Lee tells in the book that she is proud of her life, saying that she is leading a successful life because she can do what she loves. Lee is the first Korean to become a world champion in women's boxing. Her next match will be for the flyweight championship.

Lee's life has not been easy. She worked as a hairdresser's assistant in a beauty salon, a taxi driver and a trucker for a food company.

After graduation from high school, she became an alcoholic after the sudden deaths of her father and older brother. "I spent a third of my life drinking alcohol. I drove my beloved family to suffering. It was horrible," she said.

Lee overcame the alcoholism after watching a women's boxing championship match on TV.

Lee felt thrilled while watching the hitting, avoiding, beating and being knocked around. She thought that boxing was terrific, and decided to try it.

Lee thinks that becoming a boxer is a kind of karma for her, because she was a tomboy, even fighting with boys in her childhood.

Lee begins her daily training at 5 a.m. Since runs 10 kilometers every day. She has won six victories in six bouts, two of them knockouts. She wants to box until she turns 40. Lee will have the final match for the world championship against Carla Wilcox at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the KyoYuk MunHwa Hoekwan in Yangjae-dong, Seoul. (Kim Wang-keun, wkkim@chosun.com )