Meg Kilroe: “Boxing has made me realise that there is something in me that I didn’t know was there. I have passed limits that I didn’t know existed.”

Meg Kilroe: “Boxing has made me realise that there is something in me that I didn’t know was there. I have passed limits that I didn’t know existed.”

I always say everyone has a story to tell. The joy is finding stories that need to be told. The story of Meg Kilroe is one such story.

From Franklin, Massachusetts, Kilroe told me that she didn’t have much of a story when I first approached her about doing an interview. How wrong she was. There is something quite remarkable about her life. Inspirational even. It is very much a story of perseverance.

“I have been athletic all my life. I played ice hockey at college. I was also an Irish step-dancer. But after boxing, I gained a lot of weight. So, I started boxing initially to lose some weight.” Kilroe told me over Zoom about her initial entry into boxing.

Despite competing in ice hockey and dance, boxing grabbed her the way other athletic endeavours didn’t.

“I think it is an individual sport, which besides dance, I hadn’t done before,” Kilroe says of the attraction of boxing. “Nobody else can do the work, but you. Boxing gives you a different kind of confidence. I am not a big fan of lifting weights and generic gym stuff. But I just loved the way boxing was. The woman who owned the boxing gym, her boyfriend of the time, used to be a professional boxer. So he said, “Would I ever fancy coming and trying a little bit more because you seem good at it?” So I ended up doing that. I just loved the drive and the push that you have to have to get through it because it is hard.”

There was no early interest in having a fight. Just a desire to lose some weight. “When I started boxing, I didn’t have any intention of having a fight. I was about 220lbs, and it was about losing weight. I wanted to get back to around what I was before, which was about 140.”

But just as her boxing life had begun its embryonic stages, near tragedy struck. Kilroe was lucky to survive a horrific car crash, but her survival was the catalyst for a change in her perception of what boxing was to her.

“I’d only been doing the boxing fitness for a couple of months. Then Covid happened in 2020, and I was working at a hospital. I was leaving work one night and going home, and then I got hit from behind, I guess but I have no memory of it,” Kilroe told FightPost. “I went through the windshield of my car, and I was only a couple of minutes away from my house. I fractured my orbital bone. I have a scar on my lip, and I broke my C6 and C7 in my neck and my L4, L5, S1, and S2 in my lower back. I was airlifted to a trauma centre. I have no memory of it, but I had no heartbeat, I had to be resuscitated. I survived, and I was there for a while. But because it was Covid, I couldn’t have visitors or anything. I was very frustrated while I was there. I wanted to figure this out so I could do just one fight. Just to prove that I could do it. I don’t know why, because I had never even sparred before.

“It happened in April 2020. I ended up moving back in with my parents because I needed some help with everything. Walking, changing clothes, showering, just everything. I started a rehabilitation program, and it was in the fall that I started doing a little bit more physical therapy. I did that until the spring of 2021. I then joined a boxing gym around that time, about a year after the accident. I then had my first-ever fight in September 2021. It was a lot sooner than everyone thought. They thought maybe a few years because I’d had a couple of surgeries.”

The first entry into the competitive side of boxing didn’t go particularly well, but with lessons learned, Meg Kilroe soon found her first success in the sport. 

“That first fight was horrible,” Kilroe says of her first experience inside a boxing ring. “I’d only sparred a few times, and my coach said to do one of those novice fights and see how you get on. I fought a girl with a lot more experience than me, and it was like a shell shock to me. I’d played ice hockey, which was really physical, but boxing was completely different. I lost. But it was a tournament, and that girl had to pull out, and they called me asking if I wanted to do it. It was scary, but I’d already just lost, so what was the worst that could happen? I did it, and I ended up winning. My goal from there was to see how much better I could get.”

Surviving that awful car crash in 2020 is nowhere near her first brush with adversity. Her ongoing health issues have given her a different perspective on her boxing life. Whatever Kilroe achieves in her boxing career is a bonus in comparison to everything else that she has overcome in her life.

“I was born with a hip disease, so I had a hip replacement when I was 19 because by then I couldn’t walk very well, and I had a lot of other health problems even before the accident. I am so grateful that I can even walk, so everything I do with boxing is extra to me. I would love to be a National Champion, I got a silver medal in 2023. I would love to be able to say that I was a National Champion. If I can accomplish that, I’ll see where I can go after that.”

There are already fleeting thoughts of turning professional.

“I have thought about turning pro just because my style is more of a pro-style,” Kilroe relayed to me. “I like picking my shots and walking someone down. I have sparred with quite a few professionals around 147, and I do alright with them, so I know it’s not out of my reach for me to be a pro. But I’m not yet 100% sure that is the route that I want to go down.”

Kilroe is inspired by the likes of Alycia Baumgardner and Katie Taylor. An admirer of the way Baumgardner has worked her way up to become a world champion despite not having an extensive amateur background. But it is Taylor who you sense is perhaps an even bigger inspiration to her.

“I know everyone says Katie Taylor, but it is the way that she carries herself,” Kilroe says of her admiration for the Irish superstar. “A lot of people look at me and say I am not a boxer because I am very feminine, reserved, and quiet. I think Katie is similar. I’ve met her a few times, she comes down to the gym and she is one of the kindest people. I’ll tell Katie that I have this fight coming up, and she’ll remember the next time I see her. She cares about other people in the sport, even if they have only had two fights.”

Boxing is an important part in the life of Meg Kilroe. A gradual evolution over the last five years. A sport that gives her so much. “Boxing truly is what gave me confidence in everything. It makes you feel fearless, and it takes everything to enter the ring and makes everything else in life seem less scary. I used to be very shy and anxious about social situations, and it’s built my confidence a million times over.

“Boxing gave me a different kind of discipline. I don’t do a lot of partying because I want to be in the gym. I want to be in the gym in the morning and I want to be in the gym after work. Even though I have played sports before and I was a top-level Irish dancer, boxing has made me realise that there is something in me that I didn’t know was there. I have passed limits that I didn’t know existed. I have never worked as hard in my life before. Nobody forces me to show up at the gym, I make myself do that.” 

Meg Kilroe has ever-changing ambitions in boxing. That desire to win a National Championship isn’t that far away. Kilroe reached the quarter-finals last month. She expects to go even further in 2025. Her story so far, indicates that she will do exactly that. At 29, Meg Kilroe has time on her side. Already ranked 8th in the country. The expectation is that she will go higher. A born survivor who has now turned into a winner in life.