Angel Bovee had her career path seemingly mapped out. After graduating from Norwich High School in 1990, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications at SUNY Plattsburgh, and followed that up with a masters in Recreation Management at SUNY Cortland.

Well on her way to a long career in the media, Bovee quit her job as a television producer at age 25 to pursue a dream as an Olympic-style boxer. She moved out of her apartment and set up shop in her Plymouth Sundance, and kept that car parked in the Poughkeepsie train station. She commuted every day to the famous Gleason’s gym in Brooklyn to train full time and work toward her dream. “Other’s saw this as an incredible risk, but for me it was an easy decision,”  Bovee said in an interview with an online website.

Along the way, Bovee won countless boxing titles including the National Golden Gloves on three occasions, the last title coming in 2007 to go with three New York Golden Gloves title. Bovee’s stated goal of reaching the Olympic Games, however, was not realized. Women’s boxing did not become an official Olympic sport until this past summer in London. By that time, Bovee had surpassed the maximum age limit of 35 for women’s boxing.