Chloe Luby: “I want an Australian title. That is all I have ever wanted.”

Chloe Luby: “I want an Australian title. That is all I have ever wanted.”

Chloe Luby was born in Townsville, which is described online as a coastal city in north-eastern Queensland, Australia. It’s an area that is apparently most famous for the Great Barrier Reef. But the aspiring professional boxer might give her city even more meaning in the coming years.

Luby is beyond inspiring. A survivor of domestic abuse. As an amateur, Luby lost her first five fights. But as in her life itself, she demonstrated plenty of perseverance and is now on the verge of her professional debut.

“It’s happening,” Luby told me over Zoom. “Contracts are being signed. We are just trying to negotiate where the fight will be now. I am happy wherever it is. As long as I can get in there and trade some leather, it’s been eight months.”

Luby, who has had thirty amateur fights, is hoping to make that maiden professional ring walk in September. Luby is looking to fight at super-bantamweight, but when she reaches title contention, the aim is to chase those titles at bantamweight. Luby has one specific title in mind.

“I want an Australian title,” Luby relayed to FightPost. “That is all I have ever wanted. I hope to have that within the first year. I will have that in the first year. But from that, wherever it takes me. I have got three years, I am 27 now, and I don’t want to be fighting in my thirties. I want to take it as far as I can go, and just see what I can do in boxing.”

Boxing has a history of finding you in your darkest hour. A sport that can save many a lost soul. It found Chloe Luby when she desperately needed it. “I left a pretty bad, toxic relationship. I needed to let that out somewhere and be strong for my daughter. So I walked into a boxing gym, and honestly, I just did it for fitness. This was seven years ago. But then I had my first spar, and I just got hooked, and I have been ever since. I became addicted to the ‘Fight Camp’ because it made me focus on myself. It made me eat well. It made me train. It made me get up early in the morning and do those things that are really hard when you’re going through a dark period. Boxing gives me strength. It brings out the better version of me. It’s an adrenaline rush.”

But her introduction to the sport was far from successful. Her boxing career to date is most definitely a story of perseverance. “My first five fights were not good,” Luby said. “They were terrible, actually. But after that, I really started to make some moves in there, and I started to enjoy it, and thirty fights later, I couldn’t imagine my life any other way. I definitely want to be an advocate for women in a similar situation. Boxing has really changed my life.”

Luby says she played a bit of soccer, but before her route into boxing, there were no sporting endeavours anywhere near to where she is now with her life inside the ropes.

After her somewhat poor start in boxing, Luby could have been forgiven if she had walked away and tried something else. But the Queensland-fighter isn’t one for giving up, and Luby got something out of boxing that she couldn’t get elsewhere. “I have never been stopped or dropped or anything like that. But coming out of that toxic relationship, I was in a domestic violence situation. It was exposure therapy. I would freeze, and I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I was a bit of a tree-hugger, if I am being honest, and I needed to bring that mongrel out in me. But once I bit down on my mouthguard and started going in, I started to realise that I had pretty heavy hands for someone of my weight. Once I started to utilise those heavy hands and remembered to keep my hands up and use my feet and head movement, it all came together. In my sixth fight, I got my first victory. It was a great feeling. It was amazing. It all made sense then. I found out that I was on a journey to self-improvement. I felt whole. It made me believe in myself. I had felt a little disillusioned. I was a mum. I was getting belted. But this is where I belong, and where I will stay until I get that Australian title.

“Courage over fear. Fear had taken over me in so many other aspects, and I wasn’t going to let it happen in this case. I knew I was going to win eventually. I knew it was going to happen, and I learned a lot in those defeats. It was valuable to me.”

Luby now had three Queensland titles, and her amateur career ended with a 19-11 resume. But we should remember that five of those defeats came in her first five fights. A record even more impressive because Luby had to take any fights that were available. “I have taken any fight I can get. I have fought four weight divisions up.”

“I am proud of what I have achieved,” Luby added. “More for the personal development that has come from my amateur career. I am now at the point where I am mentally strong, and I know I can make a mark as a professional.”

Despite her amateur success, Luby always thought her future was in the professional ranks. “I’ve always wanted to turn professional. I don’t like the headgear for one. I want to wear those 8oz gloves. I’ve always wanted it. I want to leave a legacy for my daughter, and that was only going to happen in the pros. I never had an amateur style; I always had to adapt. I sit down on my punches, and I am a heavy hitter. I am keen to mix it up with the best that I can.”

Boxing has to work around work and family life. But that life is seemingly working out quite nicely for her. “I own a little coffee van,” Luby says. “It’s called Frankie’s Beans. I do that in the morning before my first training session. I have to work it around boxing and my daughter, but it all works out well.”

Chloe Luby has a plan. If everything works out the way she has planned, Luby wants to be out of boxing by the time she reaches another decade. But nevertheless, the 27-year-old could fight for longer under the right circumstances. “I’m not against fighting past 30,” Luby told me. “I have always said I would stop then, but we will see how it goes. I know it will go well, and I know I can go far in this sport if I do the work, and I will.”

There is something deeply refreshing about Chloe Luby. There is no grand talk of winning world titles, at least not yet. Just a desire to win a national title. But thoughts of her past still linger, and will be a driving force during and after her boxing is over.

“There have been a lot of battles behind the scenes with my daughter, safety, and things like that,” Luby says. “I really want to start a foundation for the youth in Queensland. We have a very dodgy system here. So I want to be an advocate for that when it’s all over, and getting that Australian title would give me enough of a voice to have that kind of say. I want to do programmes and go into schools to teach about life and family cycles, and things like that. There is a bigger picture to all of this.”