Avril Mathie: “I don’t think there is another boxer who had more fun with their journey than I did. I am at peace with it all.”   

Avril Mathie: “I don’t think there is another boxer who had more fun with their journey than I did. I am at peace with it all.”        

In many ways, it was a decision that was a long time coming. A reluctance to call time on a boxing career that had given her so much. A world title challenge against Ebanie Bridges in 2023 was hers until an injury forced the cancellation of her dream opportunity. Avril Mathie gave everything and more, trying to rekindle what she hoped wasn’t lost. But her body was telling her enough was enough, and when her mind accepted that also, Mathie called time on her boxing career. And found peace.

“It was a long decision, more than a hard decision, I would say,” Mathie told me over Zoom. “Once I had weighed up all the pros and the cons, in the end, it was the only decision. I guess when you have visited every avenue, it makes it a little more peaceful.”

Mathie hasn’t yet disclosed the nature of the injury that forced her out of that IBF world bantamweight fight with Bridges, which was scheduled for the end of 2023. “I had that injury over a year ago that took me out of the world title fight with Ebanie Bridges. I haven’t talked about that yet, but I will at some point. It put me out for a good year.”

Mathie didn’t lose hope that boxing was still part of her future. But repeated injuries and a realisation that boxing has another side to it convinced her that it was time to leave her sport behind.

“I have been trying to come back for the last six months,” Mathie relayed to me. “But coming back has been injury after injury. It’s not the same injury, but other things. It got to a point where it was very frustrating because there is nothing I want more than to fight again, but in the year off from boxing, I had the best year of my life. I discovered other things that were fun and enjoyable and gave me purpose, and they were fresh, exciting adventures. I didn’t make any real commitments because, in my mind, I was coming back to boxing. But it opened my mind a lot to other possibilities for me that were exciting. After having that year off and not really working, I have never been more motivated to make some progress. I really did hope that it would be in boxing. But when it was injury after injury, I don’t think there was more than a two-week period when I was able to be in the boxing gym. I was still training, but I had to keep taking time off, and it just felt so stagnant, and I was just tired of it.

“When I started sparring again, I was obviously taking shots to the head, and I was feeling a little bit shaken up after the sparring, which is normal after not getting hit in the head for so long. But the more I thought about it, that’s normal. That’s how I always feel. After so long off, you start to realise the downside of it and the brain injuries. When you are younger, you think you are invincible.

“I listed all the reasons I wanted to stay in boxing and all the reasons why I wanted to move on. I read it to a few people, and I realised the one thing I left off was brain injuries, which should have been the most important thing and at the top of the list. Like I said, when you are young, you think you are invincible, but as time goes on, you realise you are not, and there is more to life. Luckily for me, there is more to life. There are a lot of exciting things for me on the horizon. It just felt like the right time to retire.”

The initial injury towards the latter part of 2023 couldn’t have come at a worse time for Avril Mathie. The biggest fight of her life was only weeks away. “That was part of the reason why it was so difficult for me to walk away. I felt everything I did in my career was to get me to that point, and I was so close, right on the edge. I never got to have the world title shot. It’s one thing to have that opportunity, and even if you lose, you can walk away knowing that you have given your all. But to never get it, it’s so disheartening. That was the thing that was really pushing me into wanting to stay. But on the morning I decided to retire, I was driving to the gym, I called a good friend of mine who is a former world champion, and I was telling him everything that was going through my head. The first thing he did was remind me of everything I had achieved in my career. He has known me for at least ten years, and back then, I was just a little amateur boxer who didn’t even have ambitions of fighting for a world title because I never saw that as possible. It wasn’t the reason that I got into the sport. But the further you go in the sport, the more you keep moving the needle and the more you see the possibilities, and you get that self-belief. You keep creating bigger and bigger goals for yourself. But he said you might win the world title, and then you’ll want something else. You’ve achieved more than you ever thought you would, and you can achieve even more, but you can say that in any walk of life. If your health is the thing that is on the line, then that is the most important thing. That is what gave me peace in my decision to retire.”

“Too many things,” Mathie answered when I asked what was next for her. Unlike many fighters who retire, Mathie has a future outside of the ropes. You just know, she will be perfectly fine.

Mathie turned professional in 2018, and only the immensely talented Ramla Ali beat her in ten professional fights. The Australian-born Mathie only started boxing when she was 25 and moved to Miami three years later to pursue her dream. Thirteen years later, Mathie can walk away with her head held high and be incredibly proud of her just how far she went. Make no mistake, Avril Mathie was a much better fighter than many might give her credit for. Even in defeat to Ali, Mathie showed her level.

Despite the retirement call and certain frustrations that her career had a few more chapters yet to write, Mathie is content with her boxing career. Yes, it could have been more. Mathie could have been a world champion, but she still walks into the sunset happy. “I did the best with what I knew and with what I had,” Mathie says. “I don’t think there is another boxer who had more fun with their journey than I did. I am at peace with it all.”