Jessica Penne had long been interested in combat sports. Aside from her
high school softball and swimming careers, she even once hoped to
wrestle, although there were no girls on the high school wrestling team.
When she was a few years out of high school, Penne wasn’t going in any
direction she liked. Nothing too bad, she said, but nothing she was
serious about, either.
On a weekend when she was 22, she visited a high school friend who was
living out of town. While she was there, some friends found a pair of
boxing gloves in a garage.