(APR 17) Ask Bridgett Riley about boxing being a “contact” sport, and she might not exactly agree with you, and for a reason you might not believe.

Her now Hall of Fame pro boxing career was at an early crossroads – her record a middling 2-2 – following back-to-back loses to Theresa Arnold, herself an accomplished boxer who lost just once in 16 pro bouts.

But a closer look, so to speak, at those losses doesn't so much reveal a fighter at the turning point as one that was both a little unlucky and a lot unwise.

The second Arnold matchup was stopped because of a nasty cut over Riley's eye. The first (September 19, 1996) ended in a most unusual fashion, a disbelieving referee disqualifying the “Baby Doll” after she entered the ring wearing her contact lenses.

“I couldn't see. I was like Mr. Magoo. I would have to hold someone's shoulder just walking up to the ring without my contact lenses,” Riley recalled recently. “So I snuck them in, and one came out of my eye. My corner was like ' just deny it, deny it.' You're asking me if it's my contact lens and I'm like 'it's not mine.' So he lets us continue, and we're fighting and fighting and the second one came out, and he saw it, and I got reamed. He's like 'you're disqualified.' And I'm like, 'wha … what do you mean disqualified? Is that a loss?' I was like 'what the heck man.' I was so mortified because I got busted.”

Bridgett Riley vs. Aicha lahsen
Photo credit:  Mary Ann Owen

But if seeing is believing – even without contact lenses – Riley then ripped off 11 straight wins, including perhaps the two fights that best defined her 10-year boxing career, a triumph over talented and tough Yvonne Trevino on February 15, 1998, and four months later a knockout win over Aicha Lahsen.

Both were nationally televised pier sixers, her second win over Trevino for the International Female Boxing Association's bantamweight crown; Riley's pro debut was a split decision win over Trevino on April 8, 1994.

Both had distinguished boxing careers after equally acclaimed stints in kickboxing, and both had a number of nationally televised bouts that defined those sports in that era. Riley and Trevino, and a handful of others, proved beyond a shadow of the doubt women belonged in the squared circle, each the embodiment of grit and grace, style and sass, desire and dogged determination.

“We were just made for each other. That pro debut it was like 'yeah, nothing like jumping in the deep water again.' I'm so grateful for her. The second was an action packed 10 rounds. It was just a great fight. She's an amazing competitor. I'm very grateful to her for bringing her heart and talent to the ring,” Riley said.

(In fact, Trevino's career arc as both an accomplished kickboxer and boxer is strikingly similar to Riley's. In addition to her scintillating broadcast battles, and being the first woman to be featured in a bout on live national network television, she is the only person to ever defeat mega boxing star Regina Hamlich, Trevino too would be a most worthy hall enshrinee.)

Against Lahsen, her first ever title defense, Riley's night was almost over before it started, a straight right dropping her face first to the canvas barely a minute into the bout.

“And it's live on ESPN2. I lost time. I have no memory of getting up. I got dropped, I mean I was hurt. I do know from watching the tape I was on queer street. I threw a punch and almost fell over,” she said. “I do remember sitting in my corner like panicked, internal monologue, like 'oh my gosh, I'm going to lose my world title.' As a fighter, when you're not used to being that hurt, you go somewhere. It's like every doubt, like the weight of the world on your shoulders. And I knew I had a camera right in my face, and I knew I had to act like I had it together, but I was falling apart sitting on that stool. I wanted to cry.”

A perfectly delivered left ended Lahsen's night in the ninth, knocking the British kickboxing champion out cold.

“It was like the most ultimate feeling of being alive,” she recalled. “For me, that's probably one of the best moments I've ever had. “

Born and raised in St. Louis. Riley was an elite athlete from a young age, starting in gymnastics at age 8. A half-dozen years later, she was honing in on elite status, before a detour into karate, thanks in large part to her brother Patrick (“my hero, she says), paved the way to her hall of fame career.

“I did well. But I wasn't quite good enough to go to the Olympics. I wasn't on that level,” she said. “I just needed that next rush. Gymnastics used to be seven times a week, so I don't feel like I quit, I transferred.”

Like almost everything in her life, even today, she was all in right from the start.

“You couldn't rip me out of the dojo. We did the whole thing, competing, the karate tournaments. But I really liked to fight. That was sort of my thing and I started to get disqualified because I wanted to keep hitting. Karate is like tag, you know? I'm like, 'I'll take a couple to give mine.' And they were like 'you really should try kickboxing.' And back then, it was the wild west. My very first fight I had to go pro. Loved it, loved it, loved it.”

Most young and attractive girls head to Hollywood to become a movie star. Riley headed west with a similar dream, but in the ring, not on the screen.

photo credit:  Mary Ann Owen

“I went west with $100 in my pocket,” she recalled, eventually ending up at the world famous Jet Center in Van Nuys, California, run by champion fighters Benny Urquidez and his sister Lilly Rodriguez. “I'm this white girl from Missouri and I walk in and said 'I”m here to become the world champion.' That's where everything really started taking off for me.”

Ironically, her kickboxing phase indeed led her to the big screen anyway, to her current career as a stunt woman actress. She just got back from spending five weeks in Georgia to work on Bad Boys 3, a long way from her start as her first “starring” role in 1994.

It was a complete accident. I didn't even know there was such a thing as stunt people. When I went to train at the Jet Center, there was a casting director who saw me working on my kicks,” she recalled, almost turning him down on his audition offer. “Lo and behold,it was the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and I got on as an actor. I was like, 'I'm going to make how much? I don't have to work at the bank anymore?' I was juggling that and fighting at the same time.”

From her debut as the “Yellow Ranger”, she's gone on to do many television shows and movies – everything from NCIS to Star Trek Beyond – including work recently on a television pilot based upon the life of champion female boxer Anne Wolfe.

Hall of Fame induction ceremonies will be August 30 in Brisbane, California. Riley will be enshrined along with boxers Terri Cruz, Missy Fiorentino, Lisa Holewyne, Carina Moreno, Wendy Rodriguez and Martha Salazar, the trio of David Avila, Stephen Blez and Blanca Gutierez in the non-boxer category, Pat Emerick in the pioneer category and Patricia “Sandy” Martinez-Pino posthumously.


Riley – who signed for a time to fight for Don King even – doesn't regret, at least too much, having fought in an era when the sport was just starting to make a positive impression on most fight fans here and abroad.

“I'm right where I'm supposed to be. It's an extreme privilege, and I feel completely blessed to be part of all these females when boxing was so hot. It was bigger than life, and we were really good. We took it very seriously. It wasn't about how many likes we got. We were in the trenches, doing the work. It was a lot of us, it wasn't just me. It was a special time.”

In 18 fights, she finished with a 15-3 record, with seven KO's, including a decision over Brenda Burnside May 13, 1999 at boxing's mecca, Madison Square Garden. And like most pro athletes, getting the call telling her she was about to become a hall of famer was as special as any moment in their sport, a reward as much for her faith – central to everything she does – as it was for her fighting.

“It's been such a big part of my life. I'm so thrilled, it's such an honor. I'm so grateful to Sue and the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame,” Riley added. “When she let me know I was going to be inducted, I cried.”

Which is a joyous thing when you do everything you can to keep your eyes on the prize.

 #     #     #     #      #

About the August 30th IWBHF Induction Ceremony/Dinner:

To purchase tickets online for 2019 IWBHF Induction
Ceremony - Aug. 30, 2019  *Link to Tickets