Boxing saves. For all the negatives, for all the dirty business, ask most who lace up the gloves to fight and they’ll tell you the same thing. Shelly Vincent will.

“I didn’t think I would make it past my 20s,” she said. “I don’t think anybody did.”

Vincent made it. Now 45, she isn’t just alive; she’s thriving. And she owes a lot of that to the sweet science.

“It’s been everything to me,” she said. “It’s how I found my voice. My peace. My therapy. I’ve been open about my struggles with depression and PTSD from my childhood, and boxing was always my escape. My mom passed, and she made me promise to never stop boxing. She said it would get me out, and she was right. It’s been my connection to her after she passed. Boxing isn’t just a sport - it saved my life. It gave me hope when I had none. Boxing is my beacon.

It’s also gave me the ability to open my gym, Shelito’s Way Boxing and Fitness, and give back to the youth like it did for me. I plan on building afterschool programs and really be an outlet in the community. I’ll never forget what it did for me. And the ones that helped me make this possible.”

In significance, that goes far beyond what Vincent achieved in the ring during a 27-2 pro career that earned her IBA and UBF super bantamweight titles. But what she did do between the ropes was important in its own right, so this weekend she’s in Las Vegas to pick up her plaque as a member of the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.

“It was great and beautiful because I think back to the days of my mother telling me, ‘Baby, they don’t have things like that for girls,’” said Vincent. “To some other people, who shall remain nameless, they said, ‘You’re a little boy, no one wants to watch you fight. Sex sells. They’ll never put you on TV.’ And just coming from such a dark childhood where lil’ Michelle is thinking she is a nobody and not worthy of anything, you can’t help but be extremely proud and happy knowing you did all the things that everyone said you couldn’t and wouldn’t.”

That abusive childhood, and the tragic loss of her mom, Tania, who passed away from leukemia when she was just 37 years old, left holes in Vincent that only boxing filled. The Rhode Islander started late, won the National Golden Gloves in 2011 at 32, and turned pro later that year with the first of two wins over Karen Dulin. There were going to be obstacles ahead because of that late start, but Vincent wasn’t about to let that deter her. And New England fans loved her. Spoiler alert, she loved them back.

“I wouldn’t be here without the love and support from the fans there,” she said. “People were flying in from everywhere - sometimes from overseas. I’ve had fans who didn’t know me from a hole in the wall, but they’d show up, and I certainly felt the love. And even when my mom passed, I was still an amateur trying to keep it together and the sponsors and the fans, they lifted me up. New England is more than just a place to me, it’s family.”

In 2023, Vincent was the first female fighter to be inducted into the Connecticut Boxing Hall of Fame, and while she was as New England as the Patriots, Bruins, Celtics and Red Sox, the rest of the world got to know her through her two-fight series with Heather Hardy. The fights were epic and the bad blood was real, but for the sport, the series was a milestone, as the fights were aired on NBC Sports Network and HBO. That was a big deal back in 2016 and 2018.

“I won that first fight,” Vincent said of the first Hardy bout in Coney Island. “Watch it on mute. (Laughs) Those fights were huge, though, especially for women’s boxing. They made history and me and Heather don’t get the respect we deserve. We’re overlooked now. We were the first, and still only, women aired on PBC. We fought after Errol Spence because I sold out half the arena and she sold out the other half. It would have been empty in there for TV. We also had the most views that night. We threw more punches in the two minutes than the men in the three. They were non-stop action fights, but lots of pressure, too. I had everyone messaging me, all the ladies from all over the world. Heather, too. ‘You gals better back it up and do everything you saying. Women’s boxing is on your shoulders. You’re making or breaking whether anyone else gets a chance.’ (Promoter) Lou (DiBella) and the networks, too. So much pressure, but we did it. And again in the rematch on HBO. Fight of the Year. Round of the Tear. PBC TOP 5 Fight of the Year. The rivalry was real.”

The only two losses on Vincent’s record came at the hands of Hardy via two close decisions that weren’t necessarily seen that way on the judges’ scorecards. But they were close, competitive and intense contests, and while the two didn’t care for sending Christmas cards while they were punching each other, today, it’s a different story between these two warriors. Vincent says her and Hardy “talk all the time,” and that’s the way it should be, especially since they’ll be connected forever by their two fights. As for mom, how would she react to little Michelle being a Hall of Famer, not once, but twice?

“Man, my mom’s too proud,” said Vincent. “I made it into two Hall of Fames, and I kept my promise to her. I gave my all. Boxing gave me an outlet. I speak my truth, and I help kids like me now with my story and her story. I got my strength from that woman. She got to see me from wherever she’s at on major TV multiple times, thinking it’s something just not possible, especially for people like us. I’d give anything to have her there to hug her and her seeing me become the woman she’d hope I break into, because Lord knows when she passed, I was lost, beat down depressed and not looking like I was going to make it. I beat a lot of s**t – drugs, alcohol, suicide attempts, you name it. I love you, Ma, thank you for never leaving my side and always loving me despite all the hurt I was going through. She really is smiling, saying, ‘That’s my girl! She made it, even when everyone said she wouldn’t!’”