She's only 11 years old but she really can pack a punch, and punch after punch gets her closer to her goal. 

"I would like to become world champion," says Zion Hensley. 


For 11-year-old Zion Hensley, the journey up to this point wasn't a fast one.

Zion has spent the last year 4 years training 5 to 6 days training at the gym, to get her ready for the biggest fight of her career.

"She does a lot of hand pad work, a lot of mitt work with my wife, she does a lot of conditioning and cardio to make sure she's able to go at her all and give her all every second of every round," says Coach Rocky DeFrank. 

And for Zion to have other young, local female athletes to spare with is making the difference in her training.

"We are bringing other girls in from North Dakota, Pittsburgh for sparking. Sparing is very important, but if she doesn't get it with other females we will go to Akron or something like that," says DeFrank. 

"I've been in her shoes before, you know. It was really tough trying to find other women and other girls to want to compete in this sport but it was 10 years ago when I started my journey and that started the actual journey for the Olympics for the women so it's a blessing to see her here 10 years later," adds Coach Alecia DeFrank. 

While the boxing trail may have been paved by her coaches a decade earlier, Zion hopes to do that for the next generation of female boxers.

"I think it's a very good sport. I think you can learn a lot from it and how to defend yourself," says Zion. 

The next step towards a gold medal will be competing at the National Junior Olympics taking place in Lubbock, Texas beginning July 7th.