Michelle Joy Phelps: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Social Media

As a boxing nut in my teens the only way I could get any real in-depth coverage of my sport was by way of the various trade magazines of the day. Regular visits to the newsagents saw me purchase the likes of Boxing News, The Ring Magazine and others to satisfy my thirst for news and knowledge of the sport.

Times change of course and social media these days offers us 24/7 news at a swipe of our phones or tablets. While sadly it poses major issues for magazines to survive in this new world, it also opens up greater access to news for fans and opportunities also to either set up websites or Facebook pages etc on either boxing or indeed MMA for the love of the sport and a chance to make a living out it also.

One such person is Michelle Joy Phelps, prior to getting into boxing Michelle had a spell in nursing school before dropping out to pursue acting and a modelling career. As an actress Michelle had to turn to bartending to help pay the bills and spent a year as a massage therapist before turning to boxing for the next chapter in her life.

Michelle was approached by several online channels to cover events and do interviews before noticing a lack of women involved in the sport which inspired her to set up Behind the Gloves. Starting from scratch with no contacts and ploughing her savings into building her brand, she has built her business to what it is today.

Michelle has nearly 45k followers on Twitter and 79k in subscribers on her YouTube channel. From nearly packing it all in just under a year ago because of a lack of other opportunities coming her way, Michelle is now turning work away. As well as landing a gig on the World Boxing Super Series and The Ultimate Boxxer she can also be seen and heard on Sky’s Toe2Toe and the radio station SiriusXMBoxing.

Social Media gives opportunities to the likes of Michelle and others to earn a living, but it also gives a voice to the fans, and not always in a good way. While criticism is predictable, sadly so is abuse and Michelle has suffered from this probably more than many others in her field. The comments that come away from what she wears, she only got where she is because of her looks, the usual sexist nonsense which should be extinct with the dinosaurs, but also her style of interviewing.

When the majority of questions in interviews are the usual tired old questions, what does this mean, how does it feel etc, Michelle does it her way in her style, as does Kugan Cassius, another who is either loved or hated for how he interviews. Both have their own style and both in different ways make a success of it and both add a refreshing change to the normal interviews we are accustomed to.

I always find it strange why people see the need to abuse with such venom, if you don’t like something don’t follow it, its really that simple. Constructive criticism is fine, but there is a line.

While I still prefer the old fashioned way of reading an actual book or a magazine, I like the online side of the sport, unlimited access to news and footage. The likes of Michelle and others provide us with free content which we sometimes take for granted and as a boxing nut what is there not to like.