Sarah Liegmann: “Claressa is someone I really look up to. She is not only a great athlete, but she is also a great person.”

Sarah Liegmann: “Claressa is someone I really look up to. She is not only a great athlete, but she is also a great person.”

October 15th was a truly special night for women’s boxing. The established stars at the top of the card, a night that ended with that titanic struggle between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall. A fitting end to an iconic evening. The undercard featured the stars of the future. Olympians looking to advance a little nearer to headline status themselves. But the early preliminary bouts also had an array of talent that graced the O2 Arena in front of the die-hards who came in early to witness the opening bouts of the evening.

It was 5:30, an early evening start for Bec Connolly. Another night in the ‘away’ corner, a brave warrior who has carved out her unique role in this unforgiving business. The ‘home’ corner this time was occupied by a young potential star of the future, Sarah Leigmann, a former kickboxing world champion who has transitioned to boxing over the last few years. For Connolly, it was another losing night, for her opponent it was win number six. The unbeaten start to her new career continued. Over Zoom, Sarah told me how much she enjoyed the whole experience:

“London was amazing, and it was just fantastic to be a part of that fight card. Also seeing, for example, Mayer and Baumgardner at the official weigh-in and the Press Conference, the fight before the fight, it was so nice. Obviously Claressa and Savannah as well and meeting all the other girls it was just an amazing experience.”

The fight with Connolly, as with the rest of the all-female Boxxer card was delayed five weeks because of the sad passing of the Queen. For Sarah, it left her with difficult decisions to make. A fight already scheduled for a few weeks later, Sarah took the fight in innocence, a 10 rounds points win in her native Germany, but the win came at a cost. Having to peak for the original date in September, and then having another fight soon after, and then having to try and peak again to fight Connolly, Sarah found it too much and her performance suffered as a result, she told me:

“When the original fight was postponed when the Queen died I had to actually think about doing the other fight because of possible injuries and feeling too tired. I thought I’m fit now, I am ready to do this but I didn’t think about the 10 rounds. Everyone told me I need to think about that. But I thought I am young and fit, I had a lot of sparring and I had the preparation in the USA and I thought I could handle the 10 rounds. I have to say it was the best performance I ever had, but it was the mental stress. I think that was my peak, on that day. Afterwards, about three or four days after the fight I was in bed because my body was so tired. I didn’t even think this would happen to me. And then I had to train again and I could feel the power leaving my body. So I thought don’t push yourself too much. When I went to London, I felt my body needed a lot of time to warm up and I knew I was really tired and that I needed to save some energy. Mentally it was so tough, but it was a good experience to know I can handle things like that when all the energy leaves your body. But I would never do that again having two fights so close together. But I won the fight, obviously, I wasn’t happy with my performance.”

Sarah accepted she needed to rest her body. A few days off, before a gentle return to training, but thoughts are already turning to fighting in early 2023:

“I had three days totally off, but I am back training now, just slowly, but I will step it up at the end of November in early December so I can step back in the ring in January.”

Still new to the sport, many things are ongoing. Finding the right weight to be fighting at is more difficult than many know. An exact science, gauging how much weight to cut so that the body retains enough strength to compete effectively. Sarah is still considering her options in this area:

“I think super-bantamweight is my best weight. But I am up and down and I am only 20 and I am still growing. Over the last six months, I have gained a lot, so maybe I will go up or down. When I go back to the US next year I will start to work with a nutritionist, maybe the one that helped Mikaela Mayer and Claressa Shields with their fights. I think I am able to cut a lot but we’ll see.”

The night in London was extra special for Sarah. She is part of the same management set-up as her friend Claressa Shields who gave the performance of her life to be crowned the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. Seeing Shields in training, left Sarah confident her friend would leave London with a famous victory:

“I trained with Claressa before, we were together in Florida. I saw her training, I saw her focus. I think the postponement made her even stronger. In my heart, I knew Claressa would win the fight. She had such an amazing performance, and Marshall was amazing too. For me, it was the best fight that I have ever seen.”

For Sarah, the American superstar is more than a training partner. Friend, someone she looks up to and admires. They share a special bond:

“Claressa is someone I really look up to. She is not only a great athlete, but she is also a great person.”

Switching over to boxing from kickboxing was initially difficult for the unbeaten prospect. Getting away from the temptation to kick, and learning a new discipline altogether took time, but Sarah is now happy with her progress and her decision to leave her old sport behind. At least for now:

“At the beginning, it was really difficult for me to switch, to be honest. It is a different sport. My life changed completely, training is new. Everything is new, I had to change management, my coaches and everything. But in the last year, I think I really have found my way in boxing. I am really happy I made the decision to switch.”

Sarah isn’t ruling out a return to kickboxing in the future, or indeed a venture into the world of MMA. A solitary training session at American Top Team has offered food for thought, but boxing is now very firmly her immediate future.

The switch to boxing was formed out of a desire to improve her boxing skills for kickboxing. The early apathy and reluctance soon went away. A love for her new sport was eventually found, and when opportunity knocked, it was something Sarah couldn’t miss out on:

“I went to a boxing class because kickboxers are bad at boxing. It is just not something we learn that much. So I thought maybe I should find myself a boxing coach and get better at boxing. I didn’t take it seriously at first, I went maybe three or four times a month. But my boxing coach said I had something and said I was really talented and why don’t I come with us to an amateur tournament. So I had some amateur fights and then he got a manager for me. He said why don’t I think about quitting kickboxing because in boxing I would have so many more opportunities. In the beginning, I told myself I could do both, kickboxing and boxing at the same time. I then got onto the German National Team in boxing. And then in 2020 I had finished school and had the opportunity to go to the US with Mark Taffet, Claressa’s manager. He invited me to come to America, so obviously, I had to go. I trained with John David Jackson and he said why don’t I want to become a pro, he said I have everything you need.”

The early hesitancy to go full-time in boxing was eventually extinguished. A professional debut in 2021, a rapid-fire start in her new sport, Sarah is already 6-0, and is looking to spend more time in the US next year to enhance her career further. Ambitions are high, thoughts of a world title fight at the end of 2023 or the early months of 2024 are already in play. The young boxing hopeful is no stranger to world titles, with 17 world amateur kickboxing titles to her name in her previous sport, success is nothing new to her. Everything seems in place to replicate that success in boxing over the coming years.