Age: 40
Division: Welterweight
From: Liverpool, Merseyside
Stance: Southpaw
Record: 16-2-1, 9 KOs
Titles: IBF and WBC welterweight champion, former WBC, IBF, WBO super-welterweight champion
Trained by: Joe Gallagher
First ever boxing memory
I always used to go to the boxing with my dad, but at that time, I was just a kid, so I didn’t really take it all in. It was to watch the likes of Michael Brodie and Shea Neary. But I spent most of the night sitting on my dad’s mate knee listening to his stories because he was a really good storyteller.
So, he didn’t get to watch the boxing that night either. But the first one I remember really watching and scoring the fight was the second Chris Eubank Nigel Benn fight. That is the fight that sticks in my mind.
What has boxing given you?
From school, I haven’t really got any qualifications, so boxing has literally given me everything. It has opened a lot of doors for me that maybe wouldn’t have opened. I sit on a lot of panels where people have gone to university and gone through that route.
I sit on parliamentary groups as well where people have gone through the academic route. It’s opened a lot of doors that I never thought possible. It has given me a platform and a voice that people want to listen to. It’s given me the financial freedom to be able to provide for my family.
I know that I am very fortunate to do that because I know not every boxer can. It’s given me direction. Boxing has given me strength. It’s given me character and has helped shape me into the person and the woman that I am today.
The thing you are most proud of..
It goes without saying my daughter. But also my family when and how they talk about me to other people. They tell me how proud they are of me.
Who inspires you the most and why?
Again, the baby inspires me to be better and do better and to see more than what’s in front of you. But the person who inspires me the most has to be my nan. She has always been someone I have looked up to, loved, cherished, and idolised. You can’t fault the woman that she is.
Everything that she has been through. A hand grenade once got thrown through her window, and she lost half her leg and a finger. But she always picks herself up and gets on with it. She doesn’t hate anyone or hangs onto negativity. There is no badness in her. She gives love to everyone.
What would you change to make the sport better?
I’d like to change the scoring. Remove all the red tape that there is to get you to the next level. You have to do this and do that. I’d like to change the power that the board, promoters, and managers have over the athletes who are the most important people in the sport. But they are the least protected.
I’d like to change the doping policies. I’d like to change the pay structure. I would like fighters on the small hall shows to get the opportunity to be on TV. I would like more boxing to be back on terrestrial TV and not just on Channel Five.
How do you see your life after boxing?
Hopefully, something with a lot of food involved. Boxing has been such a big part of my life, so I will probably be involved in it at some level. I don’t know if I have what it takes to fully commit to becoming a professional trainer, but I would definitely go back to the amateurs and do that.
I would like to work with the Board and the governing bodies to make the sport better for women. I would like to continue working with Sky. I’d like to think that is my future after my boxing career ends, not just in boxing but in other sports. But also taking whatever opportunity arises.
