It's a windy evening and a crowd is lining up outside for the opening night of Friday Night Fights. The doors to Madison were supposed to open at 6 p.m. for a pre-fight happy hour, but last-minute sound checks are still under way, and cartloads of Bud Light and Tecate still are getting rolled in.
Swelling by the minute, the crowd is antsy to get inside. Rosado looks nervously at the time as she shoots from one side of Madison to another, the control freak in her wanting to supervise every aspect of the event.
Jamie Peachey
The group Banda La Llegadora rallies
fight fans with a Mexican ballad as Alexis "Beaver" Santiago heads to the ring.
Jamie Peachey
Fernando Samaniego Jr. flexes for fans before Friday Night Fights.
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"I want to make sure everything is perfect," she says. "I want to greet everyone, make them feel welcome. And I need to keep an eye on my staff."
Rosado rechecks the table where her sister and a friend sit. They are in charge of handing out press credentials and pre-paid tickets.
"So, tell me again, how are you going to . . .," Rosado starts to quiz Jennifer on how she plans to handle the flow of fans as they enter the arena.
Jennifer cuts her off: "Michelle, we know how to hand out tickets! We know what we're doing."
The older sister, unfazed by her sibling's eye-rolling, gives out a few more instructions before she grabs an oversize bag tucked behind a partition and slings it over her shoulder.
She moves quickly down a hallway toward the back room, where some of the fighters are warming up. Some punch the air or their trainers' padded mitts, others get their fists wrapped with gauze and tape.
She heads for the ladies' room, where she touches up her makeup and fluffs her hair.
When the doors finally open about 6:45 p.m., her original fear that no one would show up turns into angst when she realizes that she will have to turn people away.
As the fans pour into the downtown Phoenix venue, they are greeted by Mexican songs, such as Vicente Fernandez's "Volver, Volver," blasting from huge speakers mounted above the ring.
Only a section of roped-off ringside chairs are assigned, so fans scurry to get the best vantage points for the bouts in the 900-plus-seat arena. Finally, people fill up the standing-room areas.
The sold-out show is a good sign for Valley boxing, as was an event a few weeks earlier, on March 18, when boxing fans packed Celebrity Theatre for "Rise of Phoenix II," an eight-bout event that featured Jesus "El Martillo (The Hammer)" Gonzales, a Phoenix boxer who made his first hometown appearance in four years.
The Madison event marked Rosado as a contender on the Valley boxing scene. Before it, she was a wanna-be, trying to make a name for herself in a man's world.
No one knows that struggle better than Jackie Kallen, the legendary "First Lady of Boxing." Kallen, the first woman to successfully break into big-time pro boxing, has worked with six champions as a manager, publicist, and promoter during three decades in the industry.
Kallen worked as a publicist for Tommy Hearns and managed fighters such as heavyweight Bobby Hitz; middleweight James "Lights Out" Toney, who won the IBF (International Boxing Federation) middleweight world title in 1991; and Bronco McKart, who won the WBO (World Boxing Organization) junior-middleweight world title in 1994.
Kallen's story was portrayed in Against the Ropes, a 2004 film starring Meg Ryan as Kallen.
Rosado opened up to Kallen in an April 27 column by the longtime promoter at www.boxinginsider.com.
Kallen, intrigued by another woman's involvement in the business, chose Rosado as the subject of her second piece for the industry website.
"There's a new face on the boxing front, and it's a pretty, feminine one," Kallen wrote. "Michelle Rosado has tossed her hat into the ring . . . to become part of a heavily male-dominated sport — especially in the role of boxing promoter . . . I'm pulling for you, Michelle."
Like Kallen before her, Rosado's looks haven't hurt her quest to get ahead in the boxing world
Rosado told Kallen: "I don't know how you've done it for over [30] years. Men always tend to sell women short. I know that there are plenty of people out there — male and female — who are actually rooting for me to fail. I plan to prove them wrong."
"The boxing scene in Phoenix has been really flat these past few years. I [feel] I [can] change all that," she said to Kallen.
Rosado tells New Times that Kallen is her inspiration to succeed: "I can only hope to be half of what she is to the sport."
Rosado says her desire to make changes in Valley boxing comes from a love of the game instilled in her by her late father.
Puerto Rico native Anibal "Kiki" Rosado raised his family in the small community of Bristol, about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia. He was a chemical engineer who coached at a local high school, was a school board member, dabbled in local politics, and co-founded the Latino Leadership Alliance, a nonprofit organization to mentor young Latinos.
And he loved boxing.
Michelle was raised by her father after her parents divorced, and she adopted his enthusiasm for sports, especially the "sweet science." She never spent time in her room playing with Barbies. She was outside playing catch with her dad or, while in high school, at practice for field hockey, basketball, or softball.
