Last Updated 2 weeks by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page
Youve got to be tough to be a ballerina, and you’ve got to be tough to be a boxer.
Brijhana Epperson a 16-time national boxing champion and former ballet prodigy, better known as the “Boxing Ballerina” knows about both.
“It’s two different types of tough,” Epperson said. “It’s the same dedication. You have to stay dedicated in both sports, but it’s completely different. … One is slow and graceful and the other is just nitty gritty.”
Most days, Epperson, 15, can be found training at City Life Boxing Club near Kansas City, Missouri. But her first love was ballet.
“My mom said that she knew I was going to be a ballet dancer because I would just twirl and twirl and twirl and twirl,” Epperson said.
She enrolled at Pulse Ballet School around age 4 and progressed to the prestigious Kansas City Ballet a few years later. She also branched out to jazz dace with the Friends of Alvin Ailey for a year.
Brijhana’s dad, Courtney Epperson, taught her how to throw a punch for self-defense at an early age and, by age 9, she also became interested in boxing.
“One day, she just popped up and she’s like, ‘Can we go spar other kids?’ and I’m like, ‘You sure you want to? Is this what you want?’ I didn’t know where it came from,” said Courtney, who serves as the head coach of the Team ATG boxing club, which trains at City Life.
At the same time, Courtney said it wasn’t a total surprise, because Brijhana’s “always had a slight mean streak like, it would come out if there was some type of injustice,” he said.
But she took to the sport quickly.
“My first fight I was about 9 [years old] and I was pacing the floor before my first fight, nervous as all get out,” Brijhana said. “One of my teammates was like, ‘Can you sit down? You’re making me dizzy.’ I remember being nervous all the way up until I got into the ring. Once I got there, I just felt completely at home, completely relaxed. I won that fight, and it’s just been amazing ever since.”
The boxing ring even became her refuge when she felt picked on in ballet, which she gave up two years ago.
“Boxing was my sport,” she said. “I loved it. I loved doing it. But what really finalized my decision was in ballet, I was kind of getting bullied around a little bit. People made fun of me, people talked about me, and boxing was a comfort for me. Boxing was my outlet. When times were hard, I just turned to boxing.”
She won her 16th junior national title in December at the USA Boxing National Championships in Richmond, Virginia. Her collection of belts and medals includes a mix of junior national championship and junior Olympic championships.
Brijhana will begin preparing for her first international competition the USA Boxing International Open in mid-April in Pueblo, Colorado but she hopes it’s not her last.
“My ultimate goal is the 2028 Olympics in LA,” she said. “I’m super, super excited especially when they announced that they were going to keep boxing in the Olympics. I’ve been having my eyes on that goal for a long time long, long time.”
This story was originally published by Tod Palmer at
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