First Place
Creative Nonfiction & Memoir North Street Book Prize
"The judges liked the twist that this book was not only about surviving adversity, but about a woman who took the initiative to transform herself dramatically…we were happy to read an upbeat account of endurance and empowerment" - Critique by Jendi Reiter
Based on a true story...
Fighting Chance is written by Alicia Doyle, an award-winning journalist who discovered boxing at age twenty-eight in the late 1990s when she went on assignment at a boxing gym for at-risk youth called Kid Gloves. For two years, she simultaneously worked as a newspaper reporter while training and competing as a boxer, making her one of only a few hundred women in America who infiltrated this male-dominated sport. During her boxing career, she won two Golden Gloves championship titles and earned three wins by knockout – and her pro debut at age thirty in the year 2000 was named The California Female Fight of the Year. Fighting Chance offers an inside look at what’s considered the toughest sport known to man.
Fighting Chance: Highlights
California Female Fight of the Year
California Female Fight of the Year
California Female Fight of the Year
My pro boxing debut at age 30 at the Castaic Brickyard was named "The California Female Fight of the Year"
Blood, Sweat & Tears
California Female Fight of the Year
California Female Fight of the Year
My nonfiction memoir offers a first-hand look at competing in a male-dominated sport in the late 1990s
Two-Time Golden Gloves Champ
California Female Fight of the Year
Two-Time Golden Gloves Champ
I started boxing at age 28 in the late 1990s, and earned two Golden Gloves Championship titles during my two-year-long boxing career
Kid Gloves
Disaster Diva
Two-Time Golden Gloves Champ
I fell in love with boxing when I was a newspaper journalist, and went on assignment at a boxing gym for at-risk youth called Kid Gloves
Disaster Diva
Disaster Diva
Disaster Diva
I earned my ring name "Disaster Diva" for the bloody brawls witnessed during my fights
Mentors
Disaster Diva
Disaster Diva
My boxing career was made possible by coaches and trainers who believed in my athletic ability to compete in the roped-off square
Rave Reviews
"Absorbing and brilliant! Over 22 years ago I shared the ring with Alicia Doyle...twice. Fighting Chance transported me back to relive those experiences from HER perspective. It was amazing! I highly recommend this book!"
– "Amazing" Layla McCarter, 8 time, 5 division Boxing World Champion & California Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee
"No punches pulled by the hard hitting Ms Doyle in her true life novelistic rendering of what it's like to punch her way to fame! A knockout!!"
- Ivor Davis, Investigative Journalist & Best-Selling Author of "Manson Exposed: A Reporter's 50-Year Journey into Madness and Murder"
“Alicia Doyle is a shining example of an individual who continues to fight to save herself from the dark side of life by mentoring troubled young children at KID GLOVES. She is their guiding light, a light that doesn’t often shine for them. FIGHTING CHANCE is exactly that, a chance to survive in the ring and in life. A must read…”
– Rod Holcomb, Producer/Director
“Alicia instilled what Kid Gloves Boxing teaches – the A.B.C Backwards: Conceive, Believe, Achieve. Building CONFIDENCE in all she does, Round by Round. A true role model for all.”
– Robert Ortiz Sr., owner of Kid Gloves Boxing