INDIANAPOLIS — Like life sometimes you must take the punches, bight down on the mouthpiece and keep fighting.
Anderson resident, Shelby Cannon and her Coach Rob McIntyre embrace the fight more than most.
McIntyre said he started coaching in combat sports about twenty years ago. His journey led him to open Inflow Martial Arts.
“I got bullied a lot when I was a kid and I always thought there's no way I'm going to let my kids go through it or other people go through it,” McIntyre said.
His mission to stop bullying started training for more than a dozen adults and kids to build muscle, positivity and confidence.
“The biggest thing is none of the kids throw hands," McIntyre said. "They never had to defend themselves, but they stood up for themselves and they stood their ground."
Cannon said she met McIntyre when she was just a kid.
"It's kind of been this lifelong journey with Rob. He hasn't always been my coach,” Cannon said.
McIntyre was her son's father's coach when she got to know McIntyre.
"I was like the crazy girlfriend in the back scenes and causing the drama and the chaos at sixteen," Cannon said.
Years later as a mom, wife and business owner they reconnected, and it transformed her life.
“An answer to a prayer because I thought man, I now am getting the drive that I wanted to get," Cannon said.
"I legitimately care how she does. She has dreams so me as a coach and as a friend I have to make sure that I do everything I can to get her whatever that dream may be,” said McIntyre.
Now Cannon’s dream is a multi-fight deal with a big bareknuckle boxing organization and she's heading to London for her professional debut.
You can catch her boxing under the name “Shelby 'Boom Boom' Cannon.
"I've had some good people, but she outworks them all and I'll tell them all that and they know it," McIntyre said.
At 32, she said she’s in the best shape of her life.
"Every girl that she has fought so far has said, that she hits harder than anybody they've ever fought,” McIntyre said.
Together, the coach and student team up to embracing the fight in life and in hopefully win in the sport of bareknuckle boxing.
The 'BYB Extreme' bare-knuckle boxing fight is on Sunday June 25, in London.
