Chesterfield boxer with world title aim set to make professional debut – and searches for sponsors to help ‘live her dream’

Amy Greatorex, 36, is a boxer from Chesterfield. After a successful career as an amateur, she is preparing to make her professional debut in just a few weeks time.

Amy said: “I’ve had 33 amateur bouts, boxing across the UK, Ireland and Sweden, and I’m about to have my professional debut at the Barnsley Metrodome on December 9. I’ve been waiting for a year to get my licence from the British Boxing Board of Control. There was a big mess up there, but I’ve finally got that all sorted now.”

Perhaps Amy’s biggest battle, however, is that to secure the sponsorships she needs to progress as a professional. She said that, especially at this early stage, boxers have to invest significant amounts of money and make very little back from their bouts.

“There’s very little return when you first go into boxing. You have to sell your tickets, and out of that, so much goes to promoters, paying for your opponent, and a chunk to my manager and coach as well. You don’t actually get paid until you’ve had the fight, so everything before that comes out of my pocket. That includes training, travel to my gym in Sheffield and for sparring across the UK, as well as my kit and fightwear.

“The amount of training I do means that things wear out quickly – boots and handwraps and things like that only last so long. There’s supplements and meal prep too – a lot of money goes into ensuring you’re getting the right food. I’m also self-employed as a personal trainer, so when I do have to take time out, I’m not getting paid. I don’t get paid for sickness or holidays. Now that I’m coming into a camp, my team want me to train more often, so I’m going to have to take more time off before the fight.

Amy said that sponsorship would allow her to focus solely on rising through the professional ranks – rather than worrying about retirement before achieving her dreams.

“Getting some sponsors in would be amazing. It’s one less worry, it means I can put my all into it. At the start of boxing, you need to be able to get out there, fight and get the wins under your belt. Female boxing is a smaller pool of fighters, so there’s a lot more chance to progress and it's a quicker route towards titles than it is for men. If you don’t get those fights under your belt first, you don’t get that opportunity, so to get these sponsorships at the beginning would be a weight off my mind in terms of whether I’ll have to give up boxing or not. It does come down to money, and if I'm not earning, it gets to a point where you have to weigh up whether to continue – but I want to be able to live my dream and get as far as I can in boxing.”

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Amy said that sponsors will get their logos on all of her kit, as well as gaining publicity through social media and televised fights.

“I’m with a company that helps look for sponsors, and they’ve said that a one fight sponsorship deal is £500. That gets their logo on all my kit, social media and mentions and shares. I’ve got quite a few followers and friends on social media and I share my sponsors regularly, as do my manager, coaches, family and friends. If a company wants to sponsor me for more than one match, then they’ll get more out of it. My first fight isn’t on Fight Zone TV, but a lot of them will be, which has over 30,000 subscribers at the moment. My fights and the company logos will be seen on TV. A lot of people like watching women boxers – it does attract a lot of people. It’s very popular, there’s always a show on and it always gets a lot of attention.”

Amy added that eventually, she hopes to secure a world title – proving to people that they can overcome adversity and fulfil their goals.

“My team think that in five fights time I could be going for a Commonwealth title. I’d love to get a world title and they believe I can push for that – my style suits professional boxing much more than amateur boxing and I’ve come on leaps and bounds since I moved gym. I want to try and get as far as I can, while I can. I want to show people that it’s doable. I’m just a lass from Chesterfield and at one stage in my life I was overweight, had no confidence and not much sporting ability at all. I used to be a size 18-20, I started losing weight myself and then became confident enough to go into a gym.

“I loved boxing and finally had my first amateur bout just before my 30th birthday – now I’m about to have my professional debut and my team thinks that I can go far.”