How Singaporean pro boxer uses skills from the ring to dominate life’s other fights

Efasha Kamarudin is not easily pushed around. As a child, she took up karate on the advice of her parents, who wanted her to be able to defend herself if she was ever bullied or attacked.\nKamarudin, or “Fash” as she is known to friends, enjoyed karate so much that she later enrolled in Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes. She liked that these combat sports required focus, discipline and resilience. As a teenager, she also played football and was a rock climber.\nToday, the 34-year-old professional boxer from Singapore feels at home in the boxing ring. She is a tough competitor – staying composed under pressure, standing her ground and sticking to her game plan when things get scrappy.\nShe worked hard to get to this point.\nIn 2016, Kamarudin, whose fight name is “The Face”, became the first Singaporean woman to win an international boxing gold medal. It was at the Hong Kong City Cup, an annual boxing competition hosted by the Hong Kong Boxing Association, now known as The Boxing Association of Hong Kong, China.\n\nIn mid-2025, she was ranked 15th in the world by the World Boxing Council in the super flyweight division, whose competitors weigh 51kg (112.4lb) to 52.2kg.\nShe is currently working her way up the ranks and hopes to take the top spot well before her 40th birthday.\nKamarudin’s entry into boxing started over a decade ago, when she injured her foot playing football, forcing her to take time out. She moved her training to the gym, where an instructor suggested that she try boxing. He later saw that she had talent and asked her to take part in a match.\n“The then president of the Singapore Boxing Federation noticed my performance and invited me to join the national team. They were preparing for the 2015 Southeast Asian Games and were trying to put a squad together,” Kamarudin says.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nView this post on Instagram\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA post shared by Fash The Face (@fash_theface)\n\n\n\nShe decided to take the sport more seriously, even though she worked full time as a preschool teacher and could only train after work.\nKamarudin boxed regularly over the next few years. A boxing promoter suggested she turn professional. Her then boyfriend – now husband – Russell Harrison encouraged her to do so. She turned pro in 2018, at the age of 27.\n“Russell has been instrumental to my career as a boxer,” says Kamarudin, who met the Australian in 2016. He is CEO of Spartans Boxing Club in Singapore and her coach.\n“I’ve developed so much under his guidance,” she adds.\nIn 2025, she fought in five competitions, which she says is “a lot”. Elite professional boxers typically take on only two or three fights a year due to the amount of time required for training and recovery before and after.\nShe has won nine of 11 bouts in her career, with one draw and one loss. In August 2025, she was defeated by Australian competitor Jasmine Parr, daughter of combat sports legend John Wayne Parr. She had a bounce-back win against French boxer Loetizia Campana in Thailand in November.\n“I want to make it to the top level, so I’m doing as many fights as I can,” she says.\n\nKamarudin and Harrison, who married in 2021, have a daughter together. Zahra turns two this year.\nIt was not until she became a mother that Kamarudin realised how much of an impact boxing has had on her life.\n“I was depressed for a few weeks after giving birth, but I knew it was normal because of the hormonal and other physical changes I was going through,” she says.\n“But instead of confining myself to the house and avoiding physical activity, like many new mums in Asia do, I decided to go back to the gym.\n“I didn’t work out intensely at first. I trained a little here and there, and pretty soon I was back in the ring. It felt great having this outlet for all the emotions I was experiencing.\n“It also reconnected me with myself. After having my daughter, I felt like I’d lost my sense of individuality, and returning to boxing helped me overcome that.”\n\nResearch shows that boxing can help improve mental health and emotional well-being in a number of ways. A review published in 2022 in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine found that non-contact boxing is a healthy outlet for anger and aggression, lowers stress, increases self-esteem, improves quality of life, and reduces symptoms of conditions like anxiety and depression.\nA 2023 study revealed that the sport encourages psychological resilience – the ability to “bounce back” from adversity or stress and adapt well to challenges.\nKamarudin can vouch for the transformative power of boxing. Besides helping her get through what she calls a “dark period” after having her baby, she says that the sport has, over the years, worked wonders on her self-confidence.\n“It’s helped me with my body-image issues. I’ve always had an athletic build, and I used to compare myself to my younger sister, who was skinny. I also used to restrict my carb intake, thinking that carbs were fattening,” she says.\n“Boxing reminds me that I’m not big or chunky at all, just muscular, and being muscular is a good thing because it means I’m strong. It’s really changed how I see myself. It’s made me appreciate my body more.”\n\nShe would like to see more young women take up boxing as it offers an excellent total-body workout. But it is more than just a way to keep fit or lose weight. It can help participants feel more empowered.\n“Many people start boxing because they want to learn a new skill or relieve stress. Whatever the reason, it can make you feel better about yourself. When you train and see results, you feel like you can do just about anything.”\nFor women who are concerned about boxing being dangerous, Kamarudin says it is important to select the right gym, one in which you feel safe and that follows safety precautions, so you do not end up bruised or injured. Joining a gym with many female members may help create a sense of belonging.\nKamarudin currently juggles training and motherhood, something that she admits is “hard and exhausting”, especially when she is preparing for a competition.\nShe also co-owns a business with a friend. Launched in 2022, BXHR (pronounced “box-her”) specialises in boxing gloves for women.\nKamarudin’s ultimate goal is to be an “undisputed champion”, which would entail holding major boxing belts from the sport’s four governing bodies: the WBA (World Boxing Association), the WBC (World Boxing Council), the IBF (International Boxing Federation) and the WBO (World Boxing Organisation).\n“I have none right now, but I’m giving myself four more years of doing this professionally until I hold all four belts,” she says confidently.\n“I believe that I can get there.”\nLike what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.\n