Marlen Esparza on Vogue: Boxing Champion Dazzles on Red Dress [PHOTOS]

Boxing Champion Marlen Esparza was featured in the latest July issue of Vogue, as she prepares to represent the United States at the London Olympics 2012.

Esparza posed for the magazine in a red dress with a thigh-high slit and red sneakers. She appears throwing a punch with black gloves. Esparza talked to the magazine about her career and her reaction to winning the Olympic trials.

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“I thought that when I won the Olympic trials I was going to be the happiest person in the whole world,” Esparza told Vogue. “And I was happy. But it wasn’t like I thought it was going to be. I had already imagined it in my head so many times. It was real before it happened.”

Women's boxing will make its debut at the Olympics this year after been closed many years over safety concerns by officials.

Esparza, 23 is from Pasadena, Texas. She started boxing at age 11 at her hometown and has won six women's national championships throughout her career.

According to Vogue, Esparza holds a 97 percent winning percentage and the hope of the country for a gold medal in London.

Her father, David Esparza, said they were hoping to make it to the Olympics for all their lives.

“My head was about to explode" he told Vogue. “This,” he says, “was what we’ve been waiting for all our lives.”

Esparza also talked to the magazine about her personal life and how she can’t wait to get married.

“It’s super embarrassing,” says Esparza, “but one reason that I would like, maybe, to be somewhat famous is that I want to wear a Vera Wang dress when I get married. Sleek, romantic, with some sort of lace. I’ve thought about it a hundred times. I even buy bridal magazines sometimes. I’m obsessed with getting married…”

Read the full Profile on Esparza here.