Stefanie Candela from Belgium is passionate about pugilism, even hitting the gym five times a week to train. Gao Erqiang / Shanghai Star

No one can accuse Belgium's Stefanie Candela of lacking ‘bottle', or guts, as she guns for glory among the ranks of Shanghai's amateur fighters. Judith Huang speaks to this white-collar boxer from the safe side of the ropes.

Stefanie Candela floats like a cheerleader and stings like a Shanghai winter.

She is blonde and leggy, with a sunny disposition that makes her the envy of her colleagues at the Benelux Chamber of Commerce. Her penchant for punching people in the face thus rankles somewhat, given the mismatch.

"A lot of people give me a look of disbelief when I tell them I'm a boxer," she says.

"When one of my friends went home to America with a photo of a few of us posing with boxing gloves, her friends looked at my image and asked, ‘What's the cheerleader doing in there?'"

As it turns out, Candela is passionate about pugilism, even hitting the gym five times a week to train. "For me and my friends, meeting up at the gym is just like meeting up at a bar in Yong Kang Lu," she says.

Candela first visited Golden Gloves boxing gym two years ago for a good cardio workout and soon got addicted.

"There are so many nationalities there and the coaches are amazing," she says.

The turning point that made her want to step into the ring came in December 2012 when she volunteered to help out at the Brawl on the Bund. The amateur boxing competition, held by China Sports Promotions, is a gala black-tie event where white collars duke it out to raise funds for charity.