Yvette Raposo didn’t go looking for boxing. It found her in a basement.
She had just left university and began working as a personal trainer at a gym with a boxing club downstairs. One day, she put on a pair of gloves, and that was it.
“It was an immediate love,” she said, her face lighting up at the memory. “I knew this was going to be something I’d talk about forever.”
What captivated her wasn’t just the physicality, but the lessons, the strategy, the philosophies and the beauty.
Above all, it was the sport’s total honesty: “I call boxing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Raposo said. “It’s one of the most human, raw and real things you’ll ever experience.”
An undefeated yet uneasy path
Growing up, Raposo was drawn to the pursuit of excellence. She discovered Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in grade five and became fascinated by the idea of self-actualization ever since.
Boxing, she found, delivered that in a way nothing else had, with every system fully engaged, every part of you required to show up – physical, emotional and mental.
“It’s so encompassing and demanding on all levels … You feel so alive,” she expressed.
Raposo went on to compete as an amateur between 2000 and 2004, going undefeated. But the path wasn’t easy. Women’s boxing wasn’t added to the Olympics until 2012, which meant her only route forward was to go professional and fund much of it herself.
And in many gyms, women weren’t even given the time of day.
“There were situations where girls just wouldn’t continue,” Raposo recalled. “They didn’t see a pathway through it.”
But she did. Partly because of a coach who genuinely welcomed women. Partly because of a small group of fellow competitors who pushed through together. And partly because boxing had gotten into her blood in a way she couldn’t explain or ignore.
“When it grabs you, it never leaves you.”
A career pivot and milestone
A recurring injury eventually brought Raposo’s competitive career to a close, but she pivoted quickly into coaching. And in 2018, she added a new title: Canada’s first female professional boxing ring announcer – a milestone that didn’t come without its frustrations.
When she heard someone had suggested she’d earned the role because of who she was dating, Raposo addressed it directly: “I nicely confronted him and asked if he needed clarity on my history within the sport.”
He never responded. But she’d said what she needed to say.
Today, the world Raposo competed in looks markedly different. More visibility, more pathways, more funding. She sees it and feels it, and is glad the women who came before her are finally getting some of what they fought for.
As for Raposo’s advice to young women navigating male-dominated spaces, it’s two-fold.
First, know your stuff. Nobody can take that away from you. And second, always be prepared.
“If you’re the only woman in the room, there’s a reason why you’re in there,” she stressed. “You have an important opportunity to provide a different perspective. And it doesn’t matter who you’re speaking with or who you’re dealing with, understand what respect looks like for you and what it feels like for you.”
Emma Caplan-Fisher
