugged Silgado over eight rounds Saturday evening in what she intends to be the first step on her mission toward a 122-pound world title belt, or just maybe all of them. 'The Real Million Dollar Baby' will make whatever sacrifices are necessary to see her vision through to completion. And you can take that to the bank.
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