Daryle Mary Jobling: “My goal was always to go to the Olympics.”

Daryle Mary Jobling: “My goal was always to go to the Olympics.”

Around ten years ago, Daryle Mary Jobling seemingly had the boxing world at her feet. There were dreams of going to the European Championships, and there were even thoughts of competing on the Olympic stage. But then a serious knee injury that occurred in a routine sparring session ended all those hopes. And her career.

Born in Newcastle, the 25-year-old has now moved on with her life. But boxing is still lingering away. Her boyfriend fights. A gentle reminder of her past endeavours inside a boxing ring.

“I was literally involved in boxing from when I was two years old,” Jobling told me over Zoom. “My dad used to go to the gym, and I was kinda involved with boxing like that. I also did karate and kickboxing for years. But I gradually moved more into boxing.

“Growing up around boxing, I didn’t really know anything else. I was never like a girly-girl or anything. I loved doing everything I saw my dad do. I just thought I would get myself involved in martial arts, but with boxing, I was always so much better with my hands.”

Jobling had a beyond extensive career in the fighting world. Thirty fights in boxing, including winning a national title. Domestic rivals like Shona Whitwell, Shelley Sweeney and Ellie Scotney show the level Jobling was operating at. But there were also hundreds of fights in the world of kickboxing, and a British title lies proudly on that fighting resume.

The Newcastle native was aiming high when her career was cruelly cut short nine years ago.
“I was at a training camp for European selection in Sheffield. I was sparring and tore my ACL in my knee in 2016. I didn’t even go for the operation for two years after the initial injury because I had people believing I hadn’t torn it. Nobody would really listen to me. But I went to see the doctor and they told me I had ruptured it.

“I finally went for the operation in 2018, but I had an anaphylactic shock and went into cardiac arrest. I haven’t had it done because I have been a little scared from it.”

“I can walk on it because I have had it so long, I have really strengthened it up now,” Jobling says of how the injury is now. “I can’t rotate it or anything like that. I am a PE teacher, and I have problems demonstrating certain things; there are a lot of things I just can’t do.”

The career-ending injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for the aspiring fighter. “There was obviously nothing I could have done to prevent it from happening, but I fully believed I was going to get that spot to go to the European Championships, and I could have gone on Team GB. But it was just stripped away from me, and I had to watch all the other girls go on to all these competitions. My intention was always to go back to boxing, but obviously, I didn’t have the operation initially, and then I was too scared after what had happened.

“My goal was always to go to the Olympics because there wasn’t really a pro scene back then. It was never really a thing. I feel when I watch it now, and I see all the girls that I used to box with, that it could have been me. It is obviously every girl’s dream to fight on Sky or sign for Matchroom.”   

In many ways, the boxing story of Daryle Mary Jobling is a case of what could have been. A career taken away when it was just getting started.