Vanessa Chakour didn’t always want to be a boxer. If you asked the Amherst native what she wanted to be when she grew up, she may have said a National Geographic photographer, an author or an illustrator, but never once did being a professional fighter cross her mind.

After a car accident left Chakour with a fractured back and neck at 16 years old, she made it a mission to get stronger, rehabilitating her body and her mind. Her injuries were her main focus and getting stronger was her full-time job, as she dropped out of high school to heal her body. That journey began in the gym, lifting weights.

“It was one of those experiences that was a massive awakening and turning point for me,” Chakour said of the accident. “I had been really detached from my body, I had really bad asthma growing up and I had this story line in my head of wanting to be an athlete more than anything, but I felt like I couldn’t because of my asthma. I felt like I was physically deficient.”

When the accident happened, Chakour began to question the narratives she had always accepted. As she strengthened her body in the gym, she soon realized that she could move beyond the narrative of being deficient. What started as rejuvenating after injuries became an obsession with all things healing, and Chakour studied every angle of the body and ways to restore her health. She said never wanted to feel as she did after her car accident — weak.

“Training was really transformative for me,” Chakour said of the time spent working on herself.

Chakour went to nearby UMass, studying exercise science and environmental science. While in school, she was drawn to the crew team. After putting her body first for so long, she had grown to be very strong and crew seemed a perfect fit.

Working with the crew team “shifted my perception of my body from what I looked like to what I was capable of,” she said. “As a woman, it’s all about how you look and shrinking, as opposed to being strong.”

In 1996, Chakour moved to New York City, discovered the sport of boxing and fell in love with professional fighting.

Her years of strength training and rowing pulled her in the natural direction of becoming a personal trainer. While doing this, she met a professional fighter and decided on her next endeavor: She wanted to learn to fight.

“I was looking for something that had the same intensity as crew,” Chakour said. “I was like, ‘I want to learn how to do that.’ I don’t know how to throw a proper punch so I asked him to train me, and when I threw my first punch I was shocked by how much power I had.”

Starting at 4:30 in the morning, Chakour hopped on the subway and traveled to the gym so she could train before meeting with her clients. She trained every day she could.

When another boxer’s sparring partner failed to show up, Chakour was asked to throw punches in the ring so he could work on his defense. This experience of being the aggressor opened a door, showing her a new side of herself and her abilities.

“I had never met that part of myself. I grew up in a family of artists, so having the opportunity to fight and be the aggressor was like, ‘wow,’” Chakour said. “I had never met that intense, aggressive animal — it was a new side of myself I’d never tapped into.”

From there she found a coach and told them she wanted to fight.

Chakour trained at Gleason's Gym, one of the oldest and most esteemed boxing facilities in the country. Founded in 1937, Gleason’s Gym has been home to some of the best boxers in the world and hosts the best competition.

“There’s so many life lessons encompassed in boxing,” Chakour said. “It’s a moving meditation so you have to be 100% present because there’s someone coming at you. You can’t dwell on your past mistakes, you can’t overthink things, you have to keep moving and let things go.”

Even with her professional training and boxing experience, Chakour rarely found herself in the ring. When fights were scheduled, many never occurred due to a lack of women in a male-dominated field. Chakour may have been a professional fighter, but it was difficult to find many fights.

“I always say I trained as a professional fighter because most of my fights fell through because at the time there weren’t a lot of women in boxing,” Chakour said. “My coach was very much all about integrity and didn’t want to put me in a compromising situation, so I had a lot of fights fall through which is super frustrating.”

After COVID-19 struck in 2020, Chakour packed her bags and moved home to western Massachusetts. After spending her youth in Amherst, she was drawn back to the area to finish her first book, “Awakening Artemis: Deepening Intimacy with the Living Earth and Reclaiming Our Wild Nature.” After 20 years in Brooklyn, a change was needed.

“I got to the point where I couldn’t do the city anymore,” Chakour said. “I finished my book in 2021 and I wound up staying.”

With that return, she welcomed boxing back into her life, and wandered into the Franklin County YMCA in Greenfield.

“When my partner and I came here to check it out and I saw there was a boxing room I got so excited,” Chakour said. “It’s like, ‘oh my gosh.’ I’ve been thinking about teaching boxing again for quite a while, and this just seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that.”

Chakour reached out to the YMCA to teach women’s boxing classes. The club welcomed her with open arms, and Chakour started teaching.

“She is providing a service to the community that has not been tapped into in a while,” said Jayne Trosin, Franklin County’s YMCA director of fitness & director of social responsibility. “It’s a growing sport and we are happy that we are able to offer it here at the YMCA.”

Classes run weekly with participants in groups of five. By limiting the class to female identifying participants only, Chakour aims to create a safe space. Basic skills are taught and built on through a four-week period, allowing incoming boxers to grow their fighting resume. In rounds, three minutes on, one minute off, participants learn defense, trust in their body, and stay present.

“She’s empowering women through boxing,” Trosin said. “We are blessed to have her in our community.”

For more information on Chakour’s sessions, visit the YMCA’s website (your-y.org).