You’ve received to be powerful to be a ballerina, and you have to be powerful to be a boxer.
Brijhana Epperson — a 16-time nationwide boxing champion and former ballet prodigy, higher generally known as the “Boxing Ballerina” — is aware of about each.
“It’s two various kinds of powerful,” Epperson mentioned. “It’s the identical dedication. You have to remain devoted in each sports activities, nevertheless it’s utterly completely different. … One is gradual and sleek and the different is simply nitty gritty.”
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Most days, Epperson, 15, may be discovered coaching at City Life Boxing Club close to Kansas City, Missouri. But her past love was ballet.
“My mother mentioned that she knew I used to be going to be a ballet dancer as a result of I’d simply twirl and twirl and twirl and twirl,” Epperson mentioned.
She enrolled at Pulse Ballet School round age 4 and progressed to the prestigious Kansas City Ballet a couple of years later. She additionally branched out to jazz dace with the Friends of Alvin Ailey for a 12 months.
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Brijhana’s dad, Courtney Epperson, taught her find out how to throw a punch for self-defense at an early age and, by age 9, she additionally grew to become keen on boxing.
“One day, she simply popped up and he or she’s like, ‘Can we go spar different children?’ and I’m like, ‘You positive you wish to? Is this what you need?’ I did not know the place it got here from,” mentioned Courtney, who serves as the head coach of the Team ATG boxing membership, which trains at City Life.
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At the identical time, Courtney mentioned it wasn’t a complete shock, as a result of Brijhana’s “all the time had a slight imply streak — like, it could come out if there was some sort of injustice,” he mentioned.
But she took to the sport rapidly.
“My first battle I used to be about 9 [years old] and I used to be pacing the flooring earlier than my first battle, nervous as all get out,” Brijhana mentioned. “One of my teammates was like, ‘Can you sit down? You’re making me dizzy.’ I bear in mind being nervous all the method up till I received into the ring. Once I received there, I simply felt utterly at house, utterly relaxed. I gained that battle, and it is simply been wonderful ever since.”
The boxing ring even grew to become her refuge when she felt picked on in ballet, which she gave up two years in the past.
“Boxing was my sport,” she mentioned. “I beloved it. I beloved doing it. But what actually finalized my determination was — in ballet, I used to be type of getting bullied round a bit of bit. People made enjoyable of me, folks talked about me, and boxing was a consolation for me. Boxing was my outlet. When occasions have been exhausting, I simply turned to boxing.”
She gained her sixteenth junior nationwide title in December at the USA Boxing National Championships in Richmond, Virginia. Her assortment of belts and medals consists of a mixture of junior nationwide championship and junior Olympic championships.
Brijhana will start getting ready for her first worldwide competitors — the USA Boxing International Open in mid-April in Pueblo, Colorado — however she hopes it is not her final.
“My final objective is the 2028 Olympics in LA,” she mentioned. “I’m tremendous, tremendous excited — particularly after they introduced that they have been going to maintain boxing in the Olympics. I’ve been having my eyes on that objective for a very long time — lengthy, very long time.”
This story was initially revealed by Tod Palmer at Scripps News Kansas City.
