Marine captain makes her professional boxing debut 

First she became the Marine Corps’ first female East Coast assault amphibian officer.

Now, Capt. Stephanie Simon has earned the title of professional boxer as well.

Simon had her first pro bout on Sept. 27 in Atlanta, according a Marine Corps release.

Her interest in the sport began at the U.S. Naval Academy, where she was required to box and wrestle. Initially, she said, she had no intention of being a boxer.

But one thing led to another, and pretty soon, she was fighting while active duty, winning a Golden Gloves National Tournament for the II Marine Expeditionary Force’s boxing team.

After, as a reservist, she continued boxing and training for the Marine Corps.

Simon credits her boxing evolution to the grit she developed in the Corps, and in leading units that weren’t used to having a woman in charge.

“The hardest part of my Marine Corps career would be adapting to an environment where people around me didn’t look or think like me,” she said in a Corps release. “It was a very difficult time, because I was a minority and adjusting to a group of people that were new to having a woman in charge of them. It was very difficult.”

“We talk about having that mental toughness, we talk about having that character, we talk about having that will to win, all those characteristics that we learned in the Marine Corps,” she said. “They go directly into boxing.”

As she embarks on a new phase of her career, Simon said she is proud to represent the Corps in the boxing ring.

“I’m excited to share my story and really bring this element of leadership into the boxing community,” she said. “I believe that we are in need of it, and I want to be a good example for people all over the world.”