10-Year-Old Boxer Talks About Being In A Male-Dominated Sport

10-year-old Jesselyn Silva is a boxer from New Jersey who speaks about the challenges she faces in the sport in a New York Times documentary titled Girl Boxer. 

When Jesselyn steps into the ring, she likes to go by the name JessZilla. She speaks about how when she first started boxing, the kids at her school used to tell her that girls aren’t supposed to be boxing and that it is only a men’s sport.

As she got better and started getting popular, she says that the kids started supporting her. Jesselyn talks about how she has trouble finding other young girls to compete against. There are only 1,194 registered female boxers under the age of 18 in the United States.

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“There are not that many girls,” she says. She also talks about how some boys won’t spar with her because they don’t want to be seen being ‘beaten up by a little girl’.

However, she is determined to become a professional boxer. She wants to go to the 2024 Olympics and win the gold. "I want to show everybody that I can win," she says. If there are any girls who are at my level who need practice, they should contact my coach, she adds.

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