Stinging like a bee.

There's no thinking before a fight, says Ann-Marie Saccurato. There's only seeing your opponent--and remembering that the best bouts are those you win. With coaching help from her life partner (three-time national champion Angel Bovee), the 29-year-old from White Plains, N.Y., won the World Boxing Council lightweight world championship November 5, some 11 years after surviving a car accident that doctors weren't sure she would. "Afterward, as part of my rehab, I took a boxing class and really loved it," says Saccurato. A couple of years later she started working with a trainer, and in 2001 she won the coveted Golden Gloves amateur title in New York State and nationally. Yet despite her success, many still doubt her because she's a woman. That is, until she shows them the power of her punch. "It's a process--breaking down the stereotypes and barriers that I know a lot of men in the sport would like to keep up," she says. "If someone still thinks boxing is just a man's sport, they need to open their eyes."