Mia Holland: “Boxing makes you challenge yourself. I like to push myself and achieve things, and boxing allows me to do that.”

Mia Holland: “Boxing makes you challenge yourself. I like to push myself and achieve things, and boxing allows me to do that.”

“It was a great experience. I hadn’t been in the ring for over a year. My last amateur fight was last year, so it’s been a while since I have stepped into the ring. But it was a good feeling to get back in there and get the ring rust off.” The opening words of Mia Holland.

Holland is now up and running in the professional ranks. A comprehensive 40-36 points win over the veteran Slovakian import Klaudia Ferenczi in December in Walsall ended a difficult time in her boxing life.

In many ways, Holland has had a frustrating period of late. The process to get her British Boxing Board of Control licence granted was a long one, she told me over Zoom.

“The medicals took a few months with all the blood tests, the scans, and everything else. It took a year for me to get my licence.”

Holland isn’t the first fighter to tell me about controversial decisions that went against her in the amateur ranks. A side of the sport that is still very much plagued by politics and more. Holland had simply had enough.

“In my last few amateur fights, I wasn’t getting the decisions. After my last amateur fight, it knocked me down a little bit, so I had a little bit of a break,” Holland told FightPost. “After so many bad decisions, it does knock your confidence. So I thought I would try the pro game.

“I wanted to win titles as an amateur, but I never really had those Olympic aspirations until I got a bit older. I started boxing when I was twelve, just for fitness, really. But I then started to win titles and boxing for England. It all then took off. But I then got to a point when I was getting those bad decisions that I couldn’t get to a higher level.”

Despite the perceived bad decisions that didn’t go her way, Mia Holland still achieved plenty in her amateur run. Thirty-two fights. A four-time National Champion. Tri-Nations Champion. And more.

Holland looks up to and is inspired by Katie Taylor. “I remember watching her documentary. Katie is very inspiring, and her story is very motivating.” Like Taylor, boxing is in the blood. It was perhaps always inevitable that Mia Holland would find her way into boxing.

“My family is all around boxing,” Holland told me. “All my cousins’ box and my dad used to box when he was younger. and my younger sister got into it, and then I thought I would have a go at it. Back then, everyone thought it was a boy’s sport and girls couldn’t box. But I went to a boxing gym and after a few sessions, I thought I really liked this. As soon as I started training I fell in love with the sport. And it just went from there.”

Holland works Monday-Friday. A tough, relentless schedule. But one that she seems to embrace.

“I work full-time in a Special Needs School. I do my boxing and my coaching alongside that. When I am in camp, I have to get up early to go training before work and then train some more after work. It is intense, but I get a good balance with it all. I do like to keep busy if I sit down for too long, I get bored.”

The 20-year-old will be guided by BCB Promotions on her professional journey. A Midlands fighter being guided by a local promotion is a smart move. Regular activity should follow that particular hook-up. But Holland has plenty of time to forge a long and successful career. There is no rush for the 1-0 flyweight hopeful.

“I just want to build myself up and keep improving. But I do want to reach title level if I can.” Holland understands there is no rush. A sensible approach to learning her craft.

You sense boxing is an important part of the life of Mia Holland.

“It makes me feel better mentally and physically as well,” Holland says of her involvement in the sport. “When we do a session, we always have a laugh. Boxing makes you challenge yourself. I like to push myself and achieve things, and boxing allows me to do that.”    

Holland is looking to have professional fight number two in the spring. Already, she looks like an interesting and exciting addition to the ever-expanding female roster.

Photo Credit: Manjit Narotra/MSN Images