I am the six times All-Ireland Champion Boxer, five times Leinster Champion Boxer, five times Nine County Champion Boxer and five times Kildare Champion Boxer and an ambassador for Teen-Line Ireland .   

I was selected to box for Ireland at the World Boxing Championship that took place in Taipei, Taiwan last May and it was the proudest and best experience of my life so far.

I also got selected to represent Ireland once again this time at the European Championships in Hungary in August last year, this year i went to Canada for a training camp and just came home from a duel match against 2 French champions which i drew the first night and won the second ,then i flew out to Switzerland and faught and won against the Swiss champion. Now i am heading to a a training camp in Spain to prepare for upcoming Competitions and I’m hoping you can help me.

In the beginning

At just six years old I tried nearly every sport possible and was not interested in any of them.

My mother became so fed up of me quitting sports after a week that she refused to spend any more money on sports.

She put me into a boxing for exercise class, as it was at the time only €1 every Tuesday and Thursday. When I joined I was told I had a natural talent and I enjoyed it, so I stuck at it and have loved it ever since.

I have many goals that I would like to accomplish, but all of my training over the last few years has all been for one big goal; I have always dreamed qualifying for the World Boxing Championships and representing my country – in May I finally got to do that.

My next dream is to follow in the footsteps of the one and only, Katie Taylor. I definitely have the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in my sights, but I know I will need more experience and more hard work will have to be done if I want to achieve this goal in five years time.

Boxing for Ireland

Boxing on the Irish team, I have been very lucky to have boxed in many countries across Europe

I boxed in Germany at the German Queens Cup and I earned a bronze. I boxed in Italy, England, France , Sweden, Taiwan, Hungary, Canada Holland and now Switzerland, and I have boxed in many Home Internationals, winning my fight against Sweden in the National Boxing Stadium in Dublin on Valentine’s Day this year.

I boxed in the Golden Girl Championships, which is one of very few competitions that are held for just female boxers: it is a massive event open to all female boxers in Europe.

The first year that I went over to Sweden, my mother had funded the trip to get me more fights as I had no competitive fights in Ireland at the time. This competition gave me my first experience of fighting at an International level and I found it pretty scary, but pretty amazing at the same time.

I fought the German Champion in the semi-final and I won on a 3-0 decision. Unfortunately the final against the Swedish Champion, who is ranked number 2 in the world, went to a 3-0 decision to the Swedish girl.

The following year when I went back again, I fought the world number 2 from Sweden in my weight again, and I lost on a 2-1 split decision.

Both times ended with a Silver medal for my country and hopefully next time I can bring home the Gold.

The number one highlight of my boxing career to date is hard to choose. Every year that I win my All-Ireland Championship title is a amazing, but the biggest highlight so far has been selected to go to the World Boxing Championships in Taiwan. 

My training

Boxing and I have an extreme love/hate relationship: as much as I love the winning side, the hard work, dedication and sacrifices that have to be made to get where you want to be are extremely hard. If you are serious about the sport, you have to constantly watch what you eat.

Coming up to competitions, I would have to train at least twice a day everyday and that is tough.

Although you may be in a club with a team and have the support of family and coaches, once you step into that ring you are on your own and it is up to you what happens next.

I enjoy training as it can be a stress reliever especially to help with the overload of stress from school and I would recommend any girl who has an interest and is willing to commit to boxing to join.

The feeling when you win is the most amazing feeling in the world, especially when you put so much hard work into it and every loss is a learning experience.

Where you come in

My parents always try their best to fund my boxing as much as they can and what I do not have I just do without.

Since Katie Taylor won Gold in London, there has been more funding put into women’s boxing, but, since boxing is the most successive sport in the Olympic Games for Ireland, we could definitely do with more funding into the boxing scene.

If there are any sponsors or supporters of boxing out there who are looking for a female boxer to invest in, I would be very grateful for any support given.

You can see from my achievements that I will make it count.

Thank you so much

Shannon Edge