By Ryan Burton

krikya360.com spoke to Maureen "The Real Million Dollar Baby" Shea (14-2), about her upcoming fight with Liliana Martinez (8-10) for the NABF female featherweight title.  The bout takes place on July 30th. Shea also touches on helping Hilary Swank prepare for her role in The Million Dollar Baby, her post boxing plans and more in this exclusive interview.

krikya360.com: Tell us about your upcoming fight with Liliana Martinez for the NABF featherweight title.

Maureen Shea:  I got the call from my manager about a month ago and I am really looking forward to it.  I am really excited to be fighting in Sarasota Springs, New York with Pugnacious Promotions.  I have heard a lot about Lisa Elovich and about the shows she puts on up in Saratoga.  I was glad to hear it was her promotional card and that she was going to put me on it.  I know a lot of people that have been to her shows and they really enjoyed it.  It should be a good crowd and everyone is family oriented.  I love fighting in those types of environments.  I am really looking forward to it.

krikya360.com:  Do you know much about your opponent?

Maureen Shea:  I don't.  I don't know much because with a lot of the females in boxing they aren't on television often.  There isn't a lot of press.  They are hard to find on TV.  I do know she fought a girl I was supposed to fight for the WBA interm featherweight title back in December, Jenna Shiver.  I know that Jenna Shiver defeated her.  I saw some tape of her fighting Jenna.

krikya360.com: After watching the tape what do you think is going to be the key to the fight?

Maureen Shea:  I can see what she his going to bring.  I looked at tape with my trainer Aroz Gist and basically the key is going to be what we worked on in the gym.  We worked on my strengths and my weaknesses.  We cover all the bases.  With my style I can fight on the inside.  I can counter.  I can box.  This is the first fight honestly in my career that I really have been working on counter punching.  People have never seen me counter punch before.  They have seen me box and they have seen me fight on the inside.  The counter punching is something that I am really looking forward to using in this fight.  You can usually tell after the first round.  I can tell what their style is going to be.  I see that she comes forward but I am sure that she can box as well.  She is a little bit taller than me.  We will see what comes but my thing is committing to the body.  That is my work.  That is what I have done all my fights.  I love to go to the body.  That is pretty much what we have been working on.

krikya360.com:  Well if she likes to come forward that is a perfect opportunity for you to try out your counter punching.

Maureen Shea:  Yeah but I also can use my boxing.  I can counter punch while I am boxing also.  If she is boxing I can still beat her.  She has her jab but honestly I have switched trainers in the last year and I am now training out of New Jersey.  I was working with Tommy Brooks but now I work with Aroz Gist who also trains Kendall Holt.  Now we have been together for a year.  He has developed my complete style.  I feel like I am a well rounded fighter.  I am really maturing in the game.  I am looking forward to the fight because there are so many different things I can try.  I have learned so much from Aroz Gist.  Boxing, angles, counter punching.  I have added so much more to my arsenal.

krikya360.com:  You knocked Norma Faris out in your last fight that took place in May.  How do you rate that performance?

Maureen Shea:  It was good.  Norma Faris came to fight.  She had never been stopped.  I know she didn't necessarily have my experience but it was my first fight coming back off a nine month layoff and coming off two losses and having a new team in my corner.  I remember going back to my corner (between rounds) and they were like wow.  They really had nothing to say to me because I was doing everything right and that is the best thing that a fighter can hear.  They just told me to keep doing what I was doing and it was working so that is what we did.  I felt good but I felt I could have probably been a little bit more composed.  I needed to get that little bit of anxiousness of being back in the ring out of me since I had had several fights fall through on me over the past nine months prior to that fight.  I felt good about the fight.  After the fight a lot of people came up to me and I heard nothing but compliments.  That is always good to hear.  I know that what I am working on in the gym is coming out in the fight and that is the most important thing you can have as an athlete.

krikya360.com:  Is that why you had the nine month layoff?  Because of fights not coming through or were there other reasons?

Maureen Shea:  Fights falling through mostly.  Things weren't happening.  You know how the business of boxing is.  Sometimes it happens like that.  I was in the gym and I was staying prepared.  My team was concerned because they didn't want me to over train.  We had one fight fall through in February and another one in April.  I think three fights fell through in total.  I am a Christian and I believe everything happens for a reason.  I leave everything in God's hands and I knew my time would come when he felt I was ready.  Look at my last fight.  I was on Telefutura.  My fight was televised.  That was great.  The other fights I was going to have weren't going to be televised so I wouldn't have had this opportunity.  Now the NABF title has presented itself and that is my dream to be a world champion.  That is what I have been working on the past six years.

krikya360.com:  Assuming you come out of the fight with a victory what do you want to do next?

Maureen Shea:  Well I have to see what my management wants to do after the show.  I know that they are pushing me towards a world title so I have to see what will happen.  I leave that in the hands of my management.  They can figure that out.  I just concentrate on training and I need to keep winning.  I have a lot of things I am doing.  I am hosting Breathe Boxing Radio on Blogtalk.  I am writing with 8count news.  I am writing a blog with them.  I am just doing so many things.  I am doing my TV show in the Bronx.  I have so much other stuff going on so between fights I keep myself pretty occupied.  I leave the business side to them and I just keep on training and working on other stuff.

krikya360.com:  Tell us about your experience training Hilary Swank for her boxer role in the motion picture, Million Dollar Baby.

Maureen Shea:  I worked with Hilary in 2004.  I worked with her for six months as her primary sparring partner.  That really got me to where I am now.  It got me a lot of notoriety.  Everybody was saying Million Dollar Baby.  What is funny is now my moniker is Real Million Dollar Baby.  Some people don't even why I have that nickname.  They don't realize now why I have that name.  They don't realize it because of my accomplishments in boxing.  In the beginning I had to prove myself because people were saying that Maureen is only where she is because of Hilary Swank and Million Dollar Baby.  I never said anything.  I don't talk the talk, I went out and walked the walk.  You can't fight for a world title in Madision Square Garden because you were somebody's sparring partner.  I have learned and grew a lot from that experience.

krikya360.com:  After training with Hilary and doing your radio shows and your TV show have you thought about getting into movies when your boxing career is over?

Maureen Shea:  Absolutely.  I actually went to shoot an off Broadway play.  I got the lead after doing a cold read and then they didn't have the funding for the production so it fell through.  I took acting classes so that is something that I am interested in.  Doing commercials and things like that.  Right now my main focus is boxing and my fights and becoming champion.  I think everything else will fall into place.

krikya360.com:  Do you have a message for the fans?

Maureen Shea:  I want to thank my fans.  It is incredible.  I am on Facebook and I am on Twitter.  I am always interacting with my fans.  I always answer them back.  I love the support that I get from everybody.  I have a bunch of females on Twitter that follow me and I follow them.  There is female empowerment there.  I have a lot of guys that follow me.  It is just great.  I wish this fight coming up was televised.  I hate to say that it is not because it might be live on the internet.  I am not sure if they are going to do it or not.  My fans are wonderful.  I appreciate all their support.  Their words are motivation to me everyday.

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