The sound of her coach’s voice reaches sophomore Lexi Saiz’s ears. She stares at her coach and listens to his encouraging words as she places her headgear on her head and fastens the strap tightly. She breathes in deep breaths that smell faintly of sweat.  She steps inside the boxing ring and concentrates while gnawing on her minty mouthpiece. Focus…focus… focus she tells herself until the sound of the bell ringing fills the air. She slowly approaches her opponent with her arms raised to deflect any oncoming blows. Her opponent’s arm raises and the fight begins.Saiz is a competitive boxer and has been since the summer of 2010. She began boxing when her father proposed the idea. He said he wanted her and her sibling to be able to protect themselves. Saiz’s training consists of running, sparring, sit ups, pushups, and jumping rope for two hours a day, four days a week but her training will increase to three hours a day five days a week if there is an upcoming competition. In order to win a boxing match one must compete in three rounds of fighting before being declared the winner by either the judges, ref or both; another way to win is by a knockout. Saiz has competed in three competitions and won two of them.  Because Saiz is a 5ft tall girl she said “people wouldn’t think of her as a boxer.”

Most people wouldn’t expect me to be a boxer because of my gender and size but I say anyone can do anything they put their minds to and not be what society expects of you,” Saiz said. “You can always be so much more.”

Although Boxing has been a Summer Olympic sport since 1904 women weren’t allowed to participate until 2008. These types of sexist prejudices involving sports have been around for years.

“When people find out I’m a boxer a lot of them are surprised because I’m a girl,” Saiz said. “My first couple of times sparring guys didn’t want to hit me because I was a girl but after I showed I could take it they stopped.”