Holmes Boxing ‘The Return’: MG Vellinga Previews Her Next Fight

October 29, 2025·1 hr 31 min·7 clips

MG Vellinga, coming off a year-and-a-half layoff and surgery, explains why she's grateful for this unexpected fight.

1. Unrestricted podcast host DreRawka interviews pro boxer and Rise gym owner MG Vellinga ahead of her November 1st Holmes Boxing fight at the OK Hotel and Casino in New Mexico. 2. MG Vellinga is a professional boxer, boxing coach, gym owner, and mother who is returning to the ring after surgery and a year-and-a-half layoff. 3. The episode covers fight preparation, mental approach to competition, and the structural gap in how knowledge is passed down to younger fighters in the sport. 4. Vellinga's opponent, Leanna Martinez, is 4-4 on a four-fight losing streak, and Vellinga argues the matchup reflects strength of schedule — every fighter she has lost to has since fought for or holds a world title. 5. She notes she received four and a half weeks' notice for the fight and spent the first two weeks training privately before announcing it, wanting to assess her own readiness without external pressure. 6. DreRawka and Vellinga discuss the paradox of small venues versus large ones: 12,000 people at the Delta Center with Ice Cube felt more nerve-wracking to DreRawka than smaller bars, while for Vellinga the Madison Square Garden name itself created jitters more than crowd size. 7. Vellinga fought twice at Madison Square Garden — first on the Teofimo Lopez undercard on ESPN — and describes fighting cautiously the first time because she was overwhelmed by the venue's historical weight. 8. In her second Garden fight she learned from the first, stopped letting the experience cloud her performance, and fought better. 9. She argues at high levels boxing is 85 to 90 percent mental, and describes her mental preparation as mapping out training, completing every session regardless of how she felt, and remembering her job is to win the fight not to win sparring rounds. 10. Vellinga identifies a transparency gap in combat sports: fighters only publicize the highlight reel of success while keeping pay disputes, failed bookings, and manager conflicts private — leaving younger fighters to repeat the same learning process from scratch. 11. She argues this information gap could be closed by experienced fighters stepping up to reach out to younger athletes directly, not just being available if asked. 12. Vellinga runs a weekly open female sparring session at Rise gym, free for any women to attend, specifically to address the shortage of female sparring partners she experienced throughout her career. 13. She says her best training partners for this camp have been female sparring partners Maria Hernandez and Yvette — and notes 12- to 13-year-old boys bring similar pace and pressure to what a female opponent would bring in a fight. 14. An unexpected benefit of coaching has been improved head movement — the volume of punches she sees daily while holding mitts has sharpened her defensive instincts more than dedicated training alone. 15. She manages both a 50-plus hour work week as gym owner and her own fight training, describing the mental reframe that being busier actually builds more willpower and determination for fights. 16. Vellinga is fighting at light flyweight 110 pounds — two pounds below her usual flyweight class — and weighs in on Halloween, which means canceling the gym's annual kids' Halloween costume party. 17. Her 17-year-old daughter chose to stay home rather than attend the fight, and Vellinga says that at this age they can have a genuine conversation about it rather than the daughter feeling obligated. 18. The tone is candid and conversational — DreRawka and Vellinga have an established relationship and speak frankly about pay, career management mistakes, and the emotional realities of competitive sports. 19. Boxing fans, combat sports practitioners, and coaches interested in the mental side of competition and career management will find the most value here. 20. Listeners unfamiliar with professional boxing structures, weight classes, or the Utah fight community will need some context to follow the more specific discussion.

As heard by us

A fight-week interview that turns training, sacrifice, and motherhood into the real stakes.

The episode sits in a candid fight-week conversation, and its best stretches come from how plainly she describes the grind. It moves through coaching, running a gym, motherhood, and the edge that comes from having more reps than anyone else, which gives the piece a lived-in feel…

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Want a straight-up boxing check-in before a November 1 fight?

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