Little Kara Ro Hasn’t Done In A Boxing Ring
 

Nearly two decades after she stepped through the ropes and into the ring for her first professional fight, Kara Ro still gets the odd snicker or backhanded insult when she works in the corner as a second for one of her boxers on fight night.

“Girlfriends aren’t supposed to be at ringside,” she’s been told.
In fact, Ro keeps a photo on her phone as a daily reminder that misogyny dies a slow death in and around the squared circle. In the photo, which was posted on social media, she is training one of her fighters, sparring with him.

Entered into the world of 140-character assassination, it wasn’t long before the photo brought the worst people out from under their rocks.
“He has a girl padding him, haha,” someone posted in the comments under the picture.

That girl - woman, actually, a mom with two kids in fact - could knock that naysayer out if her hands weren’t registered as lethal weapons.

It’s nothing new to Ro. She’s heard it all, going back to her first day in a Detroit gym.

Not that it mattered. From the initial moment she laced up the gloves, Ro knew she'd found her sanctuary.

"The level of commitment and dedication, it was so intense compared to what I was used to in the other sports that I played," Ro told the Windsor Star.

An Early Pioneer

Ro got into boxing at a time when women stepping in the ring was still viewed by purists as a novelty act. She never saw herself in that manner.

"I wanted to defy some of the stereotypes that were out there," Ro said. "I wanted to get out there and show that women have skill and can fight."

That she most certainly did. Ro was 17-0 in the ring as a professional. In the entirety of women’s boxing, just two female fighters have retired as unbeaten world champions.

One of them was Ro, who held the Women’s International Boxing Association world lightweight title when she hung up her gloves in 2011.

The other was Laila Ali. The daughter of Muhammad Ali finished her career 24-0 and held several world titles as a super middleweight and light heavyweight.

While Ali took her post-boxing talents into the world of television - she appeared last year on the Masked Singer - Ro stayed with her first love.

Talking A Good Game

Kara Ro hosted her own radio program, the TKO Show With Kara Ro.

In her early days in the ring, Ro supplemented her income by working as a bartender.

At the time, Ro's looks earned her a finalist's position in Canada's hottest bartender competition, an event sponsored by Bacardi Rum.
At the time, Ro's hooks rendered opponents silly.

She could’ve easily fashioned a career as a model, but that was never her desire.

The only jewelry she sought, she got - a diamond-studded boxing world championship belt.

Articulate, attractive, educated and intelligent. Ro had it all going for her and she chose to utilize those skills to build a life-long career in combat sports.

Toward the end of her boxing career, Ro landed other work that also involved stepping into the ring. But instead of her hands, it was her voice that was money.

She worked for some years as a ring announcer, landing gigs on cards put on by both Showtime and HBO.

"Even though it was really exciting, there was a lot of pressure, handing the mic off to (main event ring announcer) Jimmy Lennon Jr. and wondering how your performance was, knowing that a legend is coming after you," Ro said.

"But they were happy, so I was pretty excited."

She started out doing ring announcing for local shows and was spotted by the promoters of the big-time matches.

Ro also worked an HBO card with ring announcer demigod Michael Buffer.

"I really enjoyed it and it was a good way for me to stay in the sport,” Ro said. “I wanted to get back in the ring, but all these other opportunities started coming up."

Ro also handled broadcast duties on Mixed Martial Arts events out of the Detroit area for XTC.

"It was for both pro and amateur shows," she recalled. "I was doing both color and play-by-play, and after the bouts, I did the interviews (with the participants)."

Ro even hosted her own afternoon radio talk show for a number of years, called TKO With Kara Ro, at Windsor’s CKLW-AM.

Turning To Training

Ro’s introduction to MMA led her into a role as a trainer of fighters in that sport, as well as training boxers. Based in her hometown of Windsor, she conditions fighters on both sides of the Windsor/Detroit border. She even kept her workload up while pregnant with her second child.

Her current prize pupil is Detroit-based super middleweight Anthony Barnes. He scored a split-decision victory over Kenneth Council in his most recent fight in October to improve to 12-0.

She also trained Canadian Olympian and former women’s amateur world champ Mary Spencer.