Rebecca Cawley: “I have that itch to get back in the ring again and see where it takes me.”

Rebecca Cawley: “I have that itch to get back in the ring again and see where it takes me.”

Rebecca Cawley grew up in Ireland, had spells in America, New Zealand, and now resides in Perth in Australia. Cawley was once a promising amateur boxer, but university and life itself got in the way. But after fourteen years away, the 30-year-old is now on the comeback trail. A passion reignited, Cawley has found boxing once again.

Cawley was in Perth when I caught up with her over Zoom. The broad Irish accent is still heavily in play. The globetrotting years haven’t taken away the echoes of her upbringing.

“It was never the plan to end up in Perth,” Cawley answered when I asked how she ended up in Australia. “I took a career break to go travelling for a little while. I went to America, and then I moved to New Zealand with my friends, and I started teaching there. I taught there for two years, and then they moved back to Ireland. But I wasn’t ready to finish my travelling, so I moved to Australia and I have been here ever since. It’s kind of my new home now.”

It was back in her native land where her boxing journey started. “I was boxing in Ireland, around fourteen years ago, when I was sixteen, and I did it for just over a year,” Cawley told FightPost. “But when I went to university, boxing kind of stopped. I started going out with friends and drinking. So boxing went out of the window. But it was always at the back of my mind to start again. When I was in New Zealand, I wanted to start back, but I couldn’t find the right club. But when I came to Perth, I found an amazing boxing club, Ringfit, but I work in the mines, so it’s difficult to do boxing over here. I fly to work, which is two hours from Perth, and I stay up there for three weeks in a camp and work for twenty days straight, doing twelve-hour work days on a construction site. So, I used to say I am not fit enough because I can only train for one week every month. But then I decided to stop making excuses and just try and do it. It’s been good getting back in there.”

With all lingering self-doubt removed from her thoughts, Cawley has recently started the long road back. “I literally started taking it seriously about six weeks ago. I had a spar, and I got my head bit off. One of the girls said, “When are you actually going to fight again?” I just said I’m overweight and not fit enough or whatever. But she said you should come to the Australian Club Championships with us. She was kind of pushing me. So I asked my coach and he said if I lost 10kg in six weeks, I could go to Adelaide. So I flew back to the mines, and every single day, I got up at 3 am to train on my own. I lost the 10kg, flew back to Perth, and I had just over a week to train before going to Adelaide. I got there, I made the 60kg weight limit, but there was nobody in my division to fight me, so I had to go up and fight at 65kg. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the result I wanted on the day, but it was such an amazing journey to get fit again. I think it’s the fittest I have been since I was a teenager. It was a great feeling to be back in the ring. That was after just six weeks of training by myself. I want to take it seriously now and get back into it properly. I could do a lot better, and I need to put my head down and actually try.”

“I’m in two minds at the moment,” Cawley says of what could be next for her. “To go for the last fight, I tried to get time off work, I work three weeks on and one week off. But my company said either take the whole time off or no time off. So I took the whole time off. I haven’t worked for five weeks now, and I have enjoyed it so much doing the boxing every day. My boxing is starting to come together again. But I am torn between working in the mines and just training one week a month. Or do I just get a job in the city? I am going to make a decision on what to do because it is very difficult trying to do both. You are away for three weeks and feel as though you miss out on so much of your boxing. You can see everyone else improving, and you are staying at the same level. I need to make a decision because I have that itch to get back in the ring again and see where it takes me.

“I am loving boxing, being in the gym, and training twice a day. But I haven’t really thought past Adelaide. I just wanted to get back in the ring and see how it goes. I think I had more fun this time than I ever did when I was younger. I think it’s because I have been wanting to do it for such a long time, which made it even more special. But to be honest, I just want to get as many fights in as I can for the rest of the year. I want to lose a bit more weight and get down to 57kg and box in that weight category. I’ll take any fight and just see where the year takes me. If it goes well, I’ll really focus on my boxing and do it again next year.”

You can tell, even just spending a little time on Zoom, how passionate Rebecca Cawley is about her sport of choice. A love affair rekindled. “I started boxing when I was about sixteen. My parents couldn’t believe it; they didn’t want me to start. They never thought I would stick with it because they thought I was so lazy. I didn’t do it for just over a year, but when I went to university, there was no boxing club there. But it was always in my mind to box again. I remember watching the Olympics when I was 21, and I thought I would love to do it again, but I had such a bad mindset about being too old. But now, I love it. Everyone in the club is 30 years old. But back home in Ireland, I feel everyone is a lot younger in the boxing clubs. There is such a good atmosphere here, and there is a really good community there as well.”

“I just love the dedication and discipline you have to give to the sport,” Cawley adds when I dig a little deeper into why her words ooze such passion. “It’s very humbling as well. You might think you are getting good, but there is always so much more to learn. Always things to improve on. I got so addicted to it. I used to eat, sleep, and think about boxing all the time. I became so obsessed with boxing when I was younger. It’s the same again now. It’s so good to fall in love with boxing all over again. When I first came out to Perth, I put on a bit of weight. When I am working in the mines, I am operating a machine, and I am sitting down for eleven hours a day. I kept saying I wanted to lose the weight, but I felt I couldn’t keep the promises I made to myself. But boxing makes you do that. It pushes you to your limits. I wanted to do something hard this year. I felt as though I had been coasting for a little while. It’s scary getting into a ring, but it challenges you.”

Time will tell how the Rebecca Cawley boxing story will end. At 30, she has time, and you sense there is another chapter or two yet to write.