Vietnam boxer Nguyen Thi Thu Nhi battles poverty, misogyny to be country’s first world champion
- Nhi scored major upset against Japan’s Etsuko Tada to win WBO mini-flyweight belt
- The 25-year-old has risen from scraping a living on the streets while battling against country’s traditional outlook
From her youth spent scraping a living on the streets, Nguyen Thi Thu Nhi has battled poverty and sexist prejudice to become Vietnam’s first boxing world champion.
The 25-year-old scored an enormous upset over defending champion Etsuko Tada of Japan in October to claim the World Boxing Organisation mini-flyweight belt in just her fifth professional fight.
It was a remarkable triumph for an athlete who rose from humble beginnings in a conservative society where women’s participation in sport – especially combat events – is often sneered at.
Nhi’s journey began when she turned to boxing as a 13-year-old struggling with her grades at school.
Spotting raw talent, a coach told Nhi she had the potential to make the city team.
Living in a tiny house with nine family members in a tough part of Ho Chi Minh City, Nhi dedicated herself completely to her training, desperate to find a route out of her tough surroundings.
“I wanted to earn more money, so I tried to train hard,” she told Agence France-Presse. “I had no time to go out and have fun. I was training almost every day of the week.”
I could not believe I had won. I stayed awake the whole night with the championship belt next to me in bed