'Fighting spirit': Disabled French boxer yearns for glory

New York: Boxer Pierre Mickael Hugues trains in New York like any other able bodied athlete but has prosthetic legs from below the knee. Your h...

New York: Boxer Pierre-Mickael Hugues trains in New York like any other able-bodied athlete -- but has prosthetic legs from below the knee.

"Your hands, Pierre! Hit him in the body!" shouts his trainer.

The accomplished amateur was invited to spend two weeks in the United States by former French heavyweight Christophe Mendy.

"I've always seen myself as an able-bodied athlete, with the same passion -- sometimes greater -- to achieve the same result," Hugues, 31, said in a soft, determined voice, against the low din of a Harlem boxing gym.

With his super welterweight physique, he is the first disabled boxer in the world to be registered in the able-bodied elite amateur category.