Red Deer native Stephanie ‘Snafu’ Essensa is hitting the road to fight at Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut on Oct. 20th.
She won her last boxing match on Sept. 8th in Calgary on Dekada Contender Fight Night.
Going into her next fight, Essensa said the match with American Marcia Agripino seems to be a good fit.
“It’s going to be pretty interesting to fight someone very similar professionally in terms of her record,” she said.
Agripino, who fights northpaw or with her right hand, is an unorthodox fighter, which leads to certain challenges, she said.
“There are a lot of natural holes that you get from that,” she explained. “The power here becomes a lot more of an emphasis, so for your jab and that kind of thing to really drilling to counting the jab. The jab is such a big part of boxing so hammering that aspect.”
Essensa said she wants spectators to see her as a strong technical fighter in the ring. She said often female boxers are thought of as not being as technical as men. That’s something she wants to change.
“I want to go out there and show that we have equal prowess for our size,” she said. “We can be just as technical, we can hit just as hard, we are equal.”
This prowess, she said, can be achieved with heavy training. “Girls that put in the work, like me, we are technically just as good and power-wise we are just as strong and we can put on just as an exciting fight as a heavyweight.”
The 33-year-old flyweight has spent most of her life in the fight world. She started with martial arts, then Muay Thai and now holds a 3-1-1 record going into this fight.
She trains mostly with the organization Arashi-Do Martial Arts in Red Deer. She said being a good professional fighter comes down to discipline.
“Physically, anyone can get in great shape if you put the time in to do it,” she said. “In the end, it really comes down to having the discipline for the training. There are a lot of days where you are beat up and sore and fatigued but having that discipline to do it.”
She added, “It really does come down to the prep work heading into it. Any Joe Blow can walk into the ring without any prep and call themselves a fighter. The preparation is the hard part, the fight is the fun part.”
