Kerry Davis: “I’ve still got that hunger to try again.”

Kerry Davis: “I’ve still got that hunger to try again.”

In 2022, Kerry Davis narrowly missed out on a medal at the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships. The GB fighter appeared to have the world at her feet. The Cheltenham-born fighter has won medals elsewhere on the domestic and international stage. But she seemed destined for even more until fate intervened at the start of 2024.

“I’ve been injured now since January last year, suffering a concussion when competing in the first World Boxing competition in Sheffield,” Davis relayed to me. “I got hit in the back of the head in my quarter-final fight. I won that fight, but stupidly, I thought I was okay to box again in the semi-finals, losing to Panama, a three-time Olympian, and last year’s silver medalist in Paris.”

Boxing defines many. With it, they are complete. Without it, they are anything but. Something is missing from them. They become incomplete in many ways. Davis was one fighter who initially found life somewhat difficult without a sport that had been part of her life since she was fourteen.

“Life without boxing has been a strange one. At first, I was devastated by it because it’s all I’ve ever known since I started taking it seriously back when I was 18 and especially because it happened right at the beginning of an Olympic year. But I just tried to think it is what it is, and it was something that was out of my control. I’ve learnt through the years that injuries are a part of the sport, especially with the intensity and the regularity that we train at on GB.”

But eventually, Davis found herself and something else. But her sport is nevertheless never far from her thoughts. “I soon realised that this injury was something that I couldn’t train through or rush back, which I have done with so many before. So It took a while, but I came to accept it. I spent some time at home and just tried to switch off from boxing for a while. I ended up meeting my boyfriend of nearly a year now and it just proved to me that there is more to life and if you take a step back from training day in and day out other amazing things can enter your life. It was a real meant-to-be moment, and it just felt like things really do happen for a reason.

“Despite this, I still felt lost without boxing, and I felt I had no purpose in life. I became very unfit, and my weight gradually went up to 81kg, which doesn’t sound a lot, but anyone who knows me knows I hated it and have never been that heavy before.

“I went back to begin training in Sheffield again after the Olympics in September, gradually building things up bit by bit. It was going well, I was back to running, S&C, bags, and pads, and I would have been ready to start sparring when we came back in after Christmas this January. Unfortunately, my symptoms returned over the Christmas break so I had to dial things right back down again and go through the process of building things back up whilst working with GB and the support staff to get to the bottom of everything and manage my symptoms. I’m currently back to doing bags, so hopefully, only a few more weeks, and I will be ready to start sparring again. This time, hopefully, with no setbacks. It’s been a long journey but I’m grateful to still be in the GB set-up as my goal is still to compete in the 2028 Olympics as I feel I’ve got more to give and I’m hoping my luck will soon change. I know it’s not down to luck, but I’ve always given it my all, sacrificed, and worked extremely hard.”

Kerry Davis will hope that 2025 will be far more fruitful than the previous twelve months. Fleeting thoughts of that long-awaited comeback are already gathering momentum.

“Short term I’m looking to compete within the next few months and hopefully get a look in for the World Championships coming up this September,” Davis told FightPost of what she hopes the new year will bring her.

“It’s never been a dream of mine,” Davis says of the possibility of turning professional. “That’s always been the Olympics. But I’ve always said if the opportunity came, then I would take it. Never say never, but at the moment, I feel I have more drive and ambition to want to become a European, World, and Commonwealth Games Champion in the amateurs. With coming so close before with little experience, I’ve still got that hunger to try again and hopefully go that step further into medalling at these major championships. I’ll be 31 at the next Olympics, I’ve still got time to go professional after if I want to.”

Davis hasn’t lost sight of the support she has received from her sponsors during her extended absence from the ring. “I’m grateful for my sponsors, Maverick Stars Trust & the Stronghold Gym, for continuing to support me.”

At 27, Kerry Davis still has time on her side. A frustrating period is now hopefully a thing of the past. A fighter who seems intent on making up for lost time. “I didn’t start boxing properly until I was 18, so I’ve still got life in me,” the words of a fighter who firmly believes she still has plenty to offer her sport.