From knockouts to naptimes: Singapore boxer 'The Face' fights for glory and motherhood

CNA

19-07-2025

The first time I met Ms Efasha Kamarudin, she was breastfeeding her 11-month-old daughter at a Bedok Mall restaurant – the perfect image of a gentle mother.
The next time we met, she was pummelling a heavy punching bag in the Spartans Boxing Club's Joo Chiat outlet, her latest championship belt prominently displayed at the gym's entrance.
The 34-year-old barely broke a sweat, while just a short distance away, a group of young boys were wheezing heavily through their training.
"I'm addicted to pain," she said with a laugh.
As a woman competing professionally in the male-dominated sport of boxing, Ms Efasha described herself as a "chameleon".
"I have many different versions of (myself). One is a rough girl in gym clothes and then suddenly, I become a mum, very caring. And then when (my husband and I) go out for a date, I have my makeup on and wear sexy clothes," she said.
"I enjoy being able to morph from one thing to another."
Her ease with flitting between this multitude of identities made it a no-brainer when it came to choosing her boxing name: "The Face".
This, she said, is how she wants to represent Singaporean women in the sport – as complex, multifaceted individuals both inside and outside of the ring.
Ms Efasha, better known as "Fash" among her family and friends, in 2016 became the first Singaporean woman to win an international boxing gold medal.
At the time of writing, she was ranked the world's 15th best boxer in the super flyweight division, referring to fighters weighing about 52kg – and she's not stopping there.
After a decade of being a boxing coach at Spartans, she recently stepped down to focus on a heavy training season ahead.
Last week, she flew to Bangkok, Thailand for her first eight-round match against a Thai fighter. The stakes were high – winning would have potentially gotten her in the ring against a globally top-ranked fighter for a world title fight this August in the United States.
Her ramped-up training clearly paid off. In Bangkok, "The Face" delivered a knockout blow by the first round, clinching her a decisive victory.
However, the organisers of the world title fight decided to pick another candidate who qualified before her to compete in the US instead.
"I'm not losing hope. I always believe in timing and I'm used to rejection," Ms Efasha said about the lost opportunity.
Immediately after the announcement, she was already weighing her options for a shot at a regional belt instead, such as a World Boxing Council Asia title.
"This is part and parcel of a boxer's life," she added.
THE EARLY KICK-OFF IN KARATE
From a young age, Ms Efasha knew she had an affinity with sports. Her parents and four siblings – two older, two younger – loved to keep themselves active and their enthusiasm spread to her as well.
"Every Sunday, it was a tradition for my family to wake up in the morning and go to the park," she recalled while sitting cross-legged in the Spartans boxing ring, wearing neon pink shoes, face touched with a light layer of makeup, and hair tied into a loose braid.
"We would ride bikes, play badminton, roller blade, jog, run, sprint – and then we'd have breakfast together."
This eventually led her to join karate as a co-curricular activity in primary school, quickly working her way up to a black belt. At the age of 12, she represented Singapore internationally as the youngest member of the national karate team.
She enjoyed the discipline of karate and doing a variety of stretches and splits. She also liked how putting on the karate uniform made her feel like "a ninja in a PlayStation game", she joked.
Later on in her teenage years, she picked up muay thai and jiu jitsu while playing football on the side, until a foot sprain sustained in the latter sport grounded her from kicking for a while.
"I thought to myself, 'How can I still keep myself active?'"
At a coach's suggestion, she took part in a boxing match. During the match, then-president of the Singapore Boxing Federation Syed Kadir praised her performance and suggested that she pursue the sport seriously.
At the time, Ms Efasha was 20 years old and working as a preschool teacher. Juggling a full-time job with a training regimen was tough, but she made it work.
"I started my work day at 7am and would end maybe at 4pm, depending on the shift. If I ended my work late at 7pm instead, I would go to the last (gym) class. And then I would get home at around 11pm."
Ms Efasha also joined the national women's boxing team, training and competing with it for five years. However, this period was made even tougher by challenges outside of the ring.
Back then, her ex-boyfriend disapproved of her boxing because the sport required her to spend a lot of time in the company of other men at the gym. He thought of it as "un-Muslim" behaviour and wanted her to be more "ladylike".
She started trying to think of ways to pursue boxing behind his back. "Sometimes, when I competed, I'd end up with a black eye. And then when he noticed it, I'd say, 'Oh, my baby brother accidentally hit me'."
However, hiding such a big part of her life from her significant other took a big toll. She picked up smoking to alleviate the stress and missed training sessions to spend time with him.
Eventually, she could not stop it from affecting her performance in the ring, causing her to lose more fights.
"I couldn't live that life anymore," she said.
"A few weeks before (we were to get engaged), I ghosted him and never appeared." She paused and chuckled. "I was a runaway fiancee."
Ms Efasha moved out of her parents' home at age 25 just so she could be closer to her boxing gym Spartans. So close that she moved into the gym and began sleeping under its staircase.
"When I coached there, Spartans became my home," she said. "There was a microwave and oven where I could cook my food. There was a storeroom to put my things. There was air conditioning, a water heater – pretty much everything (I needed)."
Even then, she was gearing up to do what it took to reach her goals, even if it required her to make compromises and put herself in uncomfortable situations.
WAGING ANOTHER WAR WITHIN
Yet another challenge was brewing that she couldn't fight with boxing gloves.
Growing up, she had always struggled with how her body looked. At 58kg, she constantly compared herself to her younger sister, who was slimmer and was more than 10kg lighter than her.
"The moment you train (as a fighter), your body just changes," she said. "I wanted to be slim and look nice in a dress – but I just looked different."
She kept thinking of herself as overweight, overlooking the fact that her athleticism was behind her muscular legs and bigger shoulders.
She started taking slimming pills and restricting her diet, sometimes skipping meals altogether, even though it caused her to develop bad gastric problems.
She also struggled to accept her brown skin in her adolescence, because she felt that boys her age preferred girls with fair skin.
It was only recently that she has become more comfortable in her own skin. For this, she gives a lot of credit to her husband Russell Harrison.
As the chief executive officer of Spartans gym, Mr Harrison's staunch support often eases her self-doubt, especially at times when she feels that she is not performing well enough.
He has also helped her deal with her issues outside of the ring.
She recalls one occasion in particular where she put on a dress and asked him if she looked fat. He responded with incredulity at the thought.
"You're an athlete," he said, and asked her to imagine how other girls would feel if even she, fit as she was, thought of herself in this way.
'He told me that if I wanted to become a role model to other girls, then I should feel comfortable and (positive about myself) as well – not just because I want to inspire others, but because I sincerely believe that,' she said.
At that moment, she resolved to stop thinking about herself through a lens of negativity or insecurity.
She hasn't taken slimming pills or restricted her eating in years. She has even stopped covering herself up when she goes out in the sun "to make sure that I don't get tanned".
"I also have a huge gap in between my front teeth, but (my husband) told me, 'No, you don't need to wear a liner, because your gap is very unique'."
EYES ON THE PRIZE
Ms Efasha's goal is to become the "undisputed world champion" by winning all five championship belts in the super flyweight category.
She wants to achieve this before retiring by the age of 40 to focus on spending more time with her daughter.
However, it's a tough road to climb to the top for anyone, let alone a new mother with limited funds.
"People say boxing is a lonely sport, but it takes a village to bring a boxer up to a certain level," Ms Efasha said. And that village isn't cheap. By her estimate, it costs about S$20,000 to fund a "fight camp", a period of intensive training she has to undergo before every major competition.
Right now, she is in the midst of finding more sponsors. Despite the struggles, she is grateful for the support around her.
"I have great coaches and a great community here at Spartans. The members support me. They even (chip in for) my flight tickets."
A typical day for Ms Efasha starts between 5.30am and 6.30am, attending to her daughter Zahra when she wakes.
She then heads off for her first boxing session of the day before returning home to spend time with Zahra, teaching her phonics and going with her to the nearby playground. After taking her daughter back home, she then departs for a second round of training.
On top of her twice-daily boxing sessions, she also squeezes in time for running and strength training about two to three times a week.
It is a demanding schedule for any athlete, made even more taxing with Ms Efasha's baby girl waking up intermittently through the night, meaning that she barely gets enough rest on a daily basis.
ATHLETE, MOTHER AND ENTREPRENEUR
In 2022, Ms Efasha launched her own business BXHR. Pronounced "box-her", the brand designs and sells colourful boxing gloves for women.
She came up with this idea while coaching. During those years, she found that female students often struggled to find suitable boxing gloves, because they were typically made for men and were thus too big.
"If you wear the wrong-sized gloves, you can get injured. I want to educate women to wear the right gloves so that they feel comfortable training," she said.
The gloves are now only sold in Singapore, but she intends to eventually expand her customer base to Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Chasing both professional and personal dreams, Ms Efasha often feels guilty for different reasons – not being able to give her full attention to her child, for instance, or not spending more time on caring for herself.
Nevertheless, she hopes that the many hats she is wearing right now will show her daughter in future that it is worth working hard for what she believes in. The love she had for little Zahra was undeniable as she chattered away cheerfully to the baby and helped her waddle unsteadily about the playground.
"At the end of the road, I want my baby to see that her mum is a badass," she said, beaming.
I wondered what retirement might look like for "The Face", especially as many professional athletes struggle with building an identity for themselves outside of the sport. But given her chameleon-like nature, perhaps it was unsurprising that she already has a plethora of ideas for her future.
"If I weren't a boxer, I would be involved in anything creative. So when I'm done with boxing, I want to get into theatre or learn a musical instrument," she said.
She fondly recalled performing for school events such as Teacher's Day, and studying fine arts as a subject during her O-Levels.
"As a kid, my sister and I would always memorise the choreography from the children's TV show Hi-5. Even now, I still want to be part of Hi-5! Though it does not exist anymore," she added with a good-natured laugh.
Ms Efasha also wants to buy a house by the beach in Australia, so that she can enjoy summer holidays there with her husband and daughter.
She is confident that even after taking off her boxing gloves for good, she will never stop finding ways to be active, out of the spotlight and out of the ring.