USA boxing star Morelle McCane: "Discipline is self-love and I’m the captain of my ship"
Morelle McCane, the 66 kg boxer from Ohio who secured a quota for the Paris 2024 Olympics at the 2023 Pan American Games, exclusively told Olympics.com how boxing helped her overcome tragedy, and how she applies the sport’s principles to entrepreneurship.
Boxing
Boxing can at times be an unglamorous sport, centred around blood and sweat. But that all changes when Morelle McCane enters the ring.
The Team USA welterweight is a natural-born entertainer, with a vibrant personality, uncompromising fighting style, and a passion for fashion that she shares on her aptly-named Instagram handle @million_dollar_mo.
It’s a devastating combination that saw McCane land the 2022 USA Boxing International Invitational, 2021 USA Boxing Elite National Championships, 2021 National Golden Gloves, and 2020 USA Boxing Elite National Championships.
These achievements laid the foundation for perhaps her biggest achievement in boxing to date: winning the 66 kg silver medal at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, to secure a quota for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
*“*Of course I'm a girl and I like to look cute, dress cute, so I just want to bring every aspect of me into the ring, and then it’s my time to shine,” McCane told Olympics.com.
“I don’t want people to think I fight as strongly as a man. Instead, I want people to stare in awe at this woman who landed a vicious right hook.
“I just go out there, have fun, make adjustments as I go and just do it like Nike! Then it becomes a great show.”
Using boxing to overcome tragedy
Despite McCane’s upbeat personality and joyous persona in the ring, her journey to this point has involved significant triumph and tragedy.
The Cleveland native was a relative late-comer to boxing, having first picked up a pair of gloves at 17 in her senior year of high school. She made up for lost time though, and was soon invited to participate in tournaments.
Shortly after her first fight, however, her brother passed away, and McCane had to step away from the sport in order to fully process her grief.
But the young pugilist got back back into the ring with a renewed sense of purpose as she wanted to honour her brother's memory.
“I've overcome many obstacles,” McCane continued. “I feel like having a childhood that was a little rough and losing my brother at what should have been the most exciting time in my career was one of the most devastating things.
“But I take him everywhere I go. I just know he was so proud.”
It was a turning point for McCane as a person, who channelled her devastation into discipline for her craft, which has since become a defining aspect of her success.
“I believe that discipline is like self-love, because it means that you are in control of what you are doing. I don’t let the situation control me, I’m the captain of my ship.
“I'm my best self when I'm relaxed, just having fun, and remembering not to treat boxing with deathly seriousness like we’re in the Roman times, like the loser will die!
“I take the sport seriously, but I remember that there will always be another day whether I win or lose.”
Morelle McCane on controlling passion inside the ring
Boxing is an all encompassing sport that tests an athlete’s mental capacity just as much as their power, agility, and ability to absorb blows.
As such, despite having become a disciplined individual in training, McCane still needed to learn that boxing in the ring was about more than being tough and aggressive.
That lesson came when she entered the USA national team.
“When I first was able to go down to the Olympic training centre and practise, I was given a reality check,” she said. “I was outside of my bubble, and outside of my comfort zone thinking that I was the best. I learned that I wasn’t actually doing things right, and it was very humbling.
“The main thing that changed was my attitude. I used to think that boxing was about who was the toughest. At first, I used to be very close to getting disqualified in my fights.
“But when you grow in boxing , you realise it's a very controlled sport and the more relaxed you are, the better you do, and the more you see. You can be passionate but you have to control the passion.
“Now I'm learning each and every time I get in and get out there, and I'm just grateful for that amazing opportunity.” - Morelle McCane to Olympics.com.
Business graduate / entrepreneurship
Perspective and balance are key components in most elite athlete’s careers.
McCane is no different and has also been able to find time around training to fulfil her passion of entrepreneurship.
Unsurprisingly, the Associate of Applied Business graduate has been able to transfer several of her skills that she’s learnt in boxing over to her life as a business woman.
“Entrepreneurship is so similar to sports,” she said. “You never know what you're getting out there, and you’ve just got to stay open-minded and solve the problems that appear in front of you.
“I'm so passionate about anything that I do and I need my team to match my passion.”
McCane’s first business ventures included fitness classes for young kids in nursery, and at the other end of the spectrum, the elderly in nursing homes.
“I used to work at a day-care and that's where it all started,” she said. “Our approach with little ones incorporated learning into their workout. So we might practise their ABC’s or maths while doing jumping jacks. It was a way of making them excited and focussed for learning, which helps their minds as they are typically all over the place, like mine!
“In the nursing homes, it was more about physical activity and we would have old people in wheelchairs getting a workout into James Brown music and they would love it!”
Morelle Mccane of the United States celebrates her victory against Charlie Cavanagh of Canada during Santiago 2023 Pan American Games at Nunoa´s Olympic Training Center on October 26 in Santiago, Chile.
McCane put her business life on hold to focus on boxing and was selected as an alternate for Team USA’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification team.
It was a huge achievement, but coming so close to making the Games made her more determined than ever to make the plane to Paris 2024, which was reflected in her impressive amount of tournament wins from 2021-22.
That led to her selection for the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, where she needed a top-two finish to obtain a quota, in what is one of the toughest continental tournaments when it comes to boxing.
While many wilt under such expectation, the pressure of the occasion seemed to bring out the best in the 28-year-old, who achieved her mission after securing a unanimous decision victory in the semi-finals over Canada’s Charlie Cavanagh, the 2022 Elite World Championships silver medallist.
In the final, with her main prize already secured, a valiant McCane went down to Barbara dos Santos of Brazil.
Should the US fighter go on to compete at Paris 2024, she will become the first female boxer from Cleveland to compete at the Olympics.
“I will be in Paris, and I feel great,” a smiling McCane said after her win. “I am honoured to continue the Cleveland legacy and to be the first female from Cleveland to join the list of greats before me!”