Beyond The Ropes: Morgan Baber

Beyond The Ropes: Morgan Baber

Morgan Baber is a former gymnast who wanted to find a sport that gave her something different. She found boxing and, after a short period away, is now on the comeback trail and looking at joining the world of professional boxing.

The 22-year-old was born and bred in Bristol. Baber still lives there, she tells me over Zoom. She was my second interview of the day and the second fighter to tell me that she came into boxing via the world of gymnastics.

“I was an acrobatic gymnast, and I did that from the age of through to when I was 16,” Baber says. “I started boxing when I was 14, but the two sports couldn’t combine, really, so I had to pick one or the other.

“One day, I was on Instagram, and I was watching another gymnast actually that I followed, and she was doing some pads. I saw her and I thought that was quite cool to see a girl doing that. I’ve never really seen it before. I asked my dad to take me down to a boxing gym, and he just laughed at me and said there was no way I was going to box. I asked him again two weeks later, and he took me down to a gym in Avonmouth. He just dropped me off at the door and left me to it.”

Baber did stick to it. Like many fighters, her parents have mixed feelings about her competing in boxing.

“My mum doesn’t like watching me boxing at all,” Baber told me. “My sisters don’t really either. My dad has got a lot of faith in me, and he believes in me. But when I get in the ring, his teeth are shaking. He’s just as nervous as I am. But he knows I can do it.”

The attraction of boxing varies from fighter to fighter. But for Baber, it is the individual nature of the sport. In simple terms, everything is on her.

“It was something I could do for myself. In gymnastics, I was in a team, and I had to rely on other people. I worked quite hard, and I felt like other people were letting me down. I wanted to do a sport where I could push to be the best that I could be. I work hard, and I will get out what I put into it. I wanted a sport where I could do that.”

“You are pretty crazy to want to be punched in the head all the time, aren’t you,” Baber added when I asked what she got out of boxing. “I just love everything about it, even the dieting and making the weight. It’s just so rewarding. Like I said, you get out what you put into it. There is no other feeling similar to it.”

“I have been out of it for a couple of years, I used to box every couple of months. But I have only had two fights in the last few years. You get to an age where work comes into it. I am a dental student, so that was a big part of it. There is no feeling like it and you can’t get it from anything else, and I have missed that feeling.”

Morgan Baber had sixteen fights before life got in the way, and she had to take a little time away from the sport.

“My dad used to take me to a lot of training sessions. He is self-employed, so that was starting to get in the way a bit. Training times started to clash with my work as well. I had to get two buses to get to training after work every day. If I finished work late, I would get there with only twenty minutes of my session left. So it was getting a bit pointless. I didn’t want to go back in the ring without the full training that I was doing before. But I’ve finally passed my driving test, so I have been back at the gym ever since.”

Baber never represented her country, but she was on the England set-up. She won medals on the National stage. It’s fair to say that her career was on the up before taking time away. It was her talent that saw much frustration early in her career.

“In my first fight, I broke the girl’s nose in the first twenty seconds,” Baber told FightPost. “But from then, I couldn’t get another home show because nobody else would fight me. So, I had to go straight into the Championships. In my 3rd fight, I had to box a girl who had had twenty-three fights.”

Even from the fifteen minutes we spent on Zoom, it’s extremely easy to tell that boxing forms a big part of her life. A life that she has missed over the last few years.

“I have never gone out and got drunk or smoked. I always like to have a routine. My life has always been sport. So, being out of that environment just doesn’t feel right. So it’s nice being in that routine again.”

Now that Baber is back within the boxing world, there are short-term goals on the amateur scene, and a desire to one day move over to the professional ranks.

“I’m hoping to be back with England in the next couple of months. So, hopefully, before the end of the year, I will be back on the England scene. I want to compete in the Haringey Box Cup and the National Championships later this year.

“I would love to turn professional, I wouldn’t like to finish boxing without first trying it. I would get in the ring with anyone and fight anyone. I want to be the best that I can be.”