Meet the Black Widow, the UK's Queen of Amateur Boxing

When asked on a night out what Nina Cranstoun does for a living, she usually replies with "hairdresser", because it's easier to lie than listen to a guy subsequently reeling off names of his favourite boxers. Anyway, how could she manage another bloke when she spends her whole life organising the biggest beefcakes in Essex and London, darting between the gym and boxing rings? Nina Cranstoun is the black widow of boxing, one of the very few female boxing promoters in the UK, a confident woman in a sea of volatile testosterone. Using a combination of brassy charm and a promise of exciting fights, all of which she organises solo, she lures in some of the biggest underground fighters from across the country. With over 40 men on her books, Nina's skills are essentially: dodging blokey innuendos, preventing drama and calmly controlling her boxers when it comes to fight night. She's just bought and is doing up her own gym in Dagenham and she's buying a lot of glitter for the walls. "It's got to look GLAMOROUS," she says. "Serious sparkle. No excuse for my boys to not be training now." We spoke to Nina ahead of the VICE documentary about her, Black Widow, which drops on Monday, to find out more about what it takes to be a queen of the UK's CCB boxing scene. VICE: Hi Nina. So, why are you a big deal?
Nina Cranstoun: I'm gonna revive the entire sport. There's no one can stop me, no one. No man, beast or child unless I'm six feet under because the bottom line is – I'm a brand, me, Nina, the way I speak, the way I deliver, the personality, the way I look. That's a brand. And I learned that from Dolly Parton. She says "I'm trailer trash, yeah I might've lived in a caravan, I'm plastic, I can be a bit ditzy but I can sing." Everything you're gonna say negative about her she's already told ya. I know I'm gobby. But I'm the best. You've been a session singer and moonlighted in plenty of different careers. Why settle on boxing?
Boxing itself is entertaining to watch. It's an art form, it's a sport. If you can watch it, you'll be like "this person's my favourite, that person's my favourite, I love the way he did this." It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out boxing; you either see a winner or a loser or someone in a draw. But either way, you see a war, and that's entertaining. I've just got to make sure that outside the ring is perfect, secure and glamorous.

How are you bringing that glamour to the sport?
Without your fighters, you've got nothing – so you market and brand them. I do a reality TV show online about them. People see their character and their lives and attach themselves to different fighters. My life is one giant juggling drama, and I don't have to make it up. Also, my shows are 50 quid entry. When people walk through the door at my show I want them to go "holy shit". That's when I get people. If people are walking through the door and not saying "amazing show", I need to do better because that's a lot of money. At my shows we've got the waitresses, the show-girls taking you to your tables, champagne, you've got people walking round giving you hors d'ouevres, it's like, what the hell? This is not a boxing show, this is entertainment. In the documentary, you come across as half hard-line boss and half mother hen. How do you negotiate that thin line?
Blokes are a proper drama sometimes. People don't look after their fighters enough. I talk to every one of my fighters like they're my sons. Going through girlfriend dramas? If your head ain't right, you're halfway to losing the fight. So the bottom line for me is I have to nurture every single one of them, every single one of them is my boy. If you're gonna come and fight with me, what's the one thing you've gotta have with me? Trust. And trust isn't told, it's shown. So I have to show them. I give 50 percent of every single ticket to the fighter. It's not being maternal because that's not the right word. It's not down to being a woman, it's down to me. Don't look at me and be fooled by me. My attitude is strong. I've had a mad path but it's the wisdom and the nurturing I bring. I don't want you to get involved in drama, I want you to stay out of trouble. I understand them and they understand me. It becomes really draining; when my head hits the pillow, cor, I'm out.

What's your average day like then?
I wake up probably about 8 o'clock in the morning and I might have a couple of text messages from boxers. I send loads of emails before 8.30. I jump in my car and I could be going to see a venue, seeing someone sparring, talking to a new fighter on the phone, looking at YouTube clips, matching up fighters, talking to the travelling boys asking them: "What crowd you gonna bring in?" I don't care who you are, black, white, Russian, traveller, if you're good people I wanna know, but you have to understand me before we work together. I might be on the phone talking to a fighter who's had a breakup. Then my phone goes quiet from five til seven, that's because everyone's in the gym training after work. When the boxers go to sleep at about 11pm that's when I start on editing my videos of them. Thinking of new branding, ways to put a new spin on something. Little things to wow the next show. That's my every single day. Is a part of that massaging egos?
No. I don't massage egos. Let me explain something to you, I always go by facts. I tell my blokes the positives, that's the difference. I talk to probably four or five guys a night. Different guys could need talking to about anything. "Oh, I got knocked out" or "I want a rematch", little things like that. I calm them down. They need reassuring. One of my fighters doubts himself. He is a single parent and got stabbed in Tesco one night. So he had to go through all that and he's come back after years off and now I have to deal with his anxiety and support him.

You only see one woman boxing in the gym in the documentary. Is that pretty representative of the amateur scene?
They're slowly coming out but I think you've gotta remember that women have had a rough time in boxing. My friend Jane Couch was the first woman to make it pro in this country and she's not that old – boxing for men's been around for centuries, but boxing for women in this country is only the last 20 years or so. So the odds are already against them, they've got a lot of catching up to do. The other thing is that a bloke can look alright with a broken nose; a girl is a different story. But a lot more girls are getting involved in contact sport like this, don't get me wrong – they are. Then why are boxing fans predominantly male?
People look at boxing and get the stigma that the shows are actually quite violent. The amount of negativity with the small shows is always about people getting drunk, having fights – that's what puts any girl off. You hear them say, "Oh I'm not going, I'm gonna go out with the girls and get pissed, go to Sugar Hut." Things are changing now – talk of my shows go around Essex like wildfire. And you know who's talking about it? It's mainly girls. It does appeal mainly to men, at the moment, but I'm now opening doors, the more and more glamour I bring.

@hannahrosewens

Black Widow will be available to view on VICE from Monday 20th of June.

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