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Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, child death, and gender discrimination.

The 12th Annual Women’s 18 & Under Daughters of America Cup, which is being held at Bob’s Boxing Palace in Reno, Nevada, opens on July 14 with a bout between Andi Taylor and Artemis Victor. The gym’s eponymous owner, Bob, does not coach women on principle, but he and the other coaches, all of whom are men, make a profit from maintaining the league that organizes the tournament, the Women’s Youth Boxing Association. All the boxers must pay $200 to get league membership and a “free” subscription to the magazine that profiles all the other boxers in the league.

Andi starts the fight distracted by the recent memory of a boy who drowned at a swimming pool while she was on duty as a lifeguard. Her opponent, Artemis Victor, is the youngest daughter in a famous boxing family. Artemis’s parents sit in attendance while Andi’s family is nowhere to be found. Andi drove up to Reno on her own and will be sleeping in her car. She wishes the effort she puts into boxing could show on her body.