'It's a big blessing': Enja Prest on balancing love and fighting

There is no single answer, but when said pairing involves two professional boxers, it is important to have separate interests.

At least, that's what Enja Prest believes.

As the Gunnedah-based fighter prepares for her first Australasian title bid, her fiancee, Wade Ryan - who has 30 professional fights under his belt - is doing his part to help her prepare.

Without Ryan's guidance, Prest said, she "definitely wouldn't have made it as far as I am".

"It's a big blessing to have him right there, I'm very grateful for it."

But in order to maintain the boundary between a working professional relationship and a healthy personal relationship, the pair indulge in their hobbies independently.

"He is very good at keeping the emotional side of the relationship away from the professional sport side," Prest said.

"We manage to balance it quite well, and we have that same passion but we also have our own things. I have my horse racing that I keep up-to-date with, and he has his golf and fishing."

When the time comes for her next fight, however, Ryan will be in Prest's corner, cheering her on.

Her Australasian Female Welterweight title bout is set to take place on June 18 against Jamie Edenden at the Arena Sports Club in Yagoona, Sydney.

Following Prest's last fight, which took place in March for the vacant NSW Super Welterweight title, she had expected to fight once more before eyeing a national belt.

But when the opportunity to fight at an even higher level was presented, there was no way she was going to say no.

"It was vacant ... so I said why not?" Prest said.

"We may as well keep working our way up, and keep collecting the backyard titles before we start looking overseas."

In preparation for this next bout, Prest has worked on expanding her technical repertoire and tried to push her fitness to another level.

Though she "could have gone four more rounds" after her last six-round decision win, Prest wants to leave no stone unturned as she progresses her career.

This precaution should serve her well, as Edenden has a kickboxing background and has four amateur MMA bouts to go with one professional fight in March. She made her professional boxing debut last November, which resulted in a unanimous decision win over Connie Chan.

Edenden won two of her four amateur MMA fights by KO, and Prest expects her to be just as aggressive with boxing gloves on.

"She's very foward-moving from what we've seen on videos, so it should be a good, competitive fight," she said.

"I'll just be nice and sharp, be patient, pick my shots and make them count."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: