Gemma Richardson: “I think I can reach the top. I do see that potential in me.”

Gemma Richardson: “I think I can reach the top. I do see that potential in me.” 

It was win number two for the former amateur star Gemma Richardson on Saturday night in Hull. An impressive performance full of class and potential.

Richardson secured a 5th-round stoppage over the Czech import Tereza Dvorakova. Richardson became the first fighter to stop Dvorakova, but the Scunthorpe fighter believes she can do even better.

“Not the best, really,” Richardson answers when I ask her what she thought of her performance. “I haven’t watched it back yet, but when you are in there and in the moment, it’s completely different from watching it back. But in the moment, I didn’t feel too happy with myself. But I have always been one of those people who gives it a few days and then I watch it back with the coaches. But while I was in the ring, there were a lot of things that didn’t go the way I wanted. It wasn’t how I was performing in camp.”

Despite the somewhat harsh personal critique, Richardson showed much improvement from her first fight in March, a 60-55 victory over Angelika Oles. Richardson was perhaps guilty of rushing her work on her professional debut. But there was far less of that against Dvorakova.

“Patience was one of the things I wanted to be,” Richardson told FightPost. “But there was still some messiness that didn’t need to be there. I was falling in and falling over my front foot and taking some shots that I didn’t need to be taking. I missed with some punches; I wanted to be more accurate. I was rushing in and going over the front foot when I got in there. It was getting the range right. I could have been a lot better with that, and I know I can be a lot better. So I was a little bit disappointed with that.”

“I am my own worst critic,” Richardson added. “Everyone can praise me, but that’s what athletes are, aren’t they? It’s what makes a top athlete. They are never happy. They never think they have reached their full potential. That could be a good thing, but also a bad thing a well, because we are the worst people to ourselves. I have always been like that, and I always will be. But I’ll probably watch it back next week and think it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was, and I did better than I thought I had. A lot of people have said it was better than my debut.”

After a difficult training camp for that aforementioned professional debut, this one was completely different. “I was very ill before my debut, which I haven’t spoken about before. It was touch and go whether I was going to fight or not. But I wanted to go in there and put in a good performance and see what a proper camp felt like. This was my real training camp, what with the illness I had last time. I wanted to see the improvement from that first fight. That’s what I want in every fight: to see small improvements. I am new to the pro game, and I am still learning, but people are seeing the improvements, and that’s the main thing.”

Richardson does appear to have a style that is tailor-made for the world of professional boxing. The former Team GB star agrees with that assessment.

“Everyone used to say to me I would suit the professional scene,” Richardson says. “But towards the end of my amateur career, I had a very amateur style. I was very bouncy and on my back foot. My style did change. But in the gym, it didn’t take long to get that aggressive style back. I am not quite there yet, but I think it was a fairly easy transition. I like that style as well. I like to be aggressive.”

For her first two professional fights, Richardson has weighed just under the super-lightweight limit, but the long-term aim is to drop down to 135 when she is in the title picture. “I’ll be dropping down to lightweight, but I don’t think there is any rush. When I was on GB, I struggled a lot with my weight, and I didn’t get a lot of help with it. From the age of 17, it was just yo-yo dieting. I used to make weight in the completely wrong way. It was awful what I was doing to my body. When you are training three times a day, you don’t have a life, and you are not eating properly. You are constantly crashing the weight and starving yourself. It’s hard to love something when you haven’t got the fuel or the energy. I didn’t get the help or the education that I needed.

“After not making it to the Olympics, I had the rest of 2024 off. My weight went right up. I went stupidly heavy. I wasn’t training, I was eating what I wanted. Going from that point when I went really heavy, it’s taken a long time to get it right again. I am not prepared to crash the weight anymore. I want to do the weight right. I have got a nutritionist. I am working with Pete Bell. At the moment, we are slowly making it right for my body again. I will come down, and eventually, I will be competing at lightweight, but there is no rush because I am not in the title fights yet. I want to fix my body and do the weight correctly.”

The way her amateur run ended has been well documented on this platform. In simple terms, she could and should have been treated better. Richardson questioned many things about her boxing life. But after that long period of reflection, Richardson has found what she needed. “Everyone says I am like a different girl again,” Richardson relayed to me. “When they speak to me or see me in the gym. You can see that spark in me; it’s not just me saying it. I have got the love back for boxing again. I didn’t think that was possible. It doesn’t feel like a job anymore, and for a time, boxing was my job. I was so fortunate that it was my job, but I am in love with it again.”

That amateur pedigree demonstrated a fighter of the highest quality, and you suspect that Gemma Richardson will be chasing major titles sooner rather than later. The 23-year-old believes she can go all the way. “I want to be moved quite quickly. I believe I am good enough to move up quickly. I don’t want to wait around. I think it will be a quick process. I want to get in as many fights as I can, and hopefully, by next year, we will start looking at titles. I know I have a long way to go, I am only six months in being a pro, but I think I can reach the top. I do see that potential in me.” 

Photo Credit: GBM Sports