Beyond The Ropes: Monique Rose Bovino

Beyond The Ropes: Monique Rose Bovino

Monique Rose Bovino was born in Sydney twenty-five years ago. The Australian has packed a lot into her young life. A varied career. Bovino could have been a construction engineer. But that wasn’t for her. But boxing was. A routine gym interview was the catalyst for a life in boxing. The sport found her purely by chance, and it didn’t let go. There is also a day job flying about in a helicopter doing traffic reports in her native land. A thriving boxing media career sits alongside that. But in many ways, Bovino is a pure fighter inside and outside of the ring.

It is the Barotillo Bombers Gym in North Rocks that has been front and centre of her life in boxing. When Bovino realised a life in construction engineering wasn’t quite enough for her, she went looking for something new. Bovino found it in North Rocks. “I started boxing by getting an interview at a gym,” Bovino told me over Zoom. “From that interview, I started training at that gym, and after that, everything just branched off from it.”

For Bovino, from starting work at the Barotillo Bombers Gym, her life in boxing morphed into something much more. “I think it was after my first sparring session,” Bovino answered when I asked when she realised that she wanted to fight herself. “I got absolutely flogged, but I had the best time in there. I was like, this is it.”

The Noble Art isn’t the first sport Bovino has participated in. “I used to play soccer,” Bovino relayed to me. “I also used to be a good runner. I competed for my State in athletics. I played a bit of netball, but mainly, I was a pretty good runner.”

“It’s just based on yourself,” Bovino says of what she gets out of boxing that she couldn’t find elsewhere. “It’s just you in the ring, and you are dealing with your own fitness and your own skill. I love the idea of boxing and challenging myself.”

Monique Bovino was fortunate in her early days in the sport that she shared a gym with a future world champion. “Ebanie Bridges and I started in the same gym together. I got close to her when we were just mucking around. I used to get tips from her, how to train. Ebanie had got to the point where she was having her second fight. We ended up training together and becoming best buds. Ebanie is a really good friend of mine.”

Bovino is now six fights and three exhibitions into her boxing career. But memories of her very first ring walk are still vivid.

“My first fight was the best experience,” Bovino says. “I had everyone there. It was so exciting with everyone supporting me. I got the win, and that pushed me further. If I had lost the first one, it would have been harder to keep going. It was just the best feeling ever. I was swimming the whole time, and there were so many punches thrown. I was watching it back and thinking about just how many punches I threw in that fight.”

Life has somewhat restricted that in-ring boxing journey of late. The beyond busy schedule has resulted in her fighting life being put on hold. But a comeback is still very much on her mind. “It’s crazy that I am even thinking about this, but I have always wanted to turn pro. But at the moment when my career in boxing media is blowing up so much, I think that will be my main focus for the next couple of years. But I can see myself doing a fight before the end of this year, maybe an amateur fight. I’ll probably have seven or eight amateur fights, and then assess where I am, and turn pro after that. It will depend on where I am in my life. But hopefully, before I reach 30.

“I want to have a good run at it; it won’t be a one-and-done. I got back in the ring in November for an exhibition bout. I wanted to see where my fitness was. My fitness wasn’t where it needed to be for me to be able to take a fight. When I noticed that, I just thought I was going to give this media career a hot-shot goal for the next year, but also slot in some fights when I get my fitness back up. I would like to give it a proper go at international level.

“I used to train twice a day, and when I did the Golden Gloves, I was so fit. I look back now, and I know how fit I was, and I don’t know how I can be like that again because of the hours I do. I work early in the morning and at night, and I now work during the day because of the boxing. As soon as I open my eyes at 4 a.m., until I go to bed at night, I am working. I get so exhausted. Once I get a job that pays me a great amount of money, that allows me to survive by just doing that, and then I can implement training twice a day again, and I can then get back in the ring. I know how good I can be.”

Bovino is juggling many things in her life. But a thriving career behind the microphone is starting to really take shape. A journey that started purely by accident. “I have been doing the media for a year now,” Bovino told me. “Everything started in the boxing gym. I left school and did construction management. After that, I got a job in the gym. The manager at that gym put me in touch with the guy who runs the helicopter traffic reports around Australia. He said if you send a demo for a whole year, he might respond and give you a job. I was sending him demos for an entire year. I was working at Kiss FM in the meantime, and finally, after a year, I got a call back. I was then doing the traffic reports in the helicopter for about six months, and then one night I went to a boxing show with my friend Ricky, whom I knew from the gym. One of the guys from the gym had just finished his bout, and Ricky handed me a microphone and said, “Do you want to ask some questions because I am doing all the media myself, and I don’t really enjoy doing it.” I said, “Sure, I’ll take the microphone and ask some questions.” Ricky then said, “Is that what you want to do?” and I said yes. About two months later, he said, “You are blowing up a bit now. Do you want to do it as a full-time job?” and I said, “Count me in.”

“I stand out because I know boxing,” Bovino adds when I ask why she thinks her media career is going so well. “I have fought before. I haven’t yet been to the pro level, but I have been in the ring and experienced it. I am not in it for the money. I am genuinely here to build a connection with the boxers, and help them grow, and actually help them build a career. I am trying to build the sport.”

Monique Bovino is beyond ambitious. There are seemingly no limitations to those ambitions. Bovino is working with a number of combat sports promotions. She is partnered with Wanderer Promotions and is also working with Sam Labruna Boxing Promotion and the IBC International Brawling Championship, as well as the 1774 Muay-Thai Series. You sense her CV will only grow further. “Boxing is certainly my main priority, but I would love to work across multiple combat sports. I love all sports. I see myself being the best sports presenter in the country, if not internationally, as well. I want to be back in the ring and have at least a couple more fights. I want to make a difference. I want to be known as the person who changed people’s lives. I want to be known as that person.”       

There is something immensely impressive about Monique Rose Bovino. That insanely busy work schedule. The desire and drive to go even harder. Achieve more. And do more. As she says herself, the media gig is blowing up, and you sense that she is only getting started. But it’s when she talks about a return to the ring that something changes in her voice. A different level of passion. There is unfinished business inside the ring, maybe just a desire to see where it can still go. Her life to this point tells us there is a lot more to give.