From Tepito to Paris: Olympians inspire new generation of female boxers in Mexico

MEXICO CITY : On a Saturday morning in a gym tucked deep into a maze of market stalls in Mexico City’s gritty Tepito neighbourhood, 12-year-old Africa Normandia Curiel traps 10-year-old Fernanda Flores against the ropes.

Older men in each corner shout directions as she lands multiple body shots, gearing up for a left hook.

"Remember the upper!" Raymundo Flores, a former boxer himself, screams to his granddaughter who is struggling to free herself. "Don't drop your hands!"

Without taking her eyes off the ring, coach Guadalupe Lincer smiles and says "the girls are more aggressive than the boys."

Lincer, a former boxer, helps run a program for girls in Tepito, known as "Barrio Bravo," or fierce neighbourhood. Here, as in other areas considered bastions of the sport in the capital, the legacy of boxing runs deep in its soul.

For many of the girls, boxing is not just a sport; it's a source of empowerment and self-defence in a society still grappling with machismo, she says.

Today, gyms across Mexico are seeing more young women eager to step into the ring.

Now, with Olympic contenders like Citlalli Ortiz and Fatima Herrara, a fighter who is an equal force of nature in the ring from central Mexico, representing the country at the Paris Games, they have their eyes set on gold medal glory.

    Africa, like many young female boxers in Mexico, dreams of following in Ortiz's footsteps.

"Of course we know her," Africa says, her eyes lighting up. "We all know her. We want to be like her."

FEMALE WARRIOR

The 24-year-old Ortiz, a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States known as "Bellatrix," Latin for female warrior, is a rising star in Mexico's burgeoning women's boxing scene.

"Fighting for Mexico, you've already won because there are so many