Determination can let a person dominate circumstance as a boxer dominates an outmatched novice

Evidence

I had not always been lucky, had not always been blessed; but, illness aside, I had a savage and hidden faculty for managing my desires: for slapping and pounding fate, a rickety raw-faced amateur who should never have stepped into the ring with the hard-fisted likes of me. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 266

Categorization

• SEED: A vivid instance of self-portraiture through an extended boxing metaphor; shows how Mantel characterizes herself by an aggressive verb (slapping, pounding) aimed at fate.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 266
• XREF: connects to: Patience can outlast an opponent’s brief advantage — , A Year of World Stories, 3392; Athletic performance can be deliberate political action