KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As a member of the Platte County Sheriff’s Office’s Crisis Negotiations Team, Deputy Hannah Blacklock has dealt with her share of stress-packed, tense situations that test her mettle, her concentration and her resolve.
Now, she hopes those skills and the lessons she’s learned in seven years as a sheriff’s deputy pay off in the boxing ring.
Blacklock will face Naomi Marion, a Kansas City, Missouri, firefighter, in the ninth of 13 bouts during Guns N Hoses — an annual first responder charity boxing benefit, which pits law enforcement officers against fire-department personnel — on Saturday, June 7, at Municipal Auditorium downtown.
“We're actually good friends,” Blacklock said with a laugh.
She met Marion last summer through Camp Fury, a weeklong immersive camp for teenage girls interested in first-responder careers.
“We discussed it at camp last year and we're like, ‘Yeah, let's just do it. What do we have to lose?’” Blacklock said before the conversation quickly turned to, “What if we get a fight together? That would be amazing.”
After the match was officially made, the reality is beginning to set in that it means she must punch someone she considers a friend in the face, but at least it’s for a good cause.
Proceeds from the event benefit the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission’s Surviving Spouse and Family Endowment, or SAFE, Fund, which provides immediate financial assistance to the families of first responders in a 12-county area around Kansas City in the event of a line-of-duty death or catastrophic injury.
Blacklock — a native of Mission, Illinois, and former member of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville dance team — has never fought before, but she believes skills she’s learned as a negiator will pay off in the ring.
“My goal is to maintain a calm demeanor,” Blacklock said of crisis negotiations. “... Whether I'm the primary, whether I'm the coach or whether I'm another team member in that command post, making sure that we aren't getting dismayed, we aren't getting tired and we aren't second guessing ourselves. We stay true to the program, stay true to the script.”
She hopes that formula works in her bout as well.
“Mirroring, for sure,” Blacklock said when asked about techniques that work on negotiations and between the ropes. “I want to be in my calmest state, so I can be able to respond and not react. I've found with myself, personally, if I'm getting stressed out — meaning I'm thinking in the future or I'm thinking about a past event, and I'm not where my feet are and I'm not moving where my feet need to be moving — I’m that cement brick, that I can only react.”
She can’t afford to get stuck being overly defensive at work or against Marion.
“I still have to take that foot forward and take that step forward and keep making those jabs in order to get you to keep talking to me, figure out some new footwork or a new way to phrase some things, so that we can just keep having that conversation,” Blacklock said.
It’s all about trusting yourself despite the circumstances.
“If I rely on my training and if I stick to my training and stay slow, we're going to be fine,” Blacklock said. “... Every time, if you believe in yourself and you have that faith in your team and you have that faith in that training.”
She has that with the Crisis Negotiations Team and with her recent training as a boxer.
“My gym has done a great job,” Blacklock said. “They, just like my team here with negotiating, it’s ‘let's get in, let's get the job done and let's go home.’”
New for 2025, the night’s final bout features KCFD firefighter Yai Deng squaring off with St. Louis County Police Officer Eric Sterr in “The Rumble on the River,” a cross-state bout for KC-versus-STL bragging rights.
General admission tickets, which cost $32.50, for Guns N Hoes are available on Ticketmaster.
“We're here to put on a great show for everybody in the KC metro area. We're here to support first responders and I could not be luckier to be a part of that,” Blacklock said.
KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
—
