This is one of those documentaries that feels like it directs itself, so improbable is its story: The Peckham-born Catholic and heavyweight boxing promoter formerly known as Frank Maloney finally acknowledges the gender confusion that has dogged her life and, in her early 60s, transitions to becoming Kellie. In particular, the scenes where Maloney builds up to telling each of her three children that she is a woman play out in strange parallel to the succession of bouts we previously see her client Lennox Lewis undergo chasing the world title. There are similar undertones of destiny too. “This journey is not one that you choose, this journey chooses you,” Maloney says just before her crucial reassignment surgery.
Where Knock Out Blonde is not so sharp is the way it digs into the childhood roots of Maloney’s discomfort. Perhaps it’s the kind of thing that can never be delineated, but it’s not fully clear how this brew of identity, sexuality and self-image contributed to Maloney, a pugilist who didn’t make the cut, finding herself managing Lewis at the apex of the macho and hyper-capitalist 1990s boxing world. In much of the footage, she looks glum; ground down by the kind of inner denial or furtiveness that saw her sneaking off to a transgender salon in Staten Island as Lewis was preparing for his first fight with Evander Holyfield at Madison Square Garden. Continue reading...
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