‘Stay composed': Women to compete in adaptive wheelchair boxing match in Fairfax

Two Northern Virginia women will break barriers this weekend with a competition that's never been done before in the United States.

On Sunday, Kelly Simoneaux and Joanna Bonilla will go into the ring against each other — and with each other, fighting for something bigger than a title. They'll go head-to-head in the first-ever competitive adaptive boxing match between two female wheelchair users.

Simoneaux and Bonilla, both members of the DPI Adaptive Boxing Club, will compete this Sunday at 2 p.m. at Providence Park in Fairfax.

But how do you prepare for something that's never been done before?

"Boxing is a chess game," Bonilla said.

She also told us: "When you get hit, you gotta stay composed."

It's as true in life as it is in the ring, where the women and their coach have developed an adaptive sport that doesn't exist at the Paralympic level ... at least not yet.

Popularity of Adaptive Boxing Grows

Like a surprise uppercut, boxing became the love they never saw coming.

Simoneaux took up the sport after having children. "Postpartum, recovering from having children," she said.

The DPI Adaptive Boxing Club is growing and includes other people with physical disabilities.

"That's inclusion. That's opening the world," DPI Adaptive Fitness coach Devon Palermo said.

"We have to show everyone," Simoneaux said.

"This is something that can be scaled and that this is something that can ultimately become a Paralympic sport," she said.

Some special equipment will be used: "Stabilizing belts. Stabilizing leg braces. Wheelchair lockdowns so chairs don't move," Palermo said.

Simoneaux said it's been "fascinating to watch everyone make those adjustments, just like they do in their everyday life."

Also watching: her 7-year-old son. During one of Simoneaux's recent practices, he grabbed her phone and made a short video.

"I'm excited about my mom's fight," Simoneaux's son said in the video "I want to see how strong she is, and I really want her to win."

Simoneaux is hopeful that he'll see even more than her physical strength on Sunday.

"Part of it is, he does see my muscles and he sees it in a physical sense," she said, "but I think hopefully that that messaging penetrates to other levels of, like, what strength can mean."

That includes the strength for what it takes to build up a team, or even your opponent.

These boxers want to share that with others who never thought they belonged in the ring.

"We're like, 'Oh my goodness, we gotta do this right, so other people want to join us and love the sport, just the same way we love it," Bonilla said.