Amy Broadhurst, the Irish world champion who switched to GB, has returned to the gym to resume her pursuit of Olympic glory.
Broadhurst is coming back to boxing just months after the birth of her first child.
She is determined to win a place at the 2028 Olympic Games and show that even though she’s a new mum she can realise her dreams at the highest level.
“People automatically presume because you’re having a baby that that career is finished,” Broadhurst told Sky Sports. “When he’s older and looking back at what I’ve done, I’m hoping he’ll be very proud.”
“One of the people I actually reached out to was Natasha Jonas because she was the only one I could think of who had a baby and came back to boxing.
Maternity leave is not typically part of boxing’s compensation structure. “They [GB] have something put in place now which means you’ll be funded even when you’re pregnant,” Broadhurst said.
“Every system is different. It’s good to be in a system that actually supports you like that.”
Amy Broadhurst won gold for Northern Ireland at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham
But returning to training so soon is difficult. “Especially because I had a C-section as well. That didn’t make the recovery any easier,” she said.
“You’re among a lot of talented boxers who are fight ready and along comes me who’s just had a baby and hasn’t been in the ring in 18 months. In my head I was still at the level I was 18 months ago and then you have a bit of a rude awakening.
“It’s a weird one because your brain is telling your body to do something and it’s just not working. But I can see as the weeks have gone on the fitness is coming and the sharpness is coming back to where it was.”
It is a great sacrifice being away from her baby. “When it comes to Wednesday and he’s not with me, that’s when it hits. It’s going to be very difficult when I go away to a competition for the first time and he’s not there with me,” Broadhurst said.
“GB have been brilliant in allowing and accommodating things to help me.”
That has reinforced her decision to leave the Irish set up to join the GB squad.
Broadhurst, a world gold medallist in 2022, enjoyed plenty of success representing Ireland. She also has deep roots in Britain, her father was born in England and she previously boxed for Islington Boxing Club, for whom she won the England national elite championships.
Broadhurst now represents Great Britain
“In 2024 when I made the switch, what I needed in that time was a lot of support and people to lean on and people I could trust,” she said of GB. “They made me feel really welcome and they made me feel real confident in myself.
“They still actually believed I could be an Olympic medallist for them.”
Broadhurst didn’t qualify for the Paris Olympics in 2024 but watching it still filled her with confidence. Imane Khelif, who was at the centre of an eligibility controversy, won the welterweight gold medal. It was Khelif whom Broadhurst beat in the final when she won the world championships in 2022.
“I beat her to become world champion and it was a special day for me. I think she’s a great boxer. From what I can remember in that fight, the first round was close and then the second and third I dominated. I think I won both rounds 5-0 and there was a 10-8 in there somewhere too. She’s obviously come a long way since then,” Broadhurst said.
“[Beating] Khelif wasn’t a fluke,” she continued. “So when I sat back I thought: you know you’ve had a rough run of things but the results have shown that I am capable of being up there with the best. That’s probably one of the reasons why as soon as I got pregnant I said I will come back.
“I know what I’m capable of doing when I’m 100 per cent.”
A world champion, now a mother and dual-nation international, Broadhurst’s boxing nickname remains “Baby Canelo”.
“That’s been 10 years in the making,” she laughed. “I really like watching him, I became a fan of him and the girls in the Irish team started shouting ‘Canelo’ when I was boxing and then my dad turned around and said ‘Baby Canelo’ and since then it stuck.”
Watch Terri Harper fight Caroline Dubois for the WBC and WBO world lightweight championships live on Sky Sports on Sunday April 5
