When Teresa Perozzi steps into the ring at the Women's Pan American Boxing Championships this week she knows she will have the best possible people in her corner.

For it is thanks to the generosity of her family that the 27-year-old Islander is taking part in the event, a rung down from the prestigious World Championships.

The Bermuda Amateur Boxing Association turned down the 27-year-old's application for funding but generous donations from those closest to her have enabled her to make the trip to Scranton, Pennsylvania.

It was only recently that Perozzi, who will fight in the middleweight division, found out about the competition, which takes place from Thursday to Sunday.

"I heard about it two weeks ago when the Bermuda Amateur Boxing Association received a fax inviting some girls from Bermuda. They brought it to my attention and I said I wanted to do it," she said.

"They met about it to discuss the funding but my application was turned down after some members of the committee wouldn't support it."

Perozzi said she couldn't believe for the small amount of cash it involved that the committee was not willing to back her.

"In total it's less than $1,500 for everything for two people - my coach and myself," she said. "I didn't find out (they had turned it down) until last Wednesday. They said that if they did it for me they would have to do it for everybody. But there is actually nobody else boxing at the moment that could participate in something like this."

Perozzi said she wanted to make it clear there were those who had been willing to help her.

"There were only a couple of people who were against it but those that supported it have been really helpful, doing all the paperwork," she said.

Despite this setback, Perozzi said she was determined to take part in the competition.

"The next day I put together a presentation that I took to several companies. But unfortunately most of them were off the the Island," she said. "But last night I went to a family dinner and they just came together. Between about six of them they came up with the money. That was amazing."

Perozzi says she has two aims when she steps into the ring - to thank her relatives for backing her and to prove to the boxing hierarchy that they should have shown the same faith in her.

"I was going to anyway. I wasn't going to let it stop me but I am very disappointed that they didn't support it. I just hope to prove them wrong," she said.

"Even if I don't (come away having won) I feel it will have been a great opportunity and I will have deserved to have gone because of my determination and the hard work I have put into it."

Despite only finalising her details in recent days, Perozzi believes she is in excellent shape thanks in the main to her trainers, Troy Darrell and Forty Rego of Rego's Gym.

"I have had three international fights, including one exhibition, and I have won them all and I was definitely overmatched. I definitely think I can handle myself," said Perozzi, who has been concentrating on sparring, running, bag work and skipping.

"I couldn't get better trainers wherever I went. Troy Darrell has been there and Forty Rego trained him so I sort of have the best of both worlds."

Perozzi, who became a boxer after being approached out of the blue to take part in a local fight night, says she has her sights set on bringing back a belt to Bermuda.

"I have been approached to go professional. But I want to get as far as I can as an amateur first. Once you go professional you can never go back to amateur," she said.

"I want to do this and then go professional for maybe two years and hopefully get a title shot. I don't want to do this for the rest of my life but for the next couple of years I want to do it seriously."