María Eugenia López's mum didn't like her boxing. "She made my life impossible," says the 23-year-old from Avellaneda (Argentina), who, like her opponent, will be making her professional debut tonight in the Palacio Peñarol in Montevideo; and for a time she desisted, and settled for karate and basketball instead.

But it was boxing that fascinated her; and one day she just walked out the door, made a beeline for the Argentinian Boxing Federation's gym in the Calle Castro Barros (Almagro),  and demanded a trainer. To pay the rent and buy gloves and all the other things she needed, she waited tables and did deliveries. Now she's studying to be a head gardener, but as well as running, she spends three hours a day in the gymnasium.  She's been hit, too: "Once I was fighting a much bigger girl who hit me right on the temple. I felt my knees wobble, but I recovered. You learn with experience not to repeat your errors."

The stubbornness of her will, her stamina and her courage look like being severely tested tonight by her 19-year-old opponent, Chris Namús, who (according to La República), was unbeaten in the amateurs and (according to El Pais)  is out to kill her. Namús didn't actually say that, of course. What she said was: "The only thing I know about her is her name and that'll do. I don't know how she fights. I don't know who she's beaten. All I know is I'm going to win. Of that, I'm in no doubt." Which isn't the same thing at all; but she's stopped her last three opponents and will be disappointed, I expect, if she fails to do the same to López tonight.

Whilst the Uruguayan's boyfriend trains with her, and her parents and grandparents are basically supportive, they're scared too. Her grandfather was an amateur boxer ("El Colorado" Corrales) and, according to Namús, he's over-protective. A student of medicine herself, (or biology, depending upon which article you believe), she shrugs off the risks. "If anything's going to happen to me," she tells them, "it'll happen when I'm walking to the shops and crossing the street."