WHEN Stacey Copeland started boxing she couldnโ€™t fight. โ€œAs a little kid when I was first into boxing and just absolutely loved it and lived it and breathed it. And then I found out obviously it wasnโ€™t legal,โ€ she said. โ€œI couldnโ€™t believe it.โ€

Her father Eddie was a boxer, her grandfather ran the gym and sheโ€™d been in there since she was seven years old. Yet it wasnโ€™t till she was 29 that she actually got to have her first competitive bout.

When she was a child she remembered another kid from Jimmy Eganโ€™s, whoโ€™d just won the North West region, coming to their gym only for his sparring partner to fail to appear.

โ€œโ€˜We need sparring for him,โ€™ [his coach said] and my grandad went, โ€˜We havenโ€™t got anyone.โ€™ Iโ€™d just been doing some little skills stuff with my mate,โ€ Copeland remembered. โ€œSo I was on the bag and I had my headguard on and he was like, โ€˜What about him?โ€™ My grandad asked who. โ€˜Him.โ€™ He went, โ€˜Erm, let me ask.โ€™ And he went over and said, โ€˜Do you want to spar, proper sparring, heโ€™s a good kid?โ€™โ€

โ€œYeah, yeah, yeah,โ€ she replied eagerly.

โ€œThereโ€™s just one thing, youโ€™re going to have pretend to be a boy.โ€

โ€œYeah, sound.โ€

So Stacey swaggered over to the ring in the way she thought a boy would walk. โ€œI was about 11 so you can kind of get away with it. I had short hair, I had my headguard on,โ€ she said. โ€œI had a top spar with him, his nose started bleeding, he got out. [After, his coach] came up and said to my grandad, โ€˜Whoโ€™s that lad?โ€™ and he went, โ€˜Erm, itโ€™s my granddaughter.โ€™ And he went, โ€˜Oh, donโ€™t tell him. Whatever you do donโ€™t tell him.โ€™
โ€œIt was mega having that experience so I knew that was what I wanted to do.โ€

But at that time women and girls werenโ€™t permitted to box competitively. โ€œOf course it was not long after that that me and my little group wanted to get carded, start having our skills bouts and all that and thatโ€™s when he said you canโ€™t. To me Iโ€™d done everything the lads did I so just assumed Iโ€™d box lads, I didnโ€™t think anything different. I was playing footie with them,โ€ Stacey said. โ€œI thought as a kid it would be fine. Because there werenโ€™t any girls anyway. I didnโ€™t know a single girl who boxed. That was it and it was dead confusing.โ€

The Amateur Boxing Association of England only lifted its ban on womenโ€™s boxing in 1996. โ€œI couldnโ€™t believe it when my dad and my grandad said I couldnโ€™t box,โ€ she said. โ€œFor me it was where I felt happiest and most myself, it was in the boxing gym and I always have. So it was just weird really as a kid.โ€

โ€œBy the time I got to that age I wanted to be competing and that was part of the enjoyment for me, competing,โ€ she added. โ€œIโ€™d have waited years to box because even once it was legal no one was doing it yet.โ€

She began to play football more seriously instead, eventually becoming an international. But as the years went by boxing gnawed at the back of her mind. She kept it up for fitness, before beginning to train with a view to competing. โ€œI had amazing experiences in football, got to go and play in America, Sweden and Brazil,โ€ she said. โ€œI always wanted a national title. I think because my dad had won the ABA title back in the day when it was at Wembley and heโ€™d boxed Terry Marsh and everywhere we went people said, โ€˜Oh, he was the ABA champion.โ€™ To me it was a massive thing. Obviously I used to go to the ABAs every year watching our boxers, the lads in my gymโ€ฆ So that was always what I wanted to do. I never lost that hunger and desire to want to know if I could do it as a boxer.โ€

She watched the womenโ€™s finals in Goreton and thought, โ€œI can definitely do this and I know I want to.โ€

In her first ABAs she reached the semi-finals, which she won, only to be laid low by a bout of E. coli. โ€œGod knows how. Iโ€™m sure it was off my dadโ€™s barbecue,โ€ Stacey laughed. โ€œI had a bit of salad, a bit of chicken and I was nearly dying. I kept training because I thought Iโ€™ve got to fight in this fight but I was just so ill I couldnโ€™t keep anything down. I should have boxed on the Sunday and on the Friday I actually collapsed. Got taken to hospital and I was in hospital all weekend on a drip and it was just so miserable. So the girl I beat in the semi went and won the final. I was pleased for her but I had to wait then quite a while, because we had the Europeans.โ€

Copeland won a European silver medal and got onto the GB squad before she won the Elite national championships in 2015. โ€œIt was actually a couple of years later that I ended up being able to win. But it was special because it meant me and my dad were the first father and daughter to win ABA titles and it was lovely having him in the corner,โ€ she said. โ€œThat ABA title meant a lot because Iโ€™d always wanted one. [It] came after the European silver medal oddly enough. So it felt like a lot of pressure. Also the day before, grandad had got diagnosed with cancer so there was loads going on at once. It meant a lot to him as well because he still came to the fight.โ€

But Copeland has also been bitterly unlucky. She was a successful international welterweight before that became a weight class in the Olympics. She turned pro but injury has now forced her to retire, just as the womenโ€™s professional sport is experiencing a new resurgence.

โ€œItโ€™s hard when you canโ€™t be part of that. When I got my licence, there was six of us, six UK professional females four years ago that was all. You could only ever imagine bringing someone over from abroad. Now there would have been fights for me here, which would have been just amazing,โ€ she said. โ€œThatโ€™s all gone now but itโ€™s hard but at least Iโ€™ve got to say what amazing opportunities I have had. That I got to box for GB at the Europeans and the Worlds, experienced being a professional and Iโ€™m always going to be massively grateful for that and for the people who made that possible for me.

โ€œThereโ€™s lots to be really, really lucky for. But itโ€™s an absolute sickener, isnโ€™t it?โ€

Her knee had broken down time after time. She had been hoping for a six-rounder to tune up for a world title fight. โ€œWhich was obviously my ultimate dream,โ€ Copeland said. โ€œIt was actually last summer in lockdown when it went again and it was just terribleโ€. Her boxing career was over.

โ€œI was in agony. It took weeks even to get back to walking and when I saw the doctor this time he said thereโ€™s a real risk for your long term mobility. I knew I couldnโ€™t get through a fight camp because every time I increased my training itโ€™s gone again,โ€ Copeland said. โ€œIt was just like massive loss. It was just like grief. I can totally understand why people feel that way when they finish, particularly sport.

โ€œThereโ€™s not many things that consume your whole being like sport does and then itโ€™s literally just gone. I know that nothing ever, ever will be the same as getting ready to fight, getting in the ring to fight.

โ€œThe first weeks were horrible because it was just a massive sense of loss and grief. And a part of yourself. Itโ€™s just massive. So I totally understand what other people go through.โ€

She might be an unsung trailblazer but she has had high points in her career. As well as the Copelands becoming the first father and daughter to become ABA champions, Stacey was the first British woman to win a Commonwealth title.

โ€œSome people have got to be first to do stuff. Being first to win the Commonwealth title was amazing, making sure there was a belt after that for future female champions was important. So in a way Iโ€™m glad those things happened to me because itโ€™s going to be better for the next ones coming through because of that. But being honest Iโ€™m a boxer. I want to win everything I can. I want to compete in everything I can. Missing out on the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games was always a massive sickener. Not having the belt after the Commonwealth title meant even though I had that moment I kind of didnโ€™t,โ€ she said. โ€œWinning the European silver medal had a profound impact on me. That whole experience of not just getting a medal but being around the whole team and the staff and the full GB set up was a phenomenal experience.

Stacey Copeland
Photo: England Boxing

โ€œTo come back to it all those years later, have those amateur experiences and then make my debut as a pro boxer was absolutely unbelievable and in my home city of Manchester as well, it was amazing.โ€

She won her Commonwealth title in Zimbabwe, another unique experience. They visited schools, a childrenโ€™s home and did pads demonstrations. โ€œIt was a great experience, the people we had with us like Alex Matvienko, Nigel Travis and my coach Blaine Younis were just superb because they are coaches that put the boxers first no matter what and theyโ€™re so experienced and they remember what itโ€™s like to box themselves,โ€ Copeland said.

โ€œI knew Iโ€™d won the fight. Whether you get the decision is different, we all know that. I thought Iโ€™m not in my back garden here,โ€ she continued. โ€œIโ€™d go through every single thing Iโ€™ve been through in boxing to have that moment a gazillion times because there isnโ€™t anything like it.

โ€œFor at least a couple of hours the lump on my head, the massive golf ball on my hand, all the aches in my ribs just disappearedโ€ฆ Itโ€™s amazing what a bit of euphoria does for your injuries.โ€

While she canโ€™t compete anymore herself, she is already broadcasting with BBC radio in Manchester. โ€œIโ€™ll definitely be involved in sport in general because Iโ€™ve never ever changed in my belief of its power to do good. I think itโ€™s just got a phenomenal power to have an impact on people,โ€ she said. โ€œWhether thatโ€™s in a charity way or a whatever way.โ€

โ€œThrough my sport experience Iโ€™ve been able to do that, going to the refugee camps and doing boxing and sport with the kids there, in the favelas in Brazil where we played football with some of the kids in the childrenโ€™s centres there. In America I went to a juvenile prison once and attempted to set up a game of football and very quickly stopped, โ€˜letโ€™s do no contact!โ€™ Very quickly realised it wasnโ€™t a good idea. Incredible experiences. Iโ€™ve seen sport make a massive life changing difference to people. Whatever way I can be a part of that, I will be,โ€ she said.

โ€œLook at amateur boxing, itโ€™s run 99 per cent by volunteers, who give their love and energy week after week, night after night after, for free, just to help that kid along, or help the community or provide somewhere for kids to go. And then on top of that youโ€™ve got your refs, your judges, your timekeepers, your corners. All these people that we couldnโ€™t do it without, who all make it possible for the likes of me and everyone else to get to where we got to in the end. So itโ€™s important to give that back. Not just whilst youโ€™re boxing but certainly after and try and help other people have even half the experiences Iโ€™ve had or hopefully even more and do even better.

โ€œThatโ€™s what you want to be part of.โ€