Disabled French boxer fights for glory in US

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

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

The accomplished amateur was invited to spend two weeks in the US 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 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.

Hugues, who was born without lower legs, crossed the Atlantic at the end of November for his first tour to make a name for himself in the US.

Because of a lack of funding in his native France, he hopes to find financing for his passion while in the US and turn professional within two years.