Alyssa Costa: “Boxing is a great way to get people on the right path.”

Alyssa Costa: “Boxing is a great way to get people on the right path.”

Boxing can give so much. It can change lives. It can save lives. A sport that can give direction and much more. Alyssa Costa had certain struggles in her formative years. Boxing gave her something else to focus on. A life changed for the better.

Costa came into her sport somewhat by chance. “It was quite coincidental how I fell into boxing,” Costa told me over Zoom. “I was around 8, and a gym in a suburb near where I lived had just opened up. My mum and I drove past it one day, and I asked my mum if I could try a boxing class because there was signage at the front saying kids’ boxing classes. My mum said I could give it a go. She signed me up, and I started doing the boxing classes. I don’t remember much because I was quite young, but I do remember really enjoying it straight off the bat. I just loved it.”

The attraction to boxing was somewhat surprising. Costa had shown little or no interest in previous endeavours in a sporting environment. “As a kid, I did a lot of other sports, but I was never a sporty kid,” the 18-year-old relayed to me. “I was on a netball team, a dance team. My parents had to drag me to do it.”

“When I reflect back on it, on how I got into boxing, it’s how much of an individual sport it is, and how much I could focus on it,” Costa added when I enquired as to why boxing held attraction. “I could improve on my own. There wasn’t a big group around me. I didn’t have that peer pressure. It was just me, and I liked that. That allowed me to push myself in ways I didn’t think I ever could.”

Boxing can get a bad press at times and deservedly so. But away from the murky world, the sport can sometimes project, there is a lot the sport can give. For Costa, it helped her through some difficult times in her teenage years. “Boxing gave me discipline and a routine. I really needed that. I needed something to keep me going, especially during school. I graduated last year, but during primary school and high school, I struggled a lot with my mental health. I needed something to take my mind off it. At school, I was never a good student, and I could never find my purpose in school; it really affected my self-confidence when all my friends were doing so well in their exams. I didn’t have that, and I needed something to keep me going. When I found boxing, that was my way of doing that.”

Three years after first entering a boxing gym, Alyssa Costa had her first sparring session. “I was 11, and my coach came up to me and said he was going to put me in the adult classes, and I was going to spar. He told me I needed to buy some headgear and a mouthguard. I had no idea what all that even meant. I told my mum, and she just looked at me and said, “There’s no way you are going to do that.” At my next class, my mum came in all grumpy, saying, “Why are you making my daughter do this?” He was like, “You have to trust me. She can handle it.” I eventually got my headgear, my mouthguard, and my gloves. My coach threw me in with the biggest boy in the gym. I was 11, and he was in his mid-20s. He obviously went light on me. We did one round or something. I did my best, but it was fun. I thought that wasn’t too bad, and I surprised myself.”

Costa had to wait another four years for her first taste of competitive action. The Sydney-native made a winning start to her boxing career.

“I had my first fight when I was 15,” Costa told FightPost. “I had a bit of a gap after my first fight in 2022. I started fighting more consistently in 2023. My first fight went really well; I stopped the girl in the 2nd round. It was a big accomplishment for me. At that moment, I thought this was really awesome, and I knew could really learn a lot from this sport.”

Costa is now thirteen fights into her boxing journey. Last year, she won the New South Wales Youth title and will compete in the U19 National Championships, which take place in Darwin later this year. The next twelve months is where the amateur career of Alyssa Costa will really start to take shape.

“Next year, I turn 19, so I will then start fighting in the Elite’s. I want to see how that goes and if I am competitive. If I do well in that, I will definitely try to do the Elite State titles. If I can manage to do that, then I’ll see where that goes.”

At just 18, Costa has her entire career ahead of her. While primitive thoughts of competing at an Olympic Games in the years to come are already there, Costa is sensibly playing down her immediate ambitions. “I have definitely thought about the Olympics,” Costa says of what might lie ahead. “But for me, I think I have to be a bit realistic with myself at the moment. I am definitely not opposed to it, but we will have to see how I get on next year and how things work out.”

“I definitely have thoughts of turning professional one day,” Costa added. “But I have never been a long-term goal person; I am more of a day-to-day type of person. It’s a pretty big goal to have. You have to flip your life right around and just focus on that. It’s pretty scary.”

Alyssa Costa is a perfect example of what boxing can do for someone. A sport that nursed her through those early difficulties. Her future inside a boxing ring is yet to be decided, but however it all plays out, Costa wants to shine a light on her sport and all the good it can do.

“The positive impact of boxing in my life, I really would like to share that with other people,” a passionate Costa said. “That’s a big thing for me. Even if I am not an athlete competing in the sport, I always want to advocate for boxing as much as I can because I know the impact it has on me, and I know what it can give to people. Especially for younger people. Boxing is a great way to get people on the right path. That has always been a big goal for me.”