Police to Promotion: The Journey of Terri Moss
Exclusive Interview by Marc Anthony
“Boxing is forever,” – Terri Moss
Terri Moss, Former Police officer now corporate fight promoter, did her first professional boxing match at the age of 36, but not only did she start late in the game, she went on to win the Women’s International Boxing Federation minimum weight title and Vacant WIBA Intercontinental Strawweight Title at the age of 41, which shows this great sport’s ability to keep people young!
Now retired from professional boxing, Terri is Spear heading “White Collar” boxing in Atlanta. As Terri explains, the corporate world has long been entrenched with boxing. And why not? People from the corporate world are very competitive by nature and love the thrill of a great victory. Her blend of “White Collar” boxing is called “Atlanta Corporate Fight Night.” Not only do you get to see competitive fights, and for those that compete get in great shape, but you get to give back to the community. Money is raised to help local charities continue helping in a great cause.
Tickets are now on sale for ACFN 2! You can buy them online by clicking here, or by emailing atinfo@atlantacorporatefightnight.com or by calling 678.334.8204. Tickets are priced as follows:
$100 VIP Ringside (front row for VIP only)
$50 Gold Ringside
$40 Silver Ringside
$25 General Admission
Don’t miss this GREAT show where Atlanta’s business class go toe-to-toe for one incredible night!
MA: How was Atlanta Corporate Fight Night created?
The Corporate show is an idea that I came up with when I took a trip to New Zealand to go work with some people there and we were also doing some boxing training with some people in Auckland and they had a boxing show there that they did. I don’t know if you know anything about New Zealand but boxing is really big there. Just in Auckland alone, which has about a million people, in the few square miles, I counted thirty boxing gyms, and it was incredible. It was so amazing, but it’s such a small country they don’t have a lot of boxing there: Not a lot of amateur boxing and definitely not a lot of pro boxing. What is really big there is this kind of corporate boxing; regular people that do these boxing shows. They are like corporate guys that will match and then train. I think they train for seven or eight weeks or maybe more. I can’t remember how many.
Anyway, they would train and have these bouts and they would incorporate it with a lot of other things. It was kind of something that went around the Les Mills Gym. He is a guy who invented spin, body comp, and a lot of those really popular programs that you would see in regular fitness gyms. What they did was incorporate all that stuff also into the boxing training.
These shows are so big there, they televise them. We went to the boxing gym there. We saw television crews following some guy around who was in a tie and suit, and then he changed clothes and trained and talked about beating some guy’s butt. It was really big there and I thought: “Oh my gosh! This would be really big in the United States.”
I thought the thing that carries the weight for most boxing gyms is the money they take from there fitness clients and so many of them would love to have just one chance, just one time to have a real boxing fight and to really blow it up and feel like a star. Just once, but most of them don’t ever want to do it again. It really gave me that idea that we can do this in the States and it’s a program that I want to take all across the country, not just here. It starts in Atlanta, but I would love to go to city to city and take the corporate people out of the boardroom and put them in the boxing gym and let them feel like a star for one night. On top of that, they can do it to raise money for local charities. It’s really a great concept.
MA: The corporate world is very competitive; do you find that transfers over to boxing?
Oh, it is so incredible. To see these guys come you definitely see the competitiveness that you would see in the corporate world. In our last show we had an engineer and this guy went so far… he drove an hour and half to train one way and … he went so far out of his comfort zone, you can see this guy was probably a really good engineer. He put himself on the line even at his job: His big wigs even flew to Atlanta to see him fight. His whole company blogged him training. He became the center of attention for the whole company that he works for. This guy really put it on the line. He came up and he broke a tooth and he didn’t win the fight but it was just an incredible experience for him.
I saw him afterwards when he went to put his suit on, we had a nice little after party, and he had the one tooth broken tooth, I just wanted a picture so bad. That’s the epitome of corporate boxing: A suit and tie and one broken tooth. It was beautiful.
It really is interesting how it does transfer over. You can see that these people are well groomed for competition. They just have to learn how to put it into something they had never believed in before.
MA: Speaking of breaking beliefs. When you started boxing you had a lot of obstacles.
Oh yeah, mostly my age. You really don’t get into professional boxing at thirty six years old. I don’t know what I was thinking. I never knew about boxing until I was thirty four years old. I was thirty three, almost turning thirty four when I walked into a boxing gym and I couldn’t believe there were girls there. I have only seen it on television and very little at that. I wasn’t somebody that would sit and watch a boxing fight. I mean the big fights; the first one I sat through was the Evander Holyfield – Mike Tyson fight, the first one. It shows just how late it was.
The first time I walked into a boxing gym I just fell in love. I was “Oh my gosh this is crazy.” I thought I was in good shape. I was training for my first triathlon; I was outside a lot, I have been a police officer and was seeing eight hours a day on a bicycle: Fitness gyms and weight lifting so I thought I was pretty good. But then I couldn’t even hit the bag for three minutes without feeling like I wanted to throw up. So, I thought “wait a minute what’s going on with this”. I was intrigued and I really wanted to do it. It just stuck with me and got in my blood, I guess.
MA: As a police officer, was it in the Narcotics department?
I did a couple of jobs. When I was in college, I started with the University police department, at the University of Georgia and then I went on to a Narcotics task force and did that for several years. Then I actually did school resources and a few other things. But once I got into boxing, I kind of lost my heart for the law enforcement. It was a lot of fun kicking in doors. I always loved that high speed chase and boxing kind of took over inside of me. The excitement of boxing was just different and I liked it. All walks of life were in the boxing gym and I was really intrigued by that. There wasn’t a good guy or a bad guy, everyone is just a fighter. It didn’t matter if you were a lawyer or a trash man, it didn’t make any difference. I really liked that aspect of it.
It just stuck with me and I have been doing just boxing since 2004. But I have been in the gym since 2000. This is me now.
MA: Does it surprise you the way the economy is that you had such a good turn out last year?
You know, I really think the economy is picking up a little. I know nobody wants to believe that but kind of the first place we saw it was in the gym. We saw the decline of the economy before they were even talking about it. We kind of knew something was coming up. When you are in retail or services you can see early on that things are going to be an issue: Even maybe before the forecasters tell it. But we saw also that it was getting a little cleaned up sooner. Business has picked up in the gym that gave me confidence to go forward.
But, really it wasn’t an issue so much to me on the first show. We began working on that show in July of last summer and the show was in October. But, even our last boxer that stepped up in just a few weeks. They cut a check (for charity) for him so fast that it made your head spin. But they didn’t mind at all. I think things are picking up even though you might not hear it on television.
When it comes to advertising and charity work, people still want to give and still want to put their company out there. Maybe the money has changed from spending on other things and spending more on advertising. I don’t know…it seemed to not really effect me that much. It was a good reception. Even afterwards, when I look back at all the media and all the things and all the great responses we got, it was really great. I guess it was a little shocking but I am very grateful that we had such a good reception of course.
MA: If someone wanted to compete in Atlanta Corporate Fight Night, what is the process like?
All they need to do is get on the website (http://www.atlantacorporatefightnight.com/). There is a form under the contact page. Just send it in and let me know because I keep all of those names. The interesting thing is we are getting a lot of people over thirty five years old. This is like the greatest thing for them. Not only do they get an opportunity to box, but they get to do it on a top tier show that not only displays them as a boxer but it’s also focused on what they do and their careers and how great they are just as a person.
So, there is a two tier benefit for them to be boxing on this show. We like to blow them up. What do you do? Who are you? Where do you come from? We want to hear about you and what makes you want to do this? And then we get to feature them as a boxer as well.
It really is the best show, especially if they are over thirty five, whether they are a doctor or a lawyer or whatever they do; this show is good for them. Give me your names, we put you on a list and when we have auditions we let them know. If there are matches that need to be made I will contact them right away. It’s easy for them. All they need to do is get on the list and we will try to feature them as much as they can.
MA: Who does the training for them?
We work with other gyms as well. If they are around the Atlanta area of course they have the option to train with us. If not they can train with whomever it is they may be working with. I have one girl Mischa Merz…she is coming in from Melbourne, Australia, to box on the next show. So, I am definitely not training her (laughter). She will be her on the 15th. She is training with her people there and is actually boxing another girl who is coming in from Rowland, North Carolina. So neither of them are actually in my hand but I do get to help out a little bit. The girl from Rowland, Lisa Creech Bledsoe, she just came down last week and spent a couple days in camp she got to spar with the other corporate people and they get to feel like fighters because that’s what they really are for this time. Wherever they train is fine with us. They can come from Texas and they can train and be ready. Just show up and come on and be ready for the weigh ins. We love featuring people from all over the place.
MA: The money raised from last Atlanta Corporate Fight Night went to the Hirsh Academy?
The way we work these show depends on what we take in. The funds that we raise, the sponsorships and things that the boxers go after, part of it pays for the show and part of it goes to the charity. The percentages change according to how much we take in. The more money we take in the more money goes to the charity. We just have to make sure that everything is paid for to make it happen. We also hold a silent auction during every show and 100 percent of those proceeds go the charities. Between the silent auction and the funds raised through the corporate fight night sponsorships and we also have donations where people can give donations directly to the charity. With all that put in consideration there can be a substantial amount.
We mainly go with small local charities were even the littlest amount of money would mean so much to these people. They are just really grateful for every part they can get. That’s one reason we love to feature them. At this point we are not like the professional fight nights were they raise over one hundred thousand dollars. But we do as much as we can. I believe this show will get bigger and bigger. We are just in our second show now and we are already doing enough to make a very big difference. With just the money we raised in our last show, we were able to for the Hirsh Academy to be able to start a whole new innovative program at the school. It’s something they are really grateful for.
That’s how it works. We donate as much as we can and the more money we take in for the show, the higher percentage they get. It makes it a benefit for everybody who puts it out there so we can raise more money. It’s such a rewarding thing to do in boxing as well.
MA: Can you tell us a little about the Hirsh Academy?
Interesting enough, the way I began working with them. They just had one of their teachers that I was training in one of my fitness programs. I felt this need to serve kind of thing. She was telling me about some of the kids there. Some are autistic, not all, but they are definitely kids with physical and emotional needs. They are mostly functional. She really liked the idea of teaching them boxing. Because if you teach them to punch, you know the rights and lefts, it helps them with cross there medial plan. If you know anything about autism it’s something that is hard to do, it’s hard for them to go down steps or put one foot in front of the other.
They really like the idea of incorporating that into some of the little fitness things that they have for the kids. I went up there for a little more than a year I did a boxing class once a week with the kids. They loved it so much they actually made a boxing room. So now boxing is permanently incorporated into the Hirsh Academy’s fitness program for the kids. Of course when the Fight Night came around I couldn’t pass the opportunity to raise money for them. They are totally nonprofit. It’s been a really interesting marriage that we have with the Hirsh Academy. The have video of the kids boxing. It has been really incredible what this has done.
They are really an innovative school, one of a kind. They are pioneering something completely different. Were they are focusing on the kid’s needs as well as their scholastic needs. It would be really hard for them at regular schools. They are not just kids with problems they are kids with needs. They have something incredible over there. Go to their website http://hirschacademy.org/ and check out what they do. You can see more about their school and their programs.
MA: I also went to your website and noticed the before and after pictures of the people you trained and that really caught my attention.
This is all part of how the fight night started. Some of the people that I have worked with used boxing to help them lose weight and it kind of rolled over to the corporate boxing thing. There is actually a book that I am writing, once I got in the Corporate shows; I haven’t really been able to get to the editing part of it. The book that I am writing is based on what I call “weight manipulation.” It’s not just a diet program, its ways to permanently be able to control your weight. If you let it go up you will have the confidence that you know how to get it down. Without a fad diet or spending money, it’s all going back to basics and natural food and things that are actually good for your body: toxin free, chemical free and all that stuff.
Eventually that book will be out, it’s called “Food Fight.” It’s about winning the battle with food. I am going have a website up called FoodFightTheBook.com. It’s just not ready yet because I have been tied up with the Corporate Shows. That next on my list to finish my book, but it’s going to be out and it will feature all those girls that you see on my website on the before and after pictures and a few others that are not on the website. It’s incredible to look at them.
MA: When I gained a lot of weight I developed asthma and once I lost a lot of it, my asthma kind of went away. Do you see that happening with your clients?
I have asthma as well. Yeah, a lot of asthma is caused by allergies and people don’t realize that a lot of the allergies are caused by your diet. It probably has something to do with that. What part do you live of the nation do you live in?
MA: I live in Southern California.
They don’t have allergies there! You need to come to Georgia to get some real allergies. If you didn’t have allergies you will have them when you get here. It’s so humid and the flowers with the pollen. We have about a green fog for about four weeks in March and April. Do you have allergies as well?
MA: Yeah I actually do, I have been to Atlanta, to Buckhead.
Buckhead, that’s a fun area. The mini millionaire club…it’s a part of town were the very wealthy young executives like to live and shop. It’s a fun place to go in Atlanta.
What people don’t realize most of what makes us sick and overweight has really more to do with some of the chemicals and processing in the food that we have. It’s a lot of what I talk about in the “Food Fight” book. Everything that they tell you to do in the diet world is basically wrong. High protein and low carbs is not healthy. You should just eat a lot of raw fruits and vegetables, lean meat and eat butter don’t eat margarine: things that people don’t want to hear from me but I know from my own experience when I went to eating real food. That eating real foods is so much healthier and so much easier in losing weight.
Everything is good in moderation as long as it’s real. As long as it’s not a man-made processed food or food like substance, that’s what I call them edible food like substances. That’s what a bag of Cheetos is. Looks good and tastes good but it’s not really food. Yeah those before and after pictures are really incredible, especially Mindy and Roni. If you see the pictures of Roni, she actually went from 230 then she weighed in for my first corporate boxing show at 148. It’s crazy, she is gorgeous. If you look you can see pictures of her at the weigh ins. You wouldn’t even believe it. It’s something that makes you feel really good to see somebody make that big of a change.
MA: I have seen some of the participants who I think are doing it the Corp Fight Night for a second time…
Right, who would have thought? I never would have thought that Joe Song would be boxing again. He is our youth pastor at a church here in the Atlanta area. He actually tried out for the first show and we put him on. I never would have thought that he would do it again.
I think the philosophy behind Corporate boxing is, it’s not that it’s less of a fight it’s very much a fight, and even when I talked to the commission even afterwards. I have asked them how they feel. Like in New York, they are really against what they call this white collar boxing. Because they come out of shape, they want them to fight one minute rounds, they don’t want to match them according to weight per the rules, and they are raising a lot of money for a lot of charities but nothing for USA boxing.
USA boxing in New York is kind of fed up with the whole white collar scene. They are talking about raising the commission fees incredibly high where nobody would want to put on one of those kinds of shows. I think they feel exploited a little bit you know?
So what I try to do is make everything legit. These novice bouts that we put on Atlanta Corp Fight Night are 3 (2 minute rounds), which would be a regular novice bout at any championship event, as far as you can take a novice. I take girls to the National Golden Gloves fight 3(2 minute rounds). But I might take them to a local show and they may fight a one minute round. Depending on how much time they have that kind of thing.
I try to make everything pleasing to the commission. And I asked them afterwards, how they feel about the competition? Do you feel like they were fair fights? Do you think that the boxing was skilled? And they thought that it was more skilled and the fights were better than an average novice bout in a regular show. That made me really happy. But the mentality is kind of different. These are corporate professionals; they are a little less edgy about winning the fight. They want to win but they can accept the loss and be really proud of their accomplishments.
I think because the mentality is so different, like you asked me are there repeats? Some of them actually want to come back and box on the show again. So starting after my next show we are going to change the format a little bit and we are having a Corporate Boxing tournament and then have a championship after so many events.
Yes we have repeats, people who want to do this all over again. What’s really funny the main event that I had on my first show. The guy who won, He looked really great and there was a professional boxing promoter there who approached him and asked him he would really like to have him on his show. He said thanks but he wasn’t really interested. He only wants to box on the corporate shows. That made me feel really good but it’s just the mentality and the way we present them. It blows them up a lot bigger than if it was just some amateur show.
If you have ever been to an amateur show Marc, you would understand. They are great and they build careers but until you get on a certain level, you kind of feel like being at school? Like in high school or middle school, in fact some of them have said “I am forty six years old and I am standing behind an eight year old kid to weigh in!” It’s kind of awkward, it’s just a little bit different but they love these shows.
Yeah we are going to have repeat offenders I believe. I know in Europe and England they have a white collar boxing union there. They actually have championships and it’s a big thing there. So, maybe we can open this up in the United States. There is a huge market for it. I am hoping it will go a long way.
MA: Do you see boxing making resurgence within the corporate world?
I do. But I don’t see ever being MMA corporate fighters. You never know I guess. From what I heard yesterday, everybody is a fighter now. I am sure there are people who do it for training but I think that boxing has a certain appeal to the black tie world and it always has. It just crosses every socio –economic barrier and every racial barrier. Which is very unique about boxing, which is why no matter what comes through: be it the wrestling, which they call the professional wrestling, when that got really big they were saying boxing, is out. They said it about kickboxing in the 70’s and now they are saying it about MMA. I just don’t believe it. I believe that every different sport will find its nook and cranny and it will stay there. Boxing is forever. I just don’t see it ever going away. I think it will always have waves of comebacks. Depending on whom the great fighters are. Manny Pacquiao is doing so much right now. Floyd Mayweather is doing a lot you know. When there is a big name that comes around there is a new wave of excitement. Now you have some boxing movies and you got a new Television show on F/X called “Lights out”. We are getting attention and the corporate world kicking in too. We get the right kind of superstar on these corporate shows you never know what might happen.
We actually have some people talking to us now about doing celebrity boxing on the corporate shows. So we are just going to have to see about that. You just never really know. I have had a few different production companies mention they are interested in making it a reality show. We will see where it goes. But, right now I love where it’s at. I hope it really does cause a wave of corporate interest. It’s good for them and something that can be handled in the amateur level rather safely. I really like what’s happening with us so far.
MA: Sounds like things are moving pretty fast for only being its second year.
Maybe from the outside but I have been working on this for a few years now. It took me almost two years to launch the first show. On the inside I see things that of course I want them to move faster, of course the money to come quicker. It really is like any boxing promotion making sure everybody gets paid. That the show goes on and that everything goes well. And of course first and foremost making sure that the charities are happy so that we can stand up for what we say we are doing. It takes a lot of work but I think that the interest is definitely there. I’ve had so many people from other States talk to me about wanting to box on the show. I really think it will make a hit for itself.
MA: Best way to get on the show is to get on the website and to fill out the application?
Absolutely, which is quick and easy, it’s just name, what city are you in, leave and number and tell me what you want and we will put you on the list. If people want to get involved on another level or even an amateur who is not pro who has thirty or fifty fights this is still a good show for them we can just match them accordingly. I will put anybody on as long as they are not pro and we can match them accordingly. Maybe some guy who works for ATT and who always has been boxing, so you just never know. If you wanted to box this would be the show.
MA: For someone who has that fear of getting hit, what do you tell them?
Every single one of them is scared to death. This is what is crazy about this. They have to go train, they have to deal with being afraid, and they have to deal with their confidence. It’s a crazy crazy thing. This will be an experience that will be once in a lifetime. You never will forget it. It would be such a huge accomplishment for you. It is hard. Nobody wants to get hit, especially if you never had been hit. They have to get out of the natural extinct to turn away or to kind of hide? It’s normal but you know especially with females they don’t want to get hit. It’s not even in there nature to get hit. You just have a really good trainer that knows how to deal with that.
A lot of boxing trainers would not be fit to train a corporate because you just can’t be tough and through them in the water and say swim. I have dealt with these corporate types for so long that when they do come in to what we call advanced training and they want to learn how to box instead of just hitting the bags, pads. When they want go behind that , the first thing I do is spend a lot of time with them letting them learn just how to block a punch, slip a punch, block, jab, slip, slip, catch them and roll under. I spend a lot of time trying to break it down to little bits and pieces so it seems not as scary. You have to do it to the guys too. Men are the same way and their egos are also in the way. They don’t want anybody to know that they don’t want to get hit. It’s a delicate balance. We spend a lot of time building their confidence. We don’t put them over their head and we don’t put them with somebody over there level. It takes a little bit of time. That’s why we give them ten weeks. At least ten weeks.
It’s definitely a nerve racking thing to go through in the beginning but you know fighters go through that also its just they have a big ego that they want to do it so bad that they will suck up a punch. We get used to it and they do too eventually.
MA: Thank you for the wealth of information.
Thank you having me and letting me talk about the corporate show!
Terri Moss
Nickname: “The Boss”
Division: Minimumweight
Professional Record: 9-9-0, 1 KO
2007-05-10 Stephanie Dobbs Tulsa, Oklahoma W SD 10 10×2
vacant WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation minimumweight title
Vacant WIBA Intercontinental Straweight Title
2007-04-14 Whitney Gunter Winston-Salem, North Carolina W TKO 2 4×2
2007-02-02 Natasha Wilburn Gainesville, Georgia W UD 6 6×2
2005-12-10 Krisztina Belinszky Budapest, Hungary L UD 10 10×2
~ Vacant WIBC Minimumweight Title ~
2005-06-11 Mary Ortega Kansas City, Missouri L TKO 2 10×2
IWBF International Women’s Boxing Federation light flyweight title
2005-02-26 Marisol Miranda Baton Rouge, Louisiana L UD 4 4×2
2004-12-16 Hollie Dunaway Doraville, Georgia L UD 10 10×2
WIBA Women’s International Boxing Association minimumweight title
2004-11-20 Loreen Miller Greensboro, North Carolina, W TKO 1 4×2
2004-04-08 Elizabeth Gandy Baton Rouge, Louisiana W UD 4 4×2
2003-11-06 Maria Jesus Rosa Madrid, Spain L UD 10 10×2
WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation light flyweight title
2003-07-18 Charimar Caban Atlanta, Georgia W UD 4 4×2
2003-03-27 Vaia Zaganas Fort Lauderdale, Florida L UD 6 6×2
2003-01-18 Stephanie Dobbs Atlanta, Georgia W UD 4 4×2
2002-12-03 Angela Kirkes Memphis, Tennessee W TKO 1 4×2
2002-09-13 Nina Ahlin Atlanta, Georgia W SD 4 4×2
2002-08-30 Patricia Martinez Manchester, New Hampshire L UD 4 4×2
2002-08-16 Maribel Zurita San Antonio, Texas L UD 4 4×2
2002-02-22 Wendy Sprowl Massachusetts L UD 4 4×2