Crystal Barker: “2024 was a big year for me. I’m enjoying the sport again, and I am excited for the future.”

Crystal Barker: “2024 was a big year for me. I’m enjoying the sport again, and I am excited for the future.”

The Salford-born Crystal Barker started boxing at a very early age. “I started boxing when I was 10, Barker relayed to me. “My sister wanted to start, so I just joined with her. I was into sports anyway as I used to play for Manchester United ladies until I had to pick which sport I wanted to do when I was 14 due to the training being on the same days. My sister lasted two weeks, and I just carried it on from there.”

The decision to pick boxing over a promising football career was a wise one. Success came relatively quickly for the 28-year-old. “I’ve had about 80 fights so far,” Barker told FightPost. “I got on GB when I was 16, so I travelled the world at an early age, which I loved. I won the junior Europeans, and I got a bronze in the Youth World Championships. I also won many Box Cups, Nationals, and GB Championships.”

Crystal Barker isn’t the first fighter I’ve interviewed who has made the switch from football to boxing. Despite its many faults and the obvious dangers, they seem to get something out of the Noble Art that they can’t get elsewhere. “I get a thrill from getting hit,” Barker says of what boxing gives her. “It’s hard to explain. I just love the sport. It’s made me become disciplined and independent from an early age, and to be honest, I would rather get punched than get my eyebrows threaded any day.”

But there is a side of the sport that many don’t see: the physical and mental stresses it inflicts on those who reside in it, especially on the relentless grind of the elite amateur set up in Sheffield. Despite her ongoing success, the sport eventually caught up with Barker.

“Because I got on GB when I was so young when I hit 20/21, it took a toll on me mentally and physically, and I just needed a break from the sport. Six years later, I was working full time struggling with my mental health and sitting at 85kg. I decided to go part-time in January 2024 to get back into boxing and give it one last shot with the help and support of my coaches at Hook and Jab. The comeback was on. I was going to go to the National Championships last year. However, I snapped my tendon in my thumb, and I was out for months. It was hard to take, but having built up resilience from my previous injuries and operations, I just got on with it. I had the opportunity to go on an open talent day in Sheffield and got on the England squad around June time which was great after being out for so long.

“I got boxing fit and had my comeback fight in December in the Winter Box Cup, which was a special moment for me after having had so much time away and thinking did I have it still in me. I boxed twice and won gold, and I haven’t looked back since. I will now be boxing in April in the National Championships.”

After so long out of the sport, Crystal Barker is very much back. A fighter intent on making up for lost time. But there are conflicting thoughts. A tough decision to make of whether she turns professional or chases Olympic glory. “I do want to turn pro,” Barker says of what could lie ahead. “But then I think, do I stay amateur and go down the Olympic route again? I’ve actually not fully decided. Whatever I decide to do, I just want to keep on enjoying what I’m doing. 2024 was a big year for me. I’m enjoying the sport again, and I am excited for the future, so watch this space.”