Mae Astbury: “We have been dealing with the unknown, so it has been difficult to know just how much to put into my boxing.”

Mae Astbury: “We have been dealing with the unknown, so it has been difficult to know just how much to put into my boxing.”

After twenty-four amateur fights and an amateur career that included a regional title and appearances at the National Championships, Mae Astbury decided the time was right to leave the unpaid ranks behind and turn professional.

“I think turning professional was always on the cards,” the Northwich fighter told me over Zoom. “I initially started boxing for the fitness side of it. It intrigued me. But because I was naturally athletic at the time, the coaches asked me if I would be interested in competing. I didn’t really think about it. It was an instant, yes. I loved the fitness side of it, and I love challenging myself. After that active first season, I had just fallen in love with boxing. We set out a five-year plan with what we wanted to achieve. By the time I reached 25, it was the time when we would be thinking of turning professional. That would allow us time to get some experience. Obviously, the GB pathway would have been great. But I didn’t have the experience or the time because obviously by the 2028 Olympics, I would be 29, and boxing might not even be in the Olympics by then. So that was a solidifying reason as to why we wanted to turn professional. We wanted to get as much out of the amateurs as possible, but it can be high risk and low reward. It was a clear decision to try and make a career out of boxing at an age when we already have a good amount of experience. Hopefully, in a couple of years, when I turn 28, I will be just coming into my prime, and I can then be a prospect, and I can be a contender.”

I initially contacted Astbury around a year ago. The process of turning professional had already started. But an unexpected development has cost Astbury a year of her boxing career.

“I was coming off the end of my amateur career in June 2023, which was a very active season. I then applied for my professional license, and it all seemed to be going very well. But then we hit a roadblock, which was my eyesight. I’d never had an issue as an amateur. We got the medical done, and we got declined by the British Boxing Board of Control. It wasn’t something that we thought we would be up against.

“We then spoke to a few other boxers who had the same issue, and we found about nocturnal contact lenses. You wear them at night, and basically, they flatten your eyes, and then you take them out, and my vision is now 20/20 in the daytime without any other aids. We got my eye health checked out, and it was just that my eye was a little too big. But it’s been a long process, and getting all the information and giving out the right letters and because it has now been over twelve months, we have had to put in for a new medical.”

The process is again well underway and nesting completion. The issues with her eyesight appear now to be over. A case of now waiting for everything to be signed off. Thoughts of having that long-awaited professional debut are again at the forefront of her mind.

But the delay meant a change of perspective for the 26-year-old.

“We have been dealing with the unknown, so it has been difficult to know just how much to put into my boxing,” Astbury told me. “Up until March, we had got to a really good level with my sparring. We had been sparring with Chloe Watson in preparation for her European title fight, which was a great experience to be involved in something like that. For me, it’s kind of like imposter syndrome because I only started boxing when I was nineteen. So, to be asked to spar with someone like Chloe with her kind of resume, I had to take a little step back. It just means all the hard work that we had put in was starting to pay off. I am not only sparring with these girls, but we are competing with the girls as well.

“It was all really positive, but then with all the problems with my license, we decided to stop sparring in March. We didn’t know when we would be fighting, so we didn’t want to keep putting miles on the clock. I want a long career, but if I am getting hit in the head consistently if we are not in preparation for anything, it’s just putting wear and tear on my body for no reason. It’s about education and the repeated hits to the head that can cause C.T.E. They used to say you only learn in sparring. But you see a lot of old fighters slurring their words. Every fighter loves fighting. That’s why we do it, but it’s about picking and choosing when you do it. I want a long career and my life and career to go on after I have stopped boxing. I don’t want my brain to not be as quick as it once was because we have increased the intensity when it hasn’t been worth it.”

Astbury hasn’t been idle with the extended delay. A fighter still ticking over, staying sharp and staying ready waiting for the call that will mean it’s all systems go for that long-awaited professional debut. Astbury will look to compete in and around the bantamweight ranks, a division that should give her plenty of domestic opposition when her professional career is finally up and running. If no further obstacles arise, that professional debut should come in March, and Mae Astbury will be looking to make up for lost time.