(JAN 15)   In a sport full of stories, the story of World Boxing Federation (WBF) Womens World Lightweight Champion Nicole Wesner (9-0, 4 KOs) is quite an interesting one. Its not a tale of hardship and turmoil, as is often the case, but rather a story of how it is, as they say, never too late to achieve your goals.

Born in Cologne, Germany in the summer of 1977, Nicole Sabine Wesner wasn’t really interested in boxing, and certainly not as a career, until a time where most top-athletes would at least start to consider the possibility of retiring to do something less demanding.

Wesner studied international business in Mannheim, and later in Lyon, France, before returning to Mannheim to work in marketing at a large international health care company. She was later stationed in Italy and Belgium, before said company eventually send her to work in Vienna, Austria in 2006.

And it was here that she started boxing a few years later, but it was not something she had any kind of plan to do:

“It was all by chance”, says Wesner. “I went to a fitness center that offered yoga, Pilates and boxing classes, and wanted to do yoga. But for some reason I went into the boxing class, and just fell in love with this beautiful sport right away.”

After training boxing in the fitness center for a while, Wesner was so caught up in the sport that she decided that just once in her life, despite being busy with work, she wanted to have a real fight. So she changed the scenery to a proper boxing club.

At this time she was already 32 years old, and, in her own words, “didn’t realize how crazy it was” to start fighting competitively at this age. And it became much more than just one fight:

“I started training every day, then it escalated to twice a day, and my amateur career just took off and I eventually won the Austrian national championships.”

“Boxing was becoming such a big part of my life that I left my well-paid job to focus on boxing, and at 35 I decided to turn professional. Now I wanted to be world champion!”

Wesner made her professional boxing debut in December of 2012, three years after she entered that Vienna fitness center to do yoga, and 35 years old!

Switching between bouts in her native Germany and her adopted home country of Austria, she went undefeated in eight fights, including a wide ten-round unanimous decision over former European title-challenger Kremena Petkova, before landing her WBF World title fight on December 6 2014 in Vienna against 11-1 Hungarian Gina Chamie.

Chamie had previously won and defended a minor belt, but most of all proven her worth nine months earlier by going six hard rounds with another German, multiple world champion Ramona Kuehne, for the WBF World Super Featherweight crown, before retiring between rounds with an elbow injury.

It was expected to be a real fifty-fifty match-up, but Wesner at 37 years of age ended up thoroughly outclassing her opponent, thirteen years her junior, in almost every department, before scoring a highly impressive third-round knockout victory.

With a smile on her face, Wesner explains: “I had seen videos of Chamie, and I thought it would be a harder challenge. But already in the second round I felt that I would probably knock her out. She was down five times before the fight was stopped.”

Winning the WBF World Lightweight title hasn’t changed Wesner, and she claims that she is just as hungry for more success as she was before that night at the Multiversum arena. However, in the aftermath, she did do something she normally doesn’t allow herself after a fight:

“Normally I start training again immediately after a fight, and start all the planning and so on, but after I won the world title I took time out to relax for the first time, and went to Spain for a holiday. But, to be honest, I also went to a gym there to train...”

Wesner is hoping to have a busy 2015, with three world title-defenses and a couple of non-title fights in-between to further hone her skills. She comes across as a very dedicated, grounded and extremely professional individual, and setting goals for herself seems to be a big part of what drives her as a boxer.

“Considering that I only started boxing five years ago, I am very happy about how my career has developed, but there is still a lot to do”, she points out.

“But if I take care of my body I think I can box another ten years, and I want to continue learning. I want to become a great boxer.”

“I have a strong passion for this sport, and as long as I have this in me I will give my best every day to make sure I am better than the day before.”

One wonders if Nicole Wesner ever had a goal that she didn’t achieve!