When Enja Prest raised her first professional title on Saturday night, in front of a home crowd at Gunnedah, it was a moment of repayment to her family, friends, and fans for their constant support.
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Up against Pam McLelland in the headline slot on the Bad Intentions 7 card, Prest engineered a shut-out performance.
She won 60-54 on all three judges' scorecards after the six-round bout, and the 30-year-old said it was "amazing" to claim the vacant NSW Women's Super Welterweight title at home.
"It felt pretty good," Prest said.
"It felt like I was giving back to the people in a way to have an opportunity like that in front of the home crowd."
McLelland, who had a record of one win and no losses leading in to the fight, was not as aggressive as Prest expected her to be as the shorter woman in the ring.
This left Prest able to control the distance and pace of the fight, while keeping clear of McLelland's powerful left hand.
"We thought she was going to come forward a lot more," she said.
"We thought she might have wanted to get underneath me and come forward, but I took control from the get-go and didn't give her the opportunity, so she stayed on the back foot."
Having rebounded from her first professional loss with Saturday's win, Prest said the lessons gleaned from her defeat late last year were "definitely" crucial to her performance in Gunnedah.
"I was really trying to focus between rounds in the corner," she said.
"I was doing a lot of breathing, work on my footwork, and just timing the punches and being able to pick when to throw them."
But now that the fight is done, Prest will focus on what is next for her. She believes just one more win could put her in the frame for a national title.
"I want to get another fight under my belt and look at taking on an Australian title," she said.
"Now that we've got the state title, I really want to look at an Australian title in the near future, that'd be great."
Three other professional fights took place on the main card, which saw Troy Pilcher stop Jerome Faraimo at heavyweight, Albert Nolan get a UD win over Chris Oliver at super lightweight, and Patrick Clarke TKO Paul Roberts, which was also at super lightweight.
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