It's 6:30 a.m., and Penn State boxer Mannaa Mannaa, a transfer from Cairo University in his home country of Egypt, is already out of his room.

He's out for a run. He's rehabbing an injury sustained during his last bout. The purpose of this morning was to train for the national championships -- a tournament he will no longer be able to attend due to an administrative decision.

Then it's back to his room for a shower and out the door again. He has class at 9.

"When I was 10, my father went to Germany and France, and he kept telling me that Western culture is awesome. He made me love it. He made me think I really want to come here," Mannaa said.

"All my friends in Egypt, we had a vow that when I go to USA, that I would not box anymore, that I would drink and party. But this would prove to them that I came here and I won, and I kept doing boxing and I'm in better shape than I was then. I'm in the best shape of my life."

He's done more than merely win.

For someone who's wanted to come to the United States his entire life, he is making the most of his time here.

Just a few weeks ago, Mannaa laced up for the Eastern Collegiate Boxing Association (ECBA) Championships, more than 5,000 miles away from his home.

Today he stands as one of three Penn State boxers to qualify for the national championships. And before the decision by the Penn State Club Sports Office to no longer allow them to compete, he stood as a national-title contender in a foreign country, in a sport he has known all his life.

"I started boxing when I was 5 years old because my father was a boxer. He taught me how to fight," Mannaa said.

"He told me that [his father taught him how to box]," Penn State boxing coach William Bolar said about Mannaa's boxing history. "Mannaa is a southpaw, very unorthodox ... He has a little different style than I like to teach."

Unorthodox -- the word describes Mannaa perfectly, both here in the U.S. and in his home country of Egypt, thanks to two years here.

"In my country, we don't mix sweet stuff and salty stuff in food," Mannaa said. "Here you could put honey on chicken, we don't do that. We find that disgusting. I liked it; I like turkey with cranberry sauce. For us it's something, we can't accept it. When I tried it, it became my favorite."

He's now adjusted to the United States, thanks in large part to an area with familiar ground that was there constantly throughout his transition: the boxing team.

"Mannaa is a little bit of a mystery," Penn State boxing club treasurer Chris Picerni said.

"He has a lot of experience. He has different technique, different stretches, different everything. It's nice to see styles other than USA boxing. USA boxing is different than Europe, different from Africa. Mannaa has a style that no one else on the team really has. And when you watch him you can pick up things that you wouldn't have otherwise."

Picerni wasn't the only teammate of Mannaa's to express his gratitude for Mannaa's presence on the team.

"I think he makes our team more diverse," fellow boxing team member Anthony Liotta said. "He adds some spice and flavor."

Now years after first learning to box, in his senior year of college and well-adjusted to American culture, Mannaa didn't view the upcoming tournament as the end of his boxing career, rather the opening of a new chapter.

"I would like to, if there is a chance, for me to go to the Olympics," said Mannaa, who is not boxing for the glory, the fame, but for his own reasons. "I never thought about [boxing for Egypt], boxing is something for me. I don't really consider it for the country.

"To be honest, I'm boxing for myself, so I'm not really doing it the name of Penn State, in the name of Egypt. I'm doing it for Mannaa. I know it's a part of it, for the country, for the university. But when I'm in the ring I think about Mannaa."

The Olympics are a high goal to strive for, but with the right mindset and Bolar here to guide him, they really aren't that far-fetched.

"I want to make him work the art a little bit more, the art of boxing," Bolar said. "He likes to throw some hard punches."

Bolar views Mannaa as a work in progress -- his success to this point shows his potential, with his potential needing to be nurtured.

"He likes to get in there and beat the guy's brains out. In boxing you can't go in there with the mindset of beatin' everybody's brains out. You have to have a plan A, a plan B and a plan C. With the art of boxing, you have to keep learning what you can do with a good fighter and what you can't do," Bolar said.

It was perhaps Mannaa's style that got him in trouble at the ECBAs, where he finished second to the defending national champion in his weight class.

"He fought a very experienced guy. The guy looked like he really outweighed him whole lot. He was 22-2. I talked to the Army coach, and he said that nobody was gonna beat this guy, and that if one of his guys was matched up against him, he was gonna pull his fighter out. We weren't scared, and I told the guys, 'You're not gonna get hurt if you keep your hands high and move around,' " Bolar said.

Mannaa, unfazed by the caliber of his opponent, stepped into the ring and went to work.

"I think I was very good in the first round, but I couldn't fight in the second round because my left arm. I couldn't move it at all," Mannaa said.

With his arm on the mend, Mannaa looks forward to his next opponent, whoever that may be.

"I'm looking forward to facing the same guy I lost to the last time," Mannaa said. "And I'm gonna face him; he is the champion at 132 pounds. So for sure I will face him again. I want to face him again."

While the recent occurrences surrounding his participation at the national championships make the chances of that rematch look bleak, his mentality hasn't changed.

Today he waits, unintimidated, for his next tournament: his chance at redemption.

Tomorrow?

He'll be out the door at 6:30.