Emily Asquith: “Before turning over, I want to have completed everything I could possibly have done in the amateurs.”

Emily Asquith: “Before turning over, I want to have completed everything I could possibly have done in the amateurs.”

The entry into boxing often comes via another sport. Previous sporting careers in football and even dance are commonplace. But swimming, at least for me, is a new one. The Bridlington-born Emily Asquith was once a county standard swimmer, until, purely by chance, boxing came into her life. 

I caught up with Asquith over Zoom. A sparse-looking hotel room in Poland was the backdrop as the fighter on the comeback trail greeted me. A bronze medal had just been secured in the Feliks Stamm Tournament in Warsaw. Another little important hurdle negotiated for the light-heavyweight who had spent significant time on the sidelines.

“I have been out for two years with ruptured tendons in my thumb,” Asquith told FightPost. “I kept getting misdiagnosed. I didn’t get the right help, basically. But it finally got sorted last September. So I got myself back into competition. In April, I entered the National Championships, I won that, and I got sent to Poland around three weeks later.”

“Yeah, especially with being misdiagnosed all the time,” Asquith added when I asked if she feared her career might be over. “I was thinking the specialists looking at the injury didn’t know what was going on. If this was going to cause me a problem for the rest of my life or for the remainder of my boxing career, then what would I do about it, sort of thing.”

A Sheffield Hallam University student who was just a few days away from finishing her Sport and Exercise Science course. Asquith is also a teaching assistant. Her time is beyond precious. “I fit it all in by managing not to pull my hair out on a weekly basis,” Asquith joked. “I work as a teaching assistant, but on supply. I have got my final dissertation to finish, but I have been trying to fit work and boxing around testing. I work in a primary school, so I finish at 3:30, which gives me plenty of time to do my boxing after work. I try to do it by doing one thing, so it has minimal impact on something else. If I had a full-time job and contracted hours and no holidays to use, I couldn’t have gone to Poland. So, I have tried to put myself in a position where I don’t miss out on unmissable things. If I had missed out on going to Poland, I would have been devastated. I think I am managing ok.” 

As previously mentioned, Emily Asquith came into boxing by way of another sport. Luck, chance, fate, whatever you call it, Asquith found boxing. “I used to be a swimmer, and I was competing at Yorkshire level,” Asquith told me. “I am from Bridlington, and it was when I was living there. The leisure centre in Bridlington had a massive rebuild, so we had to swim at another pool, which was like a pop-up pool. The chemical levels weren’t great at that pool, and one day, the chlorine in there was all messed up, and we couldn’t swim there. My dad used to box for fitness, and my little brother boxed competitively, so I thought I would go and watch my brother, and I thought it looked like fun. I picked up a rope and started skipping, and then I looked at the rest of the session and thought I would enjoy this. So I gave it a bit of a bash. Someone found me a gumshield, and I had my first sparring session. The coach spoke to my dad and told him I was a bit of a natural at this. Eventually, I ended up quitting swimming, and boxing became my main focus point. If the pool hadn’t been messed up with the chemical levels that day, I would never have boxed.”

“Winning is fun,” Asquith says of what the attraction of boxing is. “A lot of enjoyment from the sport comes from the victories. But it is also such a heartbreaking sport at the same time. You can have a minimum two-month training camp all for just one fight. All that training for just nine minutes. When the fight doesn’t go your way, it is absolutely devastating. But when you do get the win, it is a reward for all the hard work. The boxing community is also so good. You get introduced to so many brilliant people. I have friends from all over the world in so many different countries.”

Asquith is now twenty-nine fights into her boxing journey. A three-time national champion. A two-time European champion. Before the injury that forced an extended absence, success was plentiful. But one moment stands out. “My first European Championships title. It was my first major title. I had to cut around 4 kilos, the amount of effort I had to put into the weight cut, and for then to walk away with the gold medal in my first major tournament was absolutely massive for me.”

Like many, Asquith is hoping to make the cut for the upcoming World Amateur Championships, which will take place in Liverpool in September. Asquith is confident of sealing her place on the team. “I think the performance I delivered in Poland, with the amount of time I have been out and even taking that out, the amount of progress I can make in the next couple of months, the World Championships are definitely on the cards.”

“Myself. I am going to be the biggest barrier,” Asquith added. “What I need to get there is stuff I need to work on. I know what I need to work on to reach that standard.”

There are already thoughts of turning professional. But the 22-year-old wants to achieve everything she can in the unpaid ranks first. “Before turning over, I want to have completed everything I could possibly have done in the amateurs. If I turn pro, which is something I want to do, I want no stone unturned on the amateur scene.”