Donna Gallardo From SheWolf MKE | The Tory Lowe Show

And we got guests look this guest right here

amazed me

With what she's doing in the community and what she have done

For herself in the world of boxing in the world of boxing right here in the city of Milwaukee a gym

We have Donna

Delardo

Is that how you say it say it again? How y'all do you say that?

Gallardo Gallardo

Yeah, Donna Gallardo is the owner of she wolf m. K.E

She is a women boxes. She has a women's women's boxing fitness gym and

She deals with not only training others, but the community as well

That's right young girls in the community

How you doing Donna? I'm doing great. How are you Donna? I'll say this I

was recently in

your gym and

The she wolves was out

The she wolves wasn't playing around

That's right. What's going on? Give us a little history and background on your gym and on your

Rise as a as a boxer as well. Yeah, so I started she will fm. K.E. back in

2021 I opened up an LLC

I was doing a lot of work with women on the side. You know, I had a corporate job

But boxing has always been in my background

Since I was 12 years old so just taking it back to when I was 12

You know, that's when I started boxing. I started at the United Community Center. That's here in Milwaukee on 9th in Washington

Little did I know that I was going to find myself in that world for over 10 years competing as an amateur

You know, but my story begins way back

You know, just thinking about how I got into the sport, you know, I was being bullied at school. Oh wow

Yeah, so did you go to school right here in Milwaukee? I did what school was it St. Anthony's oh St. Anthony's yes

They was they was bullying you as St. Anthony's and then did a mentor come along did somebody say hey look

I'm gonna teach you how to fight. How did this happen?

Honestly, I literally just walked over to the community center on a cold winter day with two of my friends

We were just gonna go

Jump on the treadmill or something and on my way out I I heard some loud banging and I'm like

Oh, that must be some some boxing bags

So I went up there checked it out and I fell in love with it. Oh wow. Yeah, and the rest was history the rest was history

Women's box in history. That's right now

In your boxing journey you have one

Golden glove. Yep. What's going on explain to me, you know, how did you go from walking into a gym?

Oh, you know, this looks cool. Yeah to actually going into competition

It's kind of surreal. Um, I was a little bit nervous, you know when I first got asked to spar

I was like, I don't know what I'm getting myself into but sure I'll do it

Um, but for me the fact that the coach took me under his wing and gave me the time. Oh wow to train me meant a lot

And so, you know, I just started showing up to competitions, you know, we would go to

places in the Midwest like Minnesota, Iowa, uh, Chicago and I just fell in love with the idea

You had them hands. When did you know you had to mean like the first fight the second fight

It might you know that you was that

You you was gonna be a problem

It might have been the second fight

That first fight was a little bit uh, I don't know a little bit questionable

Uh, but the fact that I didn't give up, you know like I kept coming back

I think it was like that discipline that that's instilled in me

That I had to keep coming back to prove something. Yeah, so now

You dealing with the community and you told me something that really like

Just touched my spirit because I go around and talk about bullying and in schools now, you know

I try to go to each school

kind of you know, let's discuss this but

I feel that when children know how to defend themselves

It kind of pushes back against the bullying situation

The bullying won't if your child knows how to fight

Bullies usually don't pick on hard targets

They usually choose soft targets

That's right

So you have a program where young girls can come twice a week

And and learn how to box yes

Wow, what is that can you elaborate on that? Yeah, so I started my nonprofit last year

It's called lioness academy and it's a program for youth girls ages six to 17

Uh, we basically do the same type of boxing programming that we do for the girls that are under she-wolf

Um, but this program is specific to families from low-income communities that can't necessarily afford to take their kids

To a gym like ours. Oh wow. Yeah, we subsidize that a membership for them and allow them to

To come and train with us and hold space for them the she-wolf. Yeah

Take a man to the den

What do you call you?

Spaces the dead what I mean you can think of it as a then right yeah

So

You also work with adults as well adult women domestic abuse is a huge issue as well. Yes

Um, when it what what is your main strategy when you try to teach women to defend themselves and keep them

Uh, inspired to learn more

Uh, myself and all of the coaches that I have

We take a trauma in from trauma informed approach to all of the training that we do at our gym

So we try to understand where people are stepping into our gym what their background is like before we ever tried to

You know step into their space and tell them what to do right we want to approach it from like a very mindful place

Because everybody's walking a different journey a different path and we just want to meet them where they're at

Now I was in there for you know a little bit just seeing people just you know tacked in I'm talking about

Being instructed correctly because I used to box. I used to be in tough man. It's stuff. I don't want to talk about

I used to do the minute uh three rounds uh a minute rounds these tough men's that used to come through Iowa

And Minnesota I wanted two of them

Wow, yeah, I mean yeah, I mean it is what it is we came up on the block

So you're like I said it was built in anchor, you know, but what I'm saying is

When you talk about bullying and domestic violence when it comes to women and now it's a lot of talk about people

Assaying women and things like that. How important it is for you to implement your programs in our communities to help out with those

disturbing statistics

I think first of all, you know, I I want women to learn

Confidence right to be confident in themselves to be able to deal with all the pressures of the world, you know

We get a lot of women that are mothers that are dealing with partners that maybe aren't as supportive

And like I said we want to hold space for them

But we also want to give them the skills and teach them

That they are powerful beings and so when a lot of women come to our space, you know

That's exactly what they're looking for and and I'm very

Happy that we're able to provide a space like ours so that they can express themselves and build themselves through strength

And the power that boxing has

well look

I'm gonna save something when we get back from break, but I will actually this in your journey in your journey as

A boxer and axel trainer and dealing with

Not only just the fact that you have to prepare yourself

For you know battle many times you have to prepare yourself a battle now you're preparing other people to

Be in situations where they may have to be in battle, you know, what is what is your message to a lot of the

Young girls and and what inspires you to continue to do this what is what makes you wake up every day and say hey look

I got to get up. I got to make sure that this is going because this is desperately needed in the female

Boxing community right here in Milwaukee, which I didn't even know you know

We had a female boxing community, so I ran into you

How do you keep this community going and what motivates you to do that?

I think what motivates me is that there's purpose behind this mission

And ultimately I want these young girls to become leaders because that's exactly what they're going to become

If you haven't really thought about this women will be leading this next generation

And so we need powerful they are ready some of them think they lead right now

truthfully yeah

Um, but you know, that's what it's all about, but instilling

And stilling the right type of skills, you know, it's not just about having a pretty face

And using using those skills to to drop people in it's it's more about how you lead as a person

And I think a lot of these young girls just need direction right and and to have a figure

That is going to give them those types of skills to lead in the world. I think is very important and that gets me up every day

Well, look when we come back

You might be coming out of retirement life Floyd Mayweather you might you might be stepping back into the ring

Yeah, look also I want to talk about women's boxing explain

With all that all that is going on with colorissa shields. I want to talk about want to see how you feel about that

Okay, I might have to come out rapping while you coming down the hour if you come back

And when we come back we have more discussion. We got Donna and studio from she wolf mke

Representing women's boxing and fitness gym

and community

At the same time

Hey, look when we come back we have more conversation truth nation stay like that

101 seven of truth Tori low Tori low show

Look, I'm gonna tell you this we got an amazing guest in studio

And the thing is when it comes to women's boxing when it comes to

All of the things that you're doing for the young people in the community and yourself because you might be stepping back in the ring

We got Donna from she wolf fitness gym and the studio now look Donna

You might be stepping back in the ring now how long you've been out of the ring?

17 years

You okay, so you've been in out of the ring for 17 years

That's right now women's boxing is taking off now. Yeah

Highest stakes now Clarissa shields is kind of bringing a lot of attention a lot of marketing to the sport of women's boxing

When you I mean we need to I need to be your manager. I need to get out there

And let make sure we get them big fights. That's right

What's going on? Why do you think you you may step back in the ring?

I don't know I think I think once I started training with some of the

The fighters and athletes that I have at my gym, you know, I I was

Jumping into the ring to help them spar and and just a little bit of that

competitive side of me came back out

and I'm like in this season of life where I'm like, let me just see if there's still something there

Right and the only way to itch that scratch is to go and do it and what division would you

Quite be and it's like the I think it's like the 143 weight category. Mm-hmm. Now are you a defensive fighter? Are you a you know

Are you aggressive? I'm not aggressive. Okay. I kind of like I'm a calculator. Yes. Yes counterpuncher. Oh wow

Yeah, okay, so what's the record? What is your record like your professional record no professional fights just amateur

Okay, so our amateur yep, and so you will be making your first professional debut somewhere here

Ah

Would that be your first professional fight? It would and I would actually compete in the golden gloves again

Oh, you would go back to golden gloves. Yeah, and and see if you can kind of yep recapture the

The gloves again because you got golden gloves already. Yep, so would that be the testing ground to see if you can

If I still got what it takes why so why didn't you turn professional

Um, honestly like you got you got the skills on the on the amateur level. Why didn't you step into that next?

So I there was a little break that I took right um I stopped boxing when I was about 20

That was my last fight. Okay, um because I was in college and that took a lot of just time out of my schedule

Just to finish all four years of that

Uh, yeah, so you know like after I got done

I was I wasn't really sure if I wanted to go back into boxing, but I was doing some other endurance sports in between

um

Then you know, I got presented with an opportunity to to start training groups of people at different gyms for boxing

They wanted to bring boxing programming to their gyms

So I started doing that and that kind of sparked a desire to be back in the sport but teaching it

And you know, it never crossed my mind that I would find myself back in the ring

But you know now that I have my own space. It's like well

Let me see if I still got what it takes

I mean look let me tell you something. I mean we can we can throw this big we can gather you know get the

Get the Pfizer form get it get everybody together for the you know, man

You got to I mean what would it okay? Do you ever think you could dope pro

If I put the time into it. Absolutely. You got to do yeah

It's just a lot of time dedication. We got stairs here where you can run up like Rocky run up the stairs

Ah, all right. I guess I got it

You know, I'm in your corner now. I'm here for the action now

When it comes to just training you have trained professional athletes as well. Yep

And and there's the are these people that

Just come in for the exercise of boxing

Or from different other sports because a lot of people use

Boxing as a way to you know train their muscles, but they play other sports. That's right

So I used to train Drew holiday

Lauren holiday life

And was Matthews we got some training sessions in here and there salute to Drew holiday and his wife

Heavy in the community did a lot for our community. Yes, so hey salute that was amazing and when you talk about just

The fact that you're able to be around professional athletes and get them in shape through boxing

That shows how your your brain has grown yes over the years through consistency. That's right. That's powerful. Yeah

Now as you move forward

Maybe you may step in the ring, you know, well, definitely the golden glove idea. Yeah, you think that's going to happen

I'm I'm trying to get I'm trying to be your manager

I'm trying to get out here get you know promote the big fight. You know where you can get in there with Clarissa Shields

Calling me out

We got to send Clarissa Shields an email

We got somebody here in Milwaukee. There you go. All right. So what is your message to the youth right now? What is your message to

The people that you're trying to connect to the women the youth the community what what do you got to say to those that are listening?

I just want to let them know that they need to stand their grounds. They need a place where their voice can be heard

And you just got to find those outlets

So that you can allow yourself to express freely

In a space that is going to support your nervous system

And so for me that's always been very important holding space for young girls that just need to be seen need to be heard

And something like the sport of boxing is definitely going to give you an outlet

where you feel seen and

Absolutely no pressure to perform a certain way because it's all women

and

How can people keep what keep up with you? I mean how can they get involved with your social media?

Where's your social media handles? We want to know all of that give us to how we can keep up with your journey

Yes, so um, I've got a

IG handle she wolf

underscore women's boxing and then our nonprofit for the girls is called lioness academy

Lioness boxing academy all one word

And then when we talk about like yo, you know you you individually

Yes

We trying to see what they what these boxing matches look like can we

Is it going to if you go golden gloves? We need to get the date in the times. We got to support. I appreciate that

Uh, so golden gloves in Wisconsin are going to be held April 3rd and 4th hold on so wait a minute. It's coming up

How do I know how to you finish step in?

In the month. Yeah

Uh, do we have to get tickets or uh, do we just show up at the venue or what?

Yeah, so if you go online to um, golden gloves, Wisconsin

You should be able to purchase tickets for the event. Okay, we're going to be there front center Andrew

Oh, I never say

Will you be sponsored by Adidas?

Uh, possibly I'm just saying to me you got to get you got you got you got NLs out here now. That's right. That's right

I better be

Ha ha ha

Hey, so like I said, it's phenomenal at what you're doing

I appreciate everything you're trying to do for the community and you stepping back into the ring

As well, you know Donna. Hey you you wanted it's one of the most fascinating

People that I've met in 2026. Thank you

And and once again, can you give the information if people want to get involved with the gym as an adult training or even as the youth

If the youth want to get involved give that information one more time

Yeah, so you can always send a submission or request over to uh she wolf mke.com

That's our website and then if you're interested in uh a donation or sponsorship for uh youth girls non-profit

That's going to be lioness boxing academy.org

Well, thank you, and I appreciate you for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. We're going to be furrow c

Andrew for the golden gloves

Hey, look, we I need to be I need I don't know how what I got to do to be in the corner like you know

Uh, well you need a USA boxing credential. Oh wow. How long did that take to get? I may not have time for that

I'm out to just sit in the front row

You might have to sit in the front row, okay, but look we can spice it up

We could come out and I could be wrapping while you coming out, you know, get oh, I love that

Do they do that at the golden gloves that they do you have e-tros like that big e-tros like that they don't oh

We want to change the game or something

Well, all right. Well, thank you for coming on the show today Donna. Thank you so much. Hey