WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- Carisse Brown is used to the workload, now.
“It gets addicting,” she said with a smile.
Just 14 months into her boxing career, the Polk county fighter already has too many title belts to her name. She has to loop them around her waist and arms in order to show them off.
“I don’t want to say it’s unheard of, but it’s remarkable,” said her trainer, Laura “Lady Ram” Ramsey, who boxed professionally for years all over the world. “If I’m an elite athlete, she’s a super elite athlete.”
Brown first visited the Winter Haven Boxing Gym after a friend suggested she try the sport. It started as a way to vent and get out some frustration. It turned into a passion.
That passion only gets part of her time.
“The pain that I know she goes through and the struggling trying to walk, it frustrates me,” she said of her mother. “But, I take a lot of it out in boxing.”
PHOTOS: Winter Haven boxer fights for herself and her mom
Brown spends the mornings caring for her mother, Ollie Brown. She suffered a brain hemorrhage shortly after Carisse was born. She’s in a full-time care facility in Lakeland, dealing with dementia as well.
“She smiles through a lot of the pain,” said Carisse. “She doesn’t have any feeling in her legs.”
It hasn’t dampened Ollie's praise for her little girl.
“If there is a bigger fan I want to meet them,” joked Ollie, who was against Carisse fighting initially.
Carisse ran track in college and takes her fitness seriously, even down to the water she drinks. Carisse has turned to IZUMIO water, with added hydrogen levels, to keep her in top shape.
The payoff has come in the ring. The 31-year-old fighter participated in the National Golden Gloves tournament in Omaha, Neb. in mid-May. She took home the bronze trophy. She also has two Florida Golden Gloves titles to her name already, including a win over Shamara Woods by decision to win the lightweight finals in Hollywood, Fla.
Her next fight is in Orlando’s Barnett Park on July 14.
“She brings pops behind that punch,” said a fellow boxer at the Winter Haven Boxing Gym. “I enjoy watching her fight.”
Carisse hopes her newfound passion brings more success. It’s already brought praise from her biggest fan.
“I am proud of Carisse,” said Ollie with a smile.
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