by Heather

Posted on November 1, 2024

Introduction

Gwen Legge was born on January 30th and raised in Long Island, New York. Starting from a young age, she had a passion for boxing. Her life journey took her from a career in combat sports apparel, to becoming a successful boxing manager.

Currently, Gwen owns a boxing and an MMA management company. She still partakes in her enjoyment of crafting stellar sports apparel for her brand, Eruption boxing. Yet, she currently only does this for the fighters she manages. This shows her love that she has for the combat sports industry and the great craftsmanship she has in apparel creation. Providing quality products and top-notch customer service has always been important to Gwen.

The reason that Mrs. Legge is so passionate about the boxing industry and other combat sports, goes back to the good old days. This is when she would hangout with her grandfather frequently. From what I understand, her and her grandpa had a special bond, especially when it came to watching sports. Gwen told me that her “grandfather was into every sport on the planet”. They would watch boxing especially fighters such as they’re favorite, which was Muhammad Ali, as well as Sugar Ray Leonard, Hagler, and others. Gwen Legge obviously loves being a boxing manager. I asked her if she foresees herself ever retiring. She said, that she will always be doing what she does now.

Since she has been involved in the combat sports industry for over forty years, I must say that she is impressive. I’m astounded at how much that Gwen has accomplished. Additionally, she is a genuine person and I can tell through communicating with her.

Career

Let’s take a look back into time to travel throughout a bit of Gwen’s history. This takes us through parts of her life until the present day. It is known to me that Gwen has created apparel for musicians at some point in her life. Two of the musicians that she had designed the interior and lining of their clothing include, Phil Collins and Howard Leese from the band Heart. When talking about being an apparel designer and creator, I can hear in here voice how she still loves doing some designs and she truly adores the entirety of her projects.

In 2009, Mrs. Legge began creating and designing combat sports apparel. During her early days, she was sponsoring some popular and exceptional combat sports fighters that I have seen during my life. These included household names such as: Reggie Johnson, Evander Holyfield, and Cris Cyborg.

Reggie Johnson was an absolutely amazing American professional boxer, as he has a record of 44-7-1. His career spanned from 1984 – 2008. He had 25 KOs throughout his career. Since 2011 he has been good friends with Gwen Legge.

On October 19th, 1962, in Atmore, Alabama, Evander Holyfield was born.  He had a fabulous professional boxing career in the heavyweight division. This was evident by his record of 44-10-2. The duration of Holyfield’s professional career was from 1984 – 2011.

Gwen also sponsored the famous Mixed Martial Artist, by the name of Cris “Cyborg” Justino. She started out her Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) career at Show Fight 2, in Brazil on May 17, 2005. After losing this bout, she continued fighting and eventually fought in Strike Force and won her match-up against Gina Carano, in 2009. During Cyborg’s fight against Carano, Gwen Legge and Eruption sponsored Cyborg.

On October 19, 2024, in Saudi, Cris won a close and brutal match-up for the PFL Super Fight Championships. This was a title fight and she obtained a new belt by winning the bout. It is likely that Gwen was cheering her on, since she had known Cris Cyborg early on in her career.

Gwen’s Team & Trademark

Gwen began the Eruption trademark in her apparel line in 2009. In 2019, that name evolved into Eruption Boxing & MMA Management. Aside from Gwen Legge being the owner and manager of the company, it consists of quite a team. Her husband, John Legge, is the Chief Financial Officer of the business. He is heavily involved in the combat sports industry from utilizing his expertise as a software engineer, to the rapport he has built with the fighters and their clients. In Gwen’s absence, he steps right in, to work as a strong team to further build the trademark/brand.

Due to the COVID pandemic and with all gyms being closed, people were not in need of gloves. Therefore, Gwen wanted to officially become a boxing manager. So, of course due to her determination, that is exactly what she did. Mrs. Legge seems like the type of individual that is persistent and keeps on venturing out to new endeavors. That takes us to September of 2020, when she received her license as a boxing manager in the state of California. Soon after, she put a fabulous and strong team together for Eruption boxing management. John Legge had built an impressive website for his wife, Gwen. He is extremely creative and has created an aesthetically pleasing site. It even has the capability to speak to you, in any language that you want!

Gwen has an excellent management team of people. Alongside her, they make certain her brand of Eruption boxing has become a priority, to continue providing the best for her professional boxers. Team Eruption states: “We strive in taking our team of fighters to the highest levels in their Boxing & MMA careers. Our #1 goal is for us as we are always looking out for our fighters best interests FIRST all the time!” The Eruption boxing management team includes: Gwen Legge  – The Manager; Jackie Kallen – Boxing Manager, Consultant, Advisor; John Legge – V.P./Chief Financial Officer; Roberto Ortiz-Barcenas – VP Hispanic Relations; Halim Zadat – Official International Spanish Narrator; Rex Huang – VP of Asia Fighter Relations. Gwen states in her website, Eruptionboxing.com, that she has been managing the following fighters: Guillermo Gutierrez & Peng Qu.

After meeting with Jackie Kallen and communicating with her, Gwen brought her in as a consultant. The two women are currently great friends and teammates. Kallen believes that women should assist one another and essentially uplift others to help them out. Her reasoning is due to women wanting and deserving equality.

Today approximately 90 percent of the boxing industry specifically, is male dominated. It is so nice that Jackie is working with Gwen to do whatever she can, to help her become even more successful in the industry. Many of you know Jackie Kallen was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 2024. She was a pioneer in the world of boxing: the first successful female boxing manager and the first ever female boxing promoter.

I see a lot of drive and similarities between Gwen Legge and Jackie Kallen, whom I also interviewed this year. Gwen has been a successful boxing manager and a creative combat apparel creator and designer. Jackie is a successful boxing manager, as well as a promoter, and a consultant. They both have over 40 years of experience working within the boxing industries. Each Woman has their own ways of empowering women and have helped to pave the way for other females within the boxing, as well as the combat sports industry as a whole. I want to reiterate something; these ladies are working in a 90 percent male dominated industry. It’s tough and sometimes one’s peers might not take a woman as seriously as a man, when doing business with them. That is right, even a successful woman must be assertive and persistent to be taken seriously in Gwen Legge’s  and Jackie Kallen’s world.

Conclusion

I am grateful for individuals such as Gwen Legge, who have helped pave the way for women within various areas of the combat sports industry. She works extremely hard and it’s apparent that people notice her dedication and her life long love for combat sports, especially boxing. Gwen continues to empower women and be an inspiration to people within the combat sports world. It is obvious that she is well-known and extraordinarily passionate about combat sports, including boxing and MMA. Gwen mentioned that in the combat sports industry, “anything could happen”. For instance, something could take place during weigh-ins. If a fighter doesn’t make weight, then the opponent is able to decide whether or not they want to continue with the bout. This can be a mishap for all those involved.

After speaking with Gwen, I felt so motivated, that I immediately began writing this article on the wonderful interview she gave me. I suppose she motivated me by wanting to quickly get started. Gwen is a great person to communicate with, she is extremely kind, and funny as well. It makes me happy to know that she will continue her accomplished work, until the end of time. As Gwen told me,  she will remain working forever. She is seriously like the energizer bunny, she never stops going. She is a truly beautiful person and I was excited to interview her!