It’s been almost three weeks since the Belles of the Brawland Liz “The Grill” Weber is still a little bit high from the wholeexperience.

“I expected it to be really good, but it was even betterthan that. I loved it!” says thesoft-spoken, petite powerhouse, who stands at just 5’1” and weighed in on fightnight at a lean 124 lbs.

In what some have dubbed the “fight of the night,” Weber andher opponent, Erin Newman, both fought with power, speed and seeminglyboundless energy for three solid rounds at the sold-out House of Blues. Weber, though, came through as the unanimousvictor, having performed with the kind of confidence and intensity that is rarein a novice fighter.

That was a huge shift for Weber, who had hit a rough patchin her life about two years ago that left her on shaky ground. That’s around the time she tried boxing atStriking Beauties, in her hometown of North Attleboro.

“When I walked into the gym, my self-esteem was on the floorand my weight was through the roof,” she says, calling boxing a “game-changer”.

After watching other girls in the gym train to fight in theHaymakers for Hope events, Weber wondered if she could do it. But her teammates in the gym had no doubtsand gave her the push to start training. Weber never looked back.

“As tough as thetraining was,” she says, “I really enjoyed it.”

Working with trainer Zach Reay, who has brought nine other fighters to Haymakers over the last four years, Weber spent a grueling summer“doing everything he told me to do” including road work, sparring andconditioning, and, perhaps the toughest part: eating clean.

“Then, on the morning of the fight, after so much build-up,Zach made me do nothing, just rest,” she says. “It felt so weird. But I did getmy hair braided and wrote some thank you cards, so I stayed occupied.”

The fight night experience is one Weber says she will neverforget. From the moment she arrived atthe House of Blues, she says her team, which included Reay and H4H alumna KimPeltier, kept her focused so she never had a chance to get nervous.

“Getting my hands wrapped was much more serious than Iexpected,” she says. “Zach is veryprecise about it. It was clear to methen how much this fight meant to him. The whole time he was wrapping my hands he was coaching me. He talked me through every step of what wascoming next. Just lots of instructionand encouragement.”

Waiting in the wings for her bout to start, Weber says shenever had a chance to let her opponent “get in her head” because Reay wascoaching her the entire time.

“He talked about what I would do when I got in the ring,that he would put in my mouth guard (a custom guard painted like a grill) andhelp me through the ropes. Then he toldme to open my mouth so everyone could see my grill and go around the ring withmy arms up with confidence. It felt socool to do that and it really got me excited,” she says with a laugh. “Butlooking at some video of it now, it’s pretty funny. I was hesitant about it at first but itdawned on me that this is the only time in my life that I would get to dosomething like this, so I did it. Then Ifelt so focused.”

Looking back, Weber says that once the fight started sherealized she couldn’t hear her trainer’s voice over the cheering crowd.

“But I didn’t panic,” she says. “I felt like my training just kicked in. I realize that’s why we train so hard and somuch. It just took over, which waspretty cool. I know it wasn’t perfect,and I really couldn’t gauge how I was doing. I just thought to myself, ‘go hard the whole time’.”

While she says she couldn’t feel them at the time, Weberknows she took some solid hits and still has a sizeable bruise on her arm toprove it.

She also can’t remember hearing the final bell of the fight,only that she was suddenly back in her corner getting her gloves taken off, andwalking over to shake hands with Newman’s team. The next minute, she was standing in the center of the ring with theofficial holding both fighters’ hands, waiting for a result.

“That was such a weird feeling, to wait,” she says. “I told myself that either way, we gave itour all. But of course, when he raisedmy hand, it was pure relief. All of thathard work paid off. “

Weber spent the rest of the evening celebrating with herteam, family, friends and gym family. “Zach was so happy and I was beside myself. I was shaking, in a happy way. It took a long, long time before I could calmdown. That whole night couldn’t havegone any better.”

In all, Weber raised well over $5,000 for Haymakers forHope. She wore a handkerchief under herheadgear that was filled with the names, given to her by donors, of family andfriends who have faced cancer, as a way to quietly honor them.

“I have to say, it was very surprising to me how willingpeople were to give to this cause,” she says. “People I didn’t even know gave me donations. It was humbling, really. People also thanked me for doing this. It clearly meant a lot to people, which makesit even more special for me.”

After a short break in the gym routine, in which Weberbriefly enjoyed an unrestricted diet and went to her high school reunion, shehas jumped back into training with an abundance of confidence. It seems fitting that when she stepped back intothe ring to spar last week, it was to initiate two first-timers who wereinspired by her fight.

Weber recently summed up her feelings about her Haymakersjourney in a post to friends online. “The physical change in me is obvious,”she wrote. “And I can't even explain themental/emotional shift, except to say that two years ago I felt like a loser,and now I feel like a fighter, whether things are going my way or not. That's why I love boxing.”

What happens next is anyone’s guess.

“I really enjoyed this whole experience,” she says. “It was fun. Stressful, but fun. It’s hard toexplain. I don’t know if I will fightagain, but for now I’ll keep training as if I will.”

***Margie Kelley is a mom, freelance writer, master gardener and sometimes boxer. She fought in the 2013 Belles of the Brawl in Boston, and managed to convince her husband, Chris Fitzpatrick, to fight in the Rock ‘n Rumble in May. Settling arguments has taken on a whole new meaning in their house!