Had Rashida Shakilya Ellis had her way, she would have turned pro 12 years earlier.

The support of women's boxing at the time caused her to hold off on making the leap from the amateur ranks. Now, with the recent bloom of women’s boxing, Ellis’ patience has proven to pay dividends. The 2020 U.S. Olympian will make her pro debut Friday when she faces the experienced Maria Salinas in a six-round featherweight bout on a Red Owl Boxing’s Boxfest XVI card at Commerce Casino in Commerce, California, in the first fight on DAZN.

“I wanted to turn pro when I was 18 years old, but, back then, female boxing wasn’t up like how it is right now. I made a smart move by waiting a little longer,” Ellis told The Ring. “It’s the perfect time.

“It is amazing. Claressa Shields did her thing by doing this. She's the one who brought women's boxing to life and showed the world we can fight like guys, too."

Ellis' debut is part of the unique format that Red Owl Boxing has put together. Each card features fights dubbed as a crowning, redemption and debut. A “crowning” bout is a step up for one or both fighters, which normally has a title on the line in the main event. A “redemption” has one or both fighters coming off a loss. Ellis is one of four fighters making their pro debut.

The card is headlined by Deonte Brown (16-0, 11 KOs) vs. Grimardi Machuca (17-2, 14 KOs) for a WBA regional super featherweight title and is Red Owl Boxing's first in the U.S. outside of their headquarters in Houston, Texas.

“We’re very excited to even have her as part of our group and part of this promotion and signed with us,” Gabriel Fanous, Red Owl Boxing president, told The Ring. “She’s a Tokyo Olympian. She's a world amateur champion. She has a very long pedigree, and we really have high hopes for her. This is a great fight again. She's not afraid to take that smoke.”

Eliis, who is the younger sister of ranked welterweight Rashidi and middleweight/super middleweight Ronald Ellis, was a highly decorated amateur who won 11 championships, including the 2022 USA Boxing International Invitational, 2021 USA Boxing Elite National Championships, 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Boxing and 2019 Pan American Games. While her brothers were influential in getting her into the sport, she's very much on her own path.

“I started when I was 10 years old,” Ellis said. “I was playing football at that time, and I was being a little badass, fighting and all that. My dad was like, 'You’re going to the gym with your brothers? You ain't going to football practice as a punishment,' and I was like, ‘Oh, I like this. I get to beat people up without getting in trouble.' ...

"It's good to have brothers that box to see how they're doing in the professional world, but my story is way different from theirs because I’ve been with Team USA for a long time. I have more experience in the amateurs and have medaled in different tournaments. I’m riding my own wave.”

Ellis, 30, got a glimpse at the pro ranks earlier this year when she participated in the Team Combat League, representing the Philadelphia Smoke. The TCL is a league where each team has either 24 fighters or two fighters in every weight class, and they fight one or two rounds across the 24 rounds.

Ellis, of Lynn, Massachusetts, was nothing short of dominant, as she was named a First-Team All-Star after she won all 16 rounds she fought. With that success, she realized it was time to move on to the next chapter.

“I needed that experience without the headgear,” Ellis said. “That gave me a little tune-up to know what I'm getting into.”

Boxing is part of a juggling act for Ellis, though. She’s also working as a delivery driver for Amazon in Fitchburg, a town near Boston, and has to train in her free time while also working four 11-hour days a week.

“It's hectic,” she said. “I work from Wednesday to Saturday, from nine to eight. So I either gotta get up early to do my cardio before I go to work, and then after work, I gotta try to hit the gym, too. I only got like three days off.”

Ellis is hopeful that by next year, boxing will be the only thing that she has to focus on, and if her career moves as quickly as she hopes, she’ll have a world title to her name to go with it by her third or fourth fight. Any hopes of fulfilling that goal are predicated on her first making it past Salinas (27-12-6, 7 KOs), of Saltillo, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico, who has fought for a world title on four different occasions and has only been stopped once in her 17-year career.

“After I beat [Maria’s] ass, I'm gonna get up into the rankings,” Ellis said. “She's experienced all that, but I am, too. I've seen so many different styles and fought so many other females from different countries, it's not even a big difference from the amateurs and professionals, and they don't have the headgear. ... It's over for these girls."

The prelims begin at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Starfund, with the main card beginning at 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on DAZN.

Saul Sanchez (21-4, 12 KOs) vs. Edwin Rodriguez (12-9-2, 5 KOs)