Boxing: Leschenault’s Lekeisha Pergoliti continuing her solid rise as a fighter

From the moment she first stepped into a boxing ring, Leschenault’s Lekeisha Pergoliti has relished discipline and personal growth. Despite returning home from Germany with a bronze medal at the World Boxing Cup in Cologne, the humble 21-year-old remains unwavering in her pursuit of being the best possible fighter in and out of the ring. “It was great,” she said. “Especially as prior to it, we had a 10-day camp in Heidelberg with the German team along with a few others, including Cuba, Mongolia, Norway and a few fighters from Belgium. “We were all sparring and training together. “The World Cup was all fighters who were the number one representative of their respective countries. To receive a podium finish at the end of this year? It means the world to me, because it was my first year of going international and I wanted to establish myself a bit more.” Pergoliti has relocated to Perth full-time, where she is under the guidance of new coach Justin Lacey at Lacey’s Boxing Gym. Despite positive results in the ring throughout 2023, the 21-year-old is equally satisfied about fine-tuning her fundamental skills. “This year, I’ve mainly focused on my foot and head movement which has been really good,” she said. “My new coach Justin Lacey has been drilling me on both. I’ve also not been going on the back foot so much. I’ve been trying to push my opponents forward, assert a bit more dominance along with working on my body language in the ring. “It’s important how the judges perceive you and how they see you in the ring — so a really big learning point this year has been making sure I have good body language and am able to assert myself. “If you do this, the judges can see you are dominant and are winning the fight.”