Georgia O’Connor: “It has always been my dream to fight in Ireland and rekindle my heritage over there.”

Georgia O’Connor: “It has always been my dream to fight in Ireland and rekindle my heritage over there.”

It was a night of the utmost importance for women’s boxing. A sold-out O2 Arena. An all-female card. A reported two million viewers on the Sky platform. But that October night was also the start of frustration for several of the fighters on that historic card. Georgia O’Connor being one of them. O’Connor impressed on the undercard, moving to 3-0 as a professional in beating Joyce Van Ee over four rounds. It looked like the start of big things for O’Connor. But she hasn’t fought since. We exchanged messages, and there was hope, O’Connor even accepted a fight with Jessica McCaskill, but with every sign of flickering hope, came disappointment. Eventually, O’Connor lost hope herself. She started a full-time job, and it looked like her promising boxing career would slowly fizzle out, even the fighter thought it might be over.

“The last time I was speaking to you I was thinking about jacking it in and concentrating on work,” O’Connor told me over Zoom. But one call from Sam Jones has seemingly saved that career of much promise.

“But now everything has changed, I am over the moon and I couldn’t be happier.” A delighted and excited fighter who couldn’t stop smiling from her change of fortune.

Jones has given the career of the unbeaten North East prospect some much-needed life. Very quickly when all hope seemed lost, O’Connor was back in the sport she has graced since her impressive amateur career. A promotional contract with Conlan Boxing was quickly secured. It seems a perfect fit, with a family connection, Ireland will be her new boxing home for the foreseeable future. O’Connor will return on August 4th on a Conlan-promoted show at Falls Park. From an early age, it seemed as though the stars could align in this way:

“I always remember watching Michael Conlan in the Olympics and then shadowboxing when I was twelve. So it has always been my dream to fight in Ireland and rekindle my heritage over there.” O’Connor said, you sense someone still trying to process her sudden change of luck.

But it’s been an incredibly frustrating period for O’Connor she told me:

“It’s been unbelievably frustrating you have no idea. I was supposed to be boxing in December on Sky, but that fell through. Then I had dates in March, May and June, and they all fell through. But then Sam Jones got in touch and within 24 hours he got me a new deal. Sky and Matchroom are the biggest platforms in the country but they have so many female fighters and a lot of them are in the same boat as me, and I think a few of us just got fed up in the end. So I thought why not try something different and build an entirely new fanbase in Ireland. So I thought I would give it a shot and just see how it goes.”

O’Connor told FightPost that she will return as a super-welterweight on her return in August:

“My last fight was at welterweight and I think that was my best performance so far. But I feel better at super-welterweight, I look a lot better with a lot more muscle on my shoulders. I’ll take the first few fights at super-welterweight to get back into the swing of it and then see where it goes.”

It does seem all the frustrations are now a thing of the past, and O’Connor will look to pick up where she left off last October. She wants titles, but after her recent tribulations in her sport of choice, you feel other things are a little more important to her now:

“I just want to be happy. Getting out there inspiring others and maybe by the end of next year have a title or two, that would be nice.” If Georgia O’Connor lives up to her undisputable potential, she will inspire many.