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Alicia Doyle is 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 at the time 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. Alicia’s first book, Fighting Chance, has won three awards since it was published on Valentine’s Day in 2020: 1st Place for Creative Nonfiction in the 2020 North Street Book Prize Winning Writers Competition; 2020 WBAN Awards “Cool Story of the Year”; and “Best of Los Angeles Award” for Best Autobiographical Book of 2021.
A journalist for more than two decades, Alicia has earned a reputation as “The Writer Specializing in Good News” for authoring thousands of stories about inspirational people and efforts that have a positive impact. Alicia is based in Southern California and is currently completing her second nonfiction book, The Oath.
Reviewed by Tammy Ruggles for Readers' Favorite
Fighting Chance by award-winning journalist Alicia Doyle is a powerful memoir that will inspire and entertain you. You have a journalist-turned-boxer in her late twenties in the late 1990s, and you have a compelling story of how covering a story of at-risk youth in a boxing gym turned her into a two-time Golden Gloves champion in the ring. Boxing has traditionally been a male sport, but Doyle is one of the few women to break the barrier and become a history-making mentor to young and old alike. She earned the title The California Female Fighter of the Year but is a hero in more ways than one.
Boxing is one of the toughest sports globally, and not just anyone can do it successfully, so you will be amazed at how Doyle climbed to the top. Her journalistic skills are evident in this compelling narrative. It feels like you're watching a movie. Every scene comes alive and is full of energy. This book will delight any boxing fan and anyone who loves a good human interest story because it serves to lift those living with challenges in their lives. This is a motivational work full of emotion and heart and is more than an autobiography: it has a universal message of overcoming struggle. Being a former social worker who has worked as a child and adult protection investigator, I recognize that survivors of abuse and trauma often seek out extreme physical activities to subconsciously replay and process their experiences so that they can regain a sense of control over their bodies and psyche.
This author shares her own experiences with domestic violence and handles the subject of boxing and violence with sensitivity and insight. There are life lessons embedded in this story: those of not giving up, of doing the impossible, of making a difference in the lives of others to name a few. The accompanying images further enhance an already dynamic story. If you are looking for a life story that will touch and empower you, Fighting Chance by Alicia Doyle is a must-read.
