A woman’s Brief But Spectacular take on what it takes to be a professional fighter

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• William Brangham:

  Kailia Attry is a boxer based in Los Angeles. And she's always seen sports as a means for connection and growth, whether that was bonding with her older brother or working to boost the visibility of women athletes.

  Here, she gives her Brief But Spectacular take on what it takes to be a professional fighter.

• Kailia Attry, Professional Boxer:

  I want to be able to break down barriers in women's boxing, where I can be labeled as the best boxer that put her hands in a pair of gloves.

  I was trained by Terry Claybon. When I moved to Los Angeles, I walked into the gym one day, and I literally just told him I wanted to fight. And he's been mentoring me ever since.

  I originally started working at Starbucks when I moved to L.A. because of the flexible hours. And I was able to train. Working at 4:00 a.m. in the morning is completely hard for most people, but boxing showed me how to be disciplined. Boxing gives me fuel to go anywhere.

  I grew up in the Bronx. I think it was rich in culture. Of course, it has his faults, but it made me who I am. My first interest in sports was at the age of 2. I picked up basketball because my brother started playing basketball. He was pretty good at it. And I wanted to kind of be just like him. I got recruited from middle school to play basketball in high school, top 10 point guard in the city.

  My brother was 19 when he was killed. My brother also was killed by one of his friends. No one really spoke up about it because they were fresh. At 11 years old, processing my brother's death, I shut down. I didn't want to do basketball. I don't want to do any sports.

  I just — honestly just wanted to be my brother. My father was diagnosed with liver cancer three years after my brother's death. He was my best friend. We would laugh a lot, joke a lot. Some say I'm his twin, very much like him.

  But he only wanted to make it to my middle school graduation. And he made it. He passed away a couple of weeks after my middle school graduation. I just hope that I'm making him proud.

  My mom is my everything. And the world is just me and her left. We live for each other because that's all we have.

  I stopped playing basketball because I tore my ACL, meniscus and cartilage. And a friend told me, if I box, it would be a full body workout. I knew that I could do it. My ability was natural. My mom didn't like my decision in boxing. She was worried that something could seriously happen, because boxing is a dangerous sport. You can't play it.

  I'm not afraid of dying. I'm not afraid of anything. My first professional fight, I dedicated to my brother, I had his name put on my boxing trunks in 24 karat gold.

  Boxing has brought me to where I am now. That's what I am. That's who I am. That's what I do. I want people to remember me as a legacy for positivity and that anything is possible. You can do anything that you want to do, no matter any circumstances or whatever you have been through.

  I wake up in the morning, and I look at the picture of my brother and my father, and I tell them that I'm going to put a legacy out there where everybody remember our name.

  My name is Kailia Attry. And this is my Brief But Spectacular take on being a professional fighter.

• William Brangham:

  You can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.