Welcome to the debut of “The Hustle” where we profile African-American women who are turning their passion into a little something on the side, and turning that little something into a big business. Know someone who should be in “The Hustle”? Email tgarcia@madamenoire.com.

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“No Glove, No Love.”

When boxing fan and Carla Ja put this familiar slogan on t-shirts to sell at the Mayweather vs. Cotto match last May, it became the unofficial launch of her business. “Within a couple of hours,” she says, “I sold out of the shirts.”

The sales drove more than usual traffic to her website, and led to even more sales—but soon after, Ja admits, interest faded. “All of the momentum and everything just, you know, kind of went away.”

For Ja (pronounced “Jay”) who juggles raising five children with a full-time position as a manager in the medical field, the t-shirts were not about making a few extra dollars on the side.  Instead, it was the beginning of the realization of an idea she had had more than 16 years ago.

At the time, Ja’s eldest daughter was three and she had been feeling more responsibility for the world her children would inherit. “I wanted to do something to be a positive contribution to society, and a big part of it is, you know, safe sex and abstinence,” Ja explains. “But I didn’t want to be preachy,” she clarifies.

Biding her time as her family and career grew, and weathering a divorce in the process, Ja finally had the shirts made. But their debut taught her a cardinal rule of business: It’s not about whatever product, service, or even message you’re selling. It’s about building a brand that authentically connects with a community of supporters that can help you make your concept a movement.

Ja had found the seeds of that support in the boxing fans that had patronized her shirts. Now she had to build her brand. As she explained to MadameNoire, it has not been a predictable or straightforward course.

Madame Noire: How did you go about beginning to create your brand?

Carla Ja: I started doing entertainment reporting for Humormill.com and interviewing a lot of the comedians that were doing improv here in Houston, Texas; interviewing the guys from Shaq’s All-Star Comedy Tour. A lot of those interviews really started circulating on the Internet, and shortly thereafter some gentlemen approached me and said “You know what? We see that you’re into boxing. We see all of your pictures. We see that you’re at every boxing event. We see that you’re also doing the entertainment reporting. How would you like to do boxing interviews for us?”

From there, Jeff Mayweather’s Pro Boxing Insider asked me, would I be a contributor for their website. Then Boxing Socialist asked me if I would be a contributor.

MN: How did the interviews evolve into managing boxers?

CJ: A lot of the up-and-coming prospects started asking me, “Miss Carla, can you get us sponsorships?” “Miss Carla, can you hook us up with someone that can help us out with, you know, endorsements and the patches for our trunks?” I said, “You know what? I should just go on and launch my own company.” So that was already something that was in the back of my mind.

From that I interviewed Juan “the Baby Bull” Diaz and [he] said “You know what? I’d like for you to be an athlete representative for my company.”

God opens doors and kind of puts the perfect people in front of you.  It just kind of evolved from me launching the t-shirt company and wanting to have a larger platform; to now having a sports and entertainment company [Carla Ja Sports & Entertainment] with a number of potential athletes who are slated to sign here in the next couple of weeks, to the ones that I’m currently managing.

Judy Eddy/WENN

Besides getting busy in the boxing ring, one thing everyone knows about Floyd Mayweather is that he loves making money and showing it off.

However, he’s now suing a New Orleans wine bistro for using his name as well as the Money Team name – his crew which includes Justin Bieber, his girlfriend Miss Jackson and possibly still 50 Cent – to lure in patrons and getting pretty big pay off during Super Bowl weekend.

In the lawsuit, Mayweather says The Wine Bistro advertised everywhere that he and the Money Team would be hosting a party with DJ Drama on February 1st. The problem is that Mayweather says neither he nor anyone from the Money Team agreed on any such appearance for the establishment. He is concerned that they made lots of money from his name and his fans will be upset with him for not appearing.

Part of the reason it seems Mayweather would not have ever appeared at this place is because he says he makes upwards of $100,000 per appearance and it’s very possible that The Wine Bistro would not have been able to afford that.

He’s asking that they not ever use his name and also for a lot of money, although the actual dollar amount has not been revealed.

You know what? We can’t even be mad at Floyd for this one. Sure, he’s cocky and extravagant but when your name is being used to make a profit and you don’t see any of it (not to mention you didn’t agree to it), it makes sense that he would take legal action. Many celebrities will take to their social media accounts to just debunk any rumors about them making appearances but they won’t take it any further if word that they will be appearing has already gone past their reach.

There’s been no response from The Wine Bar.

Mary Ann Owen/WENN

We’ve been hearing the rumors over the last week. 50 Cent said earlier this week he was no longer part of their boxing promoting company, TMT Promotions. Then, early this morning, the other shoe dropped.

Around midnight, 50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather started trading shots on Twitter and Instagram, giving us all a look inside this very public break-up.  For his part, 50 started shouting out Yuriorkis Gamboa, a boxer that Floyd has yet to fight and as a result, it has caused much controversy.  He followed it up by tweeting, “I can’t hang out with Floyd no more,I’m tired of running from manny pacquiao.” Ouch.  50 continued his rant by saying that Floyd should stop spending all his money on women (he used another word though) because they don’t love him. Now, I’m not sure if that’s a shot at Floyd’s boo, Ms. Jackson, or if he’s saying that Floyd enjoys spending money on side pieces.

But he wasn’t in the fight alone. Floyd started tweeting and posting pictures on Instagram, one with 50 holding Floyd’s belt with a caption, “A male boxing groupie.. hold my belts because your album sales have declined.”  Yes, I hollered. He’s using pictures that used to show them being so “in love” to make sure they no longer have anything to talk about.

What’s the fight about? Who knows! Is it even real? That’s a better question because both of these men are known “attention whores” and we should not be surprised if one of them eventually says they were both in the same room tweeting while the “argument” was going on.

Meanwhile, the third part of the “Money Team,” Ray-J, was chopping it up with President Obama.

Who says friendships aren’t relationships? Even better, who says men aren’t catty?

You’d think that celebs wouldn’t be half interested in any type of martial arts, especially considering the fact that all celebrities have a bodyguard crew to keep them save at all times. However, there are some stars who have ventured out into the martial arts world; some do it to stay in shape while others do it for self-defense. In any case, here are 15 celebs who could hold their own if needed.

WENN.com

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba is a pretty face that could knock you off your feet with her taekwondo moves.

playerwives.com

I guess at some point, you have to put things behind you.

If you follow boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather, you know he he served two months in jail for assaulting his ex-girlfriend and childrens’ mother, Josie Harris, in 2010 (he plead guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence).  Josie said Floyd hit her a few times and threatened to kill her all while their kids were present.

Somehow, TMZ spoke to Josie earlier this week and she has decided to let bygones be bygones.  She told them:

S**t happens. I’m not mad at him at all … I love Floyd to death.  Floyd loves his kids and is a great father. He would never do anything like that again … I’m sorry the situation happened … now we will just progress and start over and move forward together.”

Now before we go reading her for this profession of forgiveness, we have to keep in mind that they have three children together and it is important that parents try to be as cordial as possible so they’re able to effectively raise their children. In that respect, I get it; you have to work to get to a good place so that your children won’t suffer.  I know they haven’t been on the best terms in recent months so it couldn’t have been easy for her to say and believe her own statement.

That said, I’m not sure how she got to the “s**t happens” part or how she figures he’ll never do anything like that again.  Abuse doesn’t “just happen” and the first time it happens does not tend to be the last.  Of course, they aren’t together anymore so it just may not happen to her but she should probably be careful when saying he would NEVER do something like that again.  I’m sure she didn’t expect him to hit her when he did either.  I can’t understand why she’s sorry it happened; has he said he’s sorry for this too?

The profession of love and just the entire statement seems…weird.  If you read too deep into it – and who doesn’t – it almost sounds like she was paid to say that or will be paid for speaking so highly of him.  Whatever it is, I’m sure their children are just glad they’re getting along.

What do you think? Can you just “get back to love” after an assault at the hands of your significant other happens?

hiphop-n-more.com

Hey loves!  Hopefully you all are enjoying the lovely weekend so far!  I’ve got quite a few goodies today: wedding bells, baby news, movie news and more!  Yes, the celebs have been pretty busy over the last week! Check it out!

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Source: Ethan Miller and LEE CELANO/Getty Images

Turns out Usher is diving back into acting.

The R&B crooner is set to play boxer Sugar Ray Leonard in a movie which will chronicle the life of Panamanian boxer, Roberto Durán.

The movie is set to start filming later this year and will also star  Robert De Niro and Gael García Bernal.

Usher told the BBC he thinks this is an incredible role.  “If you see me in the corners boxing, I’m doing that while working on this album.”

Sounds like it’s going to be a busy year for Usher Raymond.

Do you think he can pull off this role?

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Source: nytsynvideo.com

Claressa Shields has a goal. This 16 year old girl from Flint, Michigan is trying to win an Olympic gold medal for boxing.

Just one of three women who earned a spot on this year’s U.S. women’s boxing team, Shields is the youngest. While her story is unique in its own right, all three women on the team will make history this year, representing the first women’s boxing team for the U.S. as well as the first time women have been able to compete in this sport in the last 108 years.

Claressa was inspired to start boxing after her father Clarence Shields, an underground amateur boxer, told her it was a man’s sport. Her father was the first of many people she had to prove wrong on her journey toward the London Olympics.

But she was serious and once her father realized it, he took her to the gym for the first time when she was 11 years old.

Claressa told National Public Radio (NPR) that when she steps into the ring she’s almost in another world:  ”It’s like everything outside the ring’s black,” she says. “Can’t nobody else get in there and help you. Your coach, he can’t get in the ring and fight with you. You don’t have your dad, your mom. When you get in the ring, you don’t have anybody but yourself.”

But for all her focus, Shields is still a teenager and sometimes she has to be reminded to stay focused. Once while practicing a boy called and her coach Jason Crutchfield had to remind her what is at stake.

“You got all your life for boys,” he says. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing right here.”

Crutchfield, who shares a close relationship with Shields, told NPR he noticed her a week after she came into his gym and realized she had an exceptional talent.

“A coach always wants a champion; that’s why we coach,” Crutchfield says. “I just never thought it was going to be a girl.”

Go ahead Claressa! We’ll be watching and rooting for you this summer.

Claressa is chronicling her journey to the Olympics through the “Women Box” radio project on WNYC. You can watch and listen below.

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In honor of Black History Month, instead of showing off the everyday, regular beefcake dude (as much as we adore them), we thought we’d send some love to the beautiful black men from our history who we would have been breaking our necks over back in the day. Okay, maybe not breaking, but at least on the bandwagon for. Muhammad Ali is one of those guys with his random poetry, fast feet and buff body. Time has passed and we know he doesn’t look like the “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” Ali that people were drooling over 30 to 40 years ago, but the guy still has that charm we all can agree is attractive. Let’s take a walk down memory lane.

Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion warmly known as “Smokin’ Joe,” died yesterday at the age of 67. The hard-hitting boxer had been battling with liver cancer, which his family says he was just recently diagnosed with in September. After his diagnosis, Frazier was placed in hospice care. His family issued the following statement about his death:

“We The Family of … Smokin’ Joe Frazier, regret to inform you of his passing. He transitioned from this life as ‘One of God’s Men,’ on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”

Frazier was a two-time heavyweight champion known for his deadly left hook and the pressure he put on his opponents with his grunts and bobbing and weaving. But what Frazier is most known for other than his legacy in the boxing ring in general is his three big bouts with Muhammad Ali. In their first big fight, known as “The Fight of the Century,” Frazier beat Ali after 15 brutal rounds, handing him his first professional loss and a severely bruised jaw in the process. It would also start something of a battle royale, as the two would meet again in 1974 where Ali would best the big guy making it 1-1. They would meet once again and one last time for the iconic “Thrilla in Manilla” match in ’75. Ali won in the tough contest, but called it his hardest fight ever. According to CNN, Ali says battling with “Smokin Joe” was “…the closest I’ve come to death.” After hearing news of the death of perhaps his biggest rival (in a friendly sport way), Ali issued a statement:

“The world has lost a great champion.” “I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration. My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones.”

Fans from all over have posted on social media expressing their grief over the superstar’s death. Fans including folks like Floyd Mayweather, who hit Twitter to say that he would like to pay for Frazier’s funeral. The former heavyweight boxing champ who influenced so many will definitely and retired in ’76 with a whopping record of 32-4-1, will definitely be missed. R.I.P. Joe Frazier!

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