Beyond The Ropes: Carmen Lynch

Beyond The Ropes: Carmen Lynch

It was just twenty-four hours removed from her first-ever visit to the Institute of Sport in Sheffield. A long trip to spar with the elite GB talent that resides in that famous gym. Carmen Lynch struggles to get quality spars in her native Wales as her reputation grows with each passing day.

“It was tough, but it was good,” Lynch said of her first visit to the Institute of Sport in Sheffield to spar with the GB girls. After just thirty-two fights, Lynch wasn’t out of her depth. “I was the least experienced, but I was still holding my own.”

It was a visit that gave her the pleasure of watching Caroline Dubois and Lauren Price share rounds together. That alone would have been worth those extensive miles on the road. It would also be the envy of many to have watched Dubois and Price go at it. But Lynch wasn’t there to be just a spectator. She did rounds herself with the likes of Karriss Artingstall and Vivien Parsons. Valuable rounds and experience for her ever-developing amateur career.

Born in Merthyr Tydfil in 2004, a little Welsh town with a renowned boxing heritage, Lynch has history to draw on for inspiration.

The highly-touted amateur initial entry into boxing by way of another sport and a desire to increase her fitness.

“I have played netball since I was quite young, and I wanted to get a bit fitter so I could run everywhere and go all over the court. I just used boxing for fitness in the beginning. My dad was a Welsh Champion when he was younger. So after about a month of going, he came to watch me, and he could see a few things that weren’t right and after a couple of months he took over training and it started to get really serious after that.”

Lynch found something in boxing that she couldn’t quite find in netball.

“Boxing is an individual sport. In netball, if we lost, I would blame everyone else. But in boxing, I can only blame myself. I can’t blame anyone else. It’s on me.”

But Lynch had an unflattering start to her new sporting life. An early resume that promised very little. But the progress and success eventually came her way.

“Five months before Christmas, I had twenty bouts, and I was 10-10,” Lynch says of that embryonic stage in her boxing life. “When I first started, I lost nine on the bounce. I then went on a nine-fight win streak. I then went to Poland and lost out to a World Championship medallist. I won two more fights and lost in a BoxAm by a split decision.

“With every fight, I got better. As my coach, my dad never got me easy fights. So I wasn’t losing bad, and I had to go over the bridge to get fights. I was losing on away shows in England by a split decision. I was just unlucky. At the start, I used to get really upset and cry. But then I got used to it, and I knew eventually it would change.

“I also found the perfect weight for me. I was doing 52kgs at the time, and after losing the nine fights, I had a baby, and nobody expected me to come back. I did come back and didn’t lose a fight for ages.”

Glasgow will host the Commonwealth Games in 2026. Carmen Lynch wants to be there. And she wants to go there with the intention of bringing that gold medal back to Wales.

“My main goal is the Commonwealth Games, which is only thirteen months away. The aim is to get as many international fights as I can and then hopefully then get selected. I would only go there to win. If you go there to get a bronze medal or just to get some experience, there is no point in going.”

While the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 haven’t totally been ruled out, a new world is probably more likely. “I’d probably look at turning professional straight after the Commonwealth Games. Turning pro is one of my main goals,” Lynch told FightPost.

The ambitions are incredibly high. They have no ceiling. “I will just keep going. I want all the belts. I want to look back on my career and to be able to say that I have done everything I wanted to do in the sport.”   

There is something very impressive about Carmen Lynch. Beyond confident without a touch of arrogance. Lynch could easily have given up after that uninspiring start. But she persevered and found much success. A British Elite Champion, a National Champion, and much more already litter her resume. In many ways, a story of perseverance. A potential star and then some.