Bridgett
"Baby Doll" Riley was born in Oakville, Missouri, 30 miles south of St. Louis.
The only girl in a family with three boys, Bridgett grew up in a competitive
home environment. Bridgett, already a Class II champion gymnast, took up karate,
then kickboxing and eventually boxing. She has also been a St. Louis Storm
(soccer) cheerleader, flight attendant and TV and movie stunt double. She has
held world titles from the ISKA, the World Kick Boxing Association, and the
International Kick Boxing Federation and compiled a 26-2 record with 14
knockouts.
Ask Bridgett
Riley about boxing being a "contact" sport, and she might not exactly agree with
you, and for a reason you might not believe. Her now Hall of Fame pro boxing
career was at an early crossroads -- her record a middling 2-2 -- following
back-to-back losses to Theresa Arnold, herself an accomplished boxer who lost
just once in 16 pro bouts. But a closer look, so to speak, at those losses
doesn't so much reveal a fighter at the turning point as one that was both a
little unlucky and a lot unwise.
The second
Arnold matchup was stopped because of a nasty cut over Riley's eye. The first
(September 19, 1996) ended in a most unusual fashion, a disbelieving referee
disqualifying the "Baby Doll" after she entered the ring wearing her contact
lenses.
"I couldn't
see. I was like Mr. Magoo. I would have to hold someone's shoulder just walking
up to the ring without my contact lenses," Riley recalled recently. "So I
snuck them in, and one came out of my eye. My corner was like 'just deny it,
deny it.' You're asking me if it's my contact lens and I’m like 'it's not mine.'
So he lets us continue, and we're fighting and fighting and the second one came
out, and he saw it, and I got reamed. He's like 'you're disqualified.' And I'm
like, what do you mean disqualified? Is that a loss?' I was like 'what the heck
man.' I was so mortified because I got busted."
But if seeing
is believing -- even without contact lenses -- Riley then ripped off 11
straight wins, including perhaps the two fights that best defined her 10-year
boxing career, a triumph over talented and tough Yvonne Trevino on February 15,
1998, and four months later a knockout win over Aicha Lahsen.
Both were
nationally televised pier sixers, her second win over Trevino for the
International Female Boxing Association's bantamweight crown; Riley’s pro debut
was a split decision win over Trevino on April 8, 1994.
Both had
distinguished boxing careers after equally acclaimed stints in kickboxing, and
both had a number of nationally televised bouts that defined those sports in
that era. Riley and Trevino, and a handful of others, proved beyond a shadow of
the doubt women belonged in the squared circle, each the embodiment of grit and
grace, style and sass, desire and dogged determination.
"We were just made for each other. That pro debut it was like 'yeah, nothing
like jumping in the deep water again. ' I'm so grateful for her. The second was
an action packed 10 rounds. It was just a great fight. She's an amazing
competitor. I'm very grateful to her for bringing her heart and talent to the
ring,” Riley said.
Against
Lahsen, her first ever title defense, Riley's night was almost over before it
started, a straight right dropping her face first to the canvas barely a minute
into the bout.
"And
it's live on ESPN2. I lost time. I have no memory of getting up. I got dropped,
I mean I was hurt. I do know from watching the tape I was on queer street. I
threw a punch and almost fell over," she said. "I do remember sitting in my
corner like panicked, internal monologue, like 'oh my gosh, I'm going to lose my
world title.' As a fighter, when you're not used to being that hurt, you go
somewhere. It's like every doubt, like the weight of the world on your
shoulders. And I knew I had a camera right in my face, and I knew I had to act
like I had it together, but I was falling apart sitting on that stool. I wanted
to cry."
A perfectly
delivered left ended Lahsen's night in the ninth, knocking the British
kickboxing champion out cold.
"It
was like the most ultimate feeling of being alive," she recalled. "For me,
that's probably one of the best moments I've ever had. "
Most young
and attractive girls head to Hollywood to become a movie star. Riley headed west
with a similar dream, but in the ring, not on the screen.
"I
went west with $100 in my pocket," she recalled, eventually ending up at the
world famous Jet Center in Van Nuys, California, run by champion fighters Benny
Urquidez and his sister Lilly Rodriguez. "I'm this white girl from Missouri and
I walk in and said 'I'm here to become the world champion.' That's where
everything really started taking off for me."
Ironically,
her kickboxing phase indeed led her to the big screen anyway, to her current
career as a stunt woman actress. She just got back from spending five.
"It
was a complete accident. I didn't even know there was such a thing as stunt
people. When I went to train at the Jet Center, there was a casting director who
saw me working on my kicks," she recalled, almost turning him down on his
audition offer. "Lo and behold, it was the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and I
got on as an actor. I was like, 'I'm going to make how much? I don't have to
work at the bank anymore?' I was juggling that and fighting at the same
time."
From her
debut as the "Yellow Ranger", she's gone on to do many television shows and
movies -- everything from NCIS to Star Trek Beyond -- including work recently on
a television pilot based upon the life of champion female boxer Ann Wolfe.
Riley -- who
signed for a time to fight for Don King even -- doesn't regret, at least too
much, having fought in an era when the sport was just starting to make a
positive impression on most fight fans here and abroad.
"I'm
right where I'm supposed to be. It's an extreme privilege, and I feel completely
blessed to be part of all these females when boxing was so hot. It was bigger
than life, and we were really good. We took it very seriously. It wasn't about
how many likes we got. We were in the trenches, doing the work. It was a lot of
us, it wasn't just me. It was a special time."
In 18 fights,
she finished with a 15-3 record, with seven KO’s, including a decision over
Brenda Burnside May 13, 1999 at boxing's mecca, Madison Square Garden. And like
most pro athletes, getting the call telling her she was about to become a hall
of famer was as special as any moment in their sport, a reward as much for her
faith-- central to everything she does -- as it was for her fighting.
"It's
been such a big part of my life. I'm so thrilled, it's such an honor. I'm so
grateful to Sue and the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame," Riley added.
"When she let me know I was going to be inducted, I cried."
Which is a
joyous thing when you do everything you can to keep your eyes on the prize.
