Concetta e Giovanna Marchese

Io Donna
Rome, 2016

In Marcianise, at the heart of Italy’s “Land of Fires,” boxing coach Mimmo Brillantino founded Excelsior Boxe over forty years ago. In a place where crime and street life can easily derail young people, his gym has become a refuge — and now opens its doors to women, too.
Among its new generation are the Marchese sisters, just sixteen and seventeen, who chose the boxing ring as their way to rise above the decay surrounding them.