FORT MYERS, Fla. — The new featherweight champion of the world is from Fort Myers. She returned from Australia this week on a mission to inspire youth to pursue their dreams.
Community members told FOX4 they knew Tiara Brown was going to bring home the championship belt, and she did.
Watch Fort Myers Community Correspondent Miyoshi Price's report:
As Tiara Brown walked out of the tunnel to face Skye Nicolson in Austrilia, she says she heard boo's coming from the crowd.
"But like in my spirit, I felt chanting of my ancestors, and I just blocked everything out," says Brown. "And by the end of the fight, they were actually cheering for me." It sounds a lot like Rocky IV.
Brown became the WBC World Featherweight Champion by beating Nicholson in a split-decision victory Saturday.
It was her first title attempt. She says her family was out there with her to see history.
This is what she says she told her family before the fight. "I was like, I need y'all to yell, 239, Fort Myers," says Brown. "Like, if I hear that, it's gonna give me what I need to get there. And it did"
She told FOX4 that she trained out of Washington, DC, in Hillcrest Heights. She praised her coach, Ernesto Rodriguez, and Rogers Taylor. "We were training two to three times a day," says Brown
And of course, she brought the championship belt back to her hometown, Fort Myers.
"It's just a great feeling to come home and see people that I don't even know, but they know exactly who I am," says Brown.
She says her love for boxing started in Fort Myers at the age of 13 as a Fort Myers Police Athletic League kid. Also known as PAL.
"It saved me, because my brother was murdered in the streets a few years ago," says Brown." And I just feel like if he was going to the PAL like I was, he would have positive role models in his life, but he didn't."
Now she's a volunteer coach with the PALS programs.
How can the community help keep this legacy, the PAL legacy, going?
I think that the community and the city need to invest more in the PAL. It's about more than sports. It's about life development, you know, and it's about family. This is a safe place for kids. This is where kids can come and just mold their goals and their dreams.
She also mentioned a scholarship she is extending to the community. "Every year I give a scholarship to high or middle schoolers," says Brown. "It's $1,000." She hopes that companies around Southwest Florida will match her amount.
How to become eligible:
1. Must be in middle or high school.
2. Must be a student athlete.
3. Must have a 3.0 GPA.
4. Must write an essay - respond to what it means to be a student athlete, but focus on the importance of being a STUDENT first.
Turn the essay in at the PAL center. Forward the mail to Tiara Brown - 3280 Marion Street, Fort Myers, Florida 33916, United States.
"Anybody can be an athlete, but you have to have education first, because that's the one thing no one can ever take away from you, is your knowledge," says Brown.
In honor of her work ethic and victory, she told FOX4 that the city of Fort Myers designated April 16th as Tiara Brown Day.
