After living in five different African nations and traveling Europe, she came half way around the world to get here. For him, Dayton was just a two-hour trip up highways 23 and 35 out of rural Pike County.
Her parents are social activists back in Africa, she prepped at a Quaker boarding school, graduated from the University of Dayton with close to a 3.5 grade-point average and now is working on her master’s degree. He had a tough childhood that included foster homes and a dad in prison, quit high school, and had some brushes with the law himself, but lately has seemed to turn things around.
She’s 6-foot-2, is just 21 and has a model’s good looks. He’s 5-foot-10, 242 pounds, over twice her age and his Popeye forearms are covered in tattoos.
She had an Obama poster on her apartment door; he has a McCain bumper sticker on his SUV.
They say opposites attract, and Marie Rosche and Rocky Phillips are one of sports odd couples. Not so much Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin or Allen Iverson and Larry Brown. More like Felix and Oscar.
Better yet, Beauty and the Beast.
That’s a fairy tale, and this one could be, too.
“I don’t know how to put it, except that we are from different worlds that might not have met were it not for boxing,” Marie said.
The fistic world is Rocky’s favorite stomping ground. He’s the guy veteran promoter Don Elbaum once described as being “one of the greatest one-punch knockout artists in boxing.”
Rocky’s fought off and on as a pro since 1987, and his 21-14 record includes a second-round KO of bloated, former heavyweight champ Michael Dokes, who ended up with a broken jaw. But the ledger also shows that since Dokes, Rocky has lost nine times in 10 fights.
Marie’s pugilistic pilgrimage is one of life’s ad libs. She played college basketball at UD the past four seasons, and though always relegated to coming off the bench, she was a team captain.
There-in may lie their connection. Marie said her college hoops career wasn’t as fulfilling on the court as she’d hoped it would be. Rocky’s ring fortunes have been the same lately.
And so he’s dabbled in training boxers and mixed martial arts fighters. He saw Marie at the UDF store near the UD campus, and with her size, reach and athleticism, he thought she might make a good boxer and had a clerk there who knows them both make the introduction.
“I wasn’t very familiar with boxing, but I was interested,” she said. “It was another form of a workout, and I wanted to try something different. And to my surprise, I’ve really liked it.”
Although she’s never seen a live boxing match, you find, with a little prodding, she’s not a complete stranger to the fight game.
“I was about 13 and in middle school back in Mali,” she said a bit sheepishly. “I was at a party, and we were supposed to be play fighting like the WWF.
“But there was this girl who didn’t like me, and she kicked me in the stomach, and this playful thing turned into a brawl. I pretty much knocked her out. Four of the guys there had to pull me off her. They said I should stop hitting her — she couldn’t breathe.”
Rather than following the “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” clarion call of ring announcer Michael Buffer, she followed her mom’s lead and hit the books, while also taking part in a dance troupe, modeling clothing, playing soccer and finally, after moving to the U.S. in 10th grade, trying basketball for the first time.
Her ability to grasp things quickly now is showing itself as she makes her foray into boxing.
She’s been training with Rocky for three weeks at Neo Limits Fitness on Airway Road. In the process, they have opened up to each other about their lives and developed a bond.
“While we’re different, we’re the same in some ways, too.” Marie said. “We both have a sense of humor. We both believe in loyalty and trust.”
And there’s that ability to throw “the bomb” as Rocky calls it.
When you watch one of her workouts, you understand why there’s been a bit of a buzz around the gym about her. Although she said she has two pins in her right hand — she broke it while she was a frustrated UD player — her pink-gloved right fist explodes into the leather punch mitts Rocky holds in front of her.
He asks her to fire off 20 straight punches, then 16 and 12.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” he grunts as she pops the pads over and over. When they’re done, he’s breathing harder than she.
“She’s picking this up naturally, and man, does this girl have power,” he said. “To me, she’s at the level of someone who’s been doing this a year. I really think she could be a champ.”
Whether it gets that far — whether Marie even gets into the ring for a pro fight — is down the road. In the fall she’ll be taking graduate courses again at UD. She’s working this summer at the Bomberger Center and Kettering Recreation Complex teaching youth sports. She’s playing basketball one night a week in a local women’s league and she still has hopes of doing some modeling or playing hoops professionally in Europe.
“I’ll do this (boxing) through the summer, and we’ll see where we’re at,” she said. “If we both see improvement and there’s an opportunity, I might turn pro.”
Some of her teammates know what she’s doing, but she doesn’t think her former UD coaches do. Nor does her father. But she did finally ’fess up to her mom.
“She told me not to hit anyone,” Marie said with a laugh.
Across the room, Rocky rolled his eyes and mumbled.
Then she added: “But my mom also told me that my grandfather had been a champion wrestler back in his (African) village. So maybe it’s in my genes.”
That made Rocky smile.
Marie, too.
About the Author