Morelle McCane, Olympic Boxers: Most Interesting People 2025

29, Boxer

Why She’s Interesting: McCane, who’s been boxing for 12 years, qualified for the 2024 Olympics in Paris — the first woman boxer from Cleveland to participate in the Games. She came to the sport accidentally and has big plans inside and outside the squared circle.

Origin Story: McCane, who played basketball and ran track at Glenville High School, started boxing when she accompanied her niece to a class. “She didn’t like it, but I said I’d go with her because I needed to work out. She left the gym, and I stayed. I said, ‘I love it here.’ Eventually, it became therapeutic. Some people like roller coasters. I like boxing.”

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Next Up: She lost in the preliminaries to Navbakhor Khamidova of Uzbekistan, but she remains focused, competing at the National Boxing Championships in Richmond at the tail end of 2024. She also has her sights set on the World tournament in Liverpool, England, in September. “Like anything else in life, I was willing to learn. I could be bitter, or I could be better, and I wanted to be better.”

Beyond Boxing: McCane, who says she’s writing a book, will be in class at Louisiana State University this January, and has her sights set on entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors. (She has some irons in the fire, she says, but declined going into specifics.) She’s gotten a lot of training for the business world in boxing. “Boxing’s an independent sport, so you have to look for your opportunities yourself or with a team you built from the ground up.”

32: The average age of a woman in professional boxing, compared to 22 for a man. “There’s no rush to go pro,” McCane says.

Meet the rest of the 2025 class of Most Interesting People. >>

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