Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a powerful punch

IT is just after 11.10pm. The crowd which has gathered into the cramped gym on the edge of Belfast is baying for blood. Female boxer Amanda Coulson has already been told - to coin a phrase from a well-known advert - that her opponent on this dark night is a "bit of an animal". She's also a kilo and a half heavier and is snarling and dancing around the ring doing a boxing version of the New Zealand rugby ritual, the Haka.

Amanda is sitting at her club in Hartlepool, laughing as coach Paul Allen recounts the story.

"I'm an ex-soldier," he says emphatically. "And to say it was hostile is well..." He shakes his head and leans forward. "There were Irish coaches coming up to me and telling me she was mean and to stay away from her. When she jumped into the ring, she was like the Tasmanian devil and the crowd were screaming 'Alana, Alana'. I thought 'bloody hell she's crazy'. I turned to Amanda and I said, 'when she comes out of there, she's going to come at you, breathing fire, but you just go straight in with your combinations and she's going to run into it.'

"And that's what she did. She ran at her because she was so hyped-up by the crowd. I think sometimes they look at Amanda and think 'oh, she's girly, girly', but what they don't realise is that she's got power. She must have thought she'd run into a brick wall, because she had her straight away. She sent her flying into the corner."

It is easy to see why some might underestimate Amanda. Even with her shoulder-length blonde hair scraped back in a pony tail, her petite features are strikingly pretty. But underneath the smooth tan and behind the piercing blue eyes, are a steely determination and resilience which have seen her climb to the top of her sport. In essence, she is a five foot seven and a quarter inch powerhouse.

Amanda's love of the sport began when she spotted a newspaper story about two 13-year-old girls who were wanting to take up boxing. "I used to play football and was team captain at school (Breton Comp in Hartlepool)," she says.

"When I saw the story I thought 'I wouldn't mind trying that', so I picked up the Yellow Pages and rang around all the sports centres. But they all said 'sorry, we don't take women'. The response was so negative."

Finally, Amanda got through to the Hartlepool Catholic Boxing Club, based in Burbank Street, and Paul, the senior coach, invited her along to watch before she started training. That was seven years ago, and Paul has trained her ever since. So far, her looks have emerged unscathed and she has never been injured. But that's because she's a boxer, not a fighter, she explains. There's a distinct difference.

"I realised that you had to be a bit clever," she smiles.

"You had to learn to out-box them and throw a punch without getting hit. It was that side of it I liked rather than the 'grrrrrrrrr, I want to knock you out' side of it. You do get hit, it's part of the sport, but you're well protected, you've got headguards and gum shields and gloves on."

Her first bout was when she 16, in October, 1999, at the Mayfair centre in Seaton Carew. Half the town turned up to support her.

"We had to pick our tapes out and I could have had the Rocky theme tune or Robbie Williams. I chose Rocky - and I've had him ever since. It's my lucky song," she laughs. "I stopped her in the first round after about a minute. Every punch just seemed to land."

From then, Amanda boxed up and down the country, and abroad. One of her highlights was competing in the Angered Central Box Cup gold medal in Sweden in November 2002. By then Amanda had had seven matches during her career and should have been in the five to ten-bout category, but when organisers saw her box, they were so impressed they moved her up to the higher Class A category where the women had more than ten bouts under their belts. Not only did Amanda win the gold medal, she also clinched the Best Female Boxer Award.

But securing opponents has not always been easy, simply because there are not many women out there within Amanda's 63 kg light welterweight category.

Last May, the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA), in conjunction with the Police Federation, held their first female novice boxing championships in Hendon, near London. But there was no-one for Amanda to fight in her Class A category. The ABA also held the first ever female senior championships at Huddersfield Town, in West Yorkshire, in May this year. Because of the lack of opponents in her class, Amanda went straight through to the finals.

But as the time for weighing-in came and went, it became clear that her opponent wasn't going to turn up. Apparently there had been some confusion over the dates and times.

"It was all mixed up," says Amanda. "The officials said they would still get the bout on and that they would contact her and the club and they'd arrange it with them. But the next thing we heard the coach had rung up and said there's no way she's fighting you, she's not ready."

Despite the frustration and the old school prejudice that women should stay outside the ring, changes are afoot. Another first, two weeks ago, was when the ABA sent a three-strong team to Riccione in Italy for the European Championships. Unfortunately for Amanda, she drew Vinnie Skgaard of Denmark - the equivalent of Tim Henman meeting Roger Federer in the first round of Wimbledon - and got knocked out.

"At least she went on and won it, so I didn't feel too bad," she shrugs.

But there will be other contests. In the meantime, she will continue training for up to two hours a day, watching what she eats (usually carbohydrate-based pasta and rice meals such as turkey bolognese) not smoking and laying off the beer. She fits her training around shifts as an emergency call handler at Cleveland Police and has the backing of most of Hartlepool, her family and her boyfriend Ross, who is happy for his girlfriend to pursue the sport she loves. But she doesn't let him watch, she confesses - he puts her off.

Her dream, she says, is for the sport to be included in the Olympics and for her to be there, if not Beijing then in the Games after that. Nor has she any great urge to turn professional like Jane Couch. She's fortunate enough to have sponsors who help towards costs, including Nobles Executive Catering and Rafferty Sofa Beds in the town.

"If it came to the Olympics it would be about female boxing being accepted by everyone," she says. "Once it comes more into the public eye, by doing this (interview) and being on television, and people see it's not a violent sport and that we can do it, it will become accepted...and that will be good."

There are times when it gets a bit rough in the ring, but Amanda doesn't see boxing as a violent sport. "Not if you box clever," she says. "It's a great sport. It's good for your fitness all round and keeps you toned. There are more and more women coming into the sport now."

At that she smiles, and jumps up into the ring for the photographer. The walls around are plastered with newspaper clippings - 'Amanda Proves a Big Hit' and 'Amanda Poised for World Stage'.

It is getting late. Paul asks her what she wants to do for the rest of the session - he's willing to let her off early as it's her 22nd birthday.

"Do you want to go?" he asks, "or do you want to do some pads? I'll give you the option."

She pauses for a moment. "No," she says determinedly, smacking a gloved fist into the other hand. "I'll do some pads."