Biography
After 30 years in the boxing world as publicist, manager, and promoter–Kallen has been dubbed The First Lady of Boxing.
Having managed six champions, including James “Lights Out Toney and Bronco McKart, she was twice nominated as Manager of the Year. She was recently awarded the prestigious Aileen Eaton Award for Lifetime Achievement from the World Boxing Hall of Fame and was inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame. Her life story inspired the Paramount film Against the Ropes starring Meg Ryan. Kallen was Associate Producer of the film and made a cameo appearance. She is currently co-producing a boxing movie called “Five Good Years,” written and directed by Bruce Reisman.
A former journalist, TV host and radio personality in her native Detroit, Kallen is a successful motivational speaker who travels the country addressing conventions, women’s health groups and college audiences. She is the author of “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and is working on her autobiography: “Undefeated.”. She was also the Den Mother on the first season of The Contender on NBC with Sylvester Stallone and Sugar Ray Leonard.
Now living Los Angeles, she is very active in charities that deal with battered and abused women and the homeless. Kallen has been named Youth Sports Coordinator for the LA County Sheriff Department and has helped set up a boxing gym in South Central LA. She also goes to schools and churches, speaking to kids and urging them to quit the gangs and go to a neighborhood gym.
Now involved in Fatal Femmes Fighting, Kallen is throwing her hat into the MMA world. Promoting events in various states, Kallen is hoping to take female cage-fighting to a new level.
A mother of two sons and grandmother of two young boys (with another grandchild on the way), Kallen was one of the first females to succeed in the male-dominated world of professional boxing. She served as commissioner of the International Female Boxing Association, mentors many young women hoping to work in the boxing industry and has won numerous awards and honors.