Mya Bushell: “Boxing keeps me disciplined.”

Mya Bushell: “Boxing keeps me disciplined.”

Mya Bushell was born in Bridgend in South Wales twenty years ago. A sporting life that started in rugby has now transitioned into boxing. Bushell is only two years and six fights into her boxing life, but already, she is dreaming of representing her country at the highest level possible.

Bushell reached a high level in rugby, competing for over eight years before the 20-year-old made the switch to boxing.

“I had played rugby since I was around 8 years old,” Bushell told me over Zoom. “By the time I was 16, I had got to play at a regional level with the Ospreys. But in my second year of doing that, my brother had started boxing, and I was heavily influenced by him. I started boxing just for fitness, but when I started sparring, I got an itch for it, and then I went from there.”

Like many, Bushell finds the relative solitude of boxing far more rewarding than life competing in a team sport. “I like the fact that boxing is a solo sport, and you are not part of a team. It’s all on you, and you get out of boxing what you put in. When you are in the ring for those nine minutes, it’s the adrenaline rush. I don’t think people realise how much it takes just to get in there, and when you come out of the ring, it makes all those months of training worth it.”

Mya Bushell is still in the embryonic stages of her boxing career, and thoughts of her very first ring walk are still fresh in her mind. “I was on last,” Bushell says of her first taste of ring action. “It was so late. I fought someone far more experienced. I was only 18, and she was 34. But it was brilliant. I remember it being a close fight. I lost on points, but once it was over, it was just the best feeling.”

“Boxing keeps me disciplined,” Bushell says of what boxing gives her. “There really isn’t a limit to how far you can go in it. You can just keep progressing and progressing. You get out what you put in, and it makes you feel really accomplished because all the work is on yourself.”

Bushell is balanced with her short-term aspirations. “I would like to say amateur and do as much as I can with that. I won the Welsh novices in 2024, and I want to progress to win a Welsh senior title. That is what I am set on to work towards in the next year, and then just see where I can go from there.”

“I don’t think for next year,” Bushell adds when I enquire if next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are a target. “But it is definitely something that I want to work towards. I personally want to stay amateur and fight for my country rather than go pro. Going pro isn’t something I would turn down, but it’s not something I have really thought about just yet. I want to push on in the amateurs and get the experience in, starting with getting that Welsh title. But going to the Commonwealth Games is something I want to push towards. But fighting for Wales is my main target.”

Bushell works part-time, but she has a life at university also, studying accounting and finance. But her flourishing boxing career means her time at university is somewhat restricted. “The biggest thing I have had to accept is that I can’t have a typical uni life, going out every weekend. But after the first few months, I got used to it and I realised the benefits far outweigh it.”

Mya Bushell talks about the discipline that boxing has given her. It’s a sport that demands it, and already, Bushell is demonstrating her commitment to her craft. It’s incredibly early for Bushell, but the signs are more than encouraging. Welsh boxing is currently riding a little boom period, especially on the female side of the sport. Lauren Price is the unified world welterweight champion, and Carmen Lynch is flying through the amateur ranks at a staggering pace. But maybe in the coming years, Mya Bushell could be another boxing star to come out of that fighting country.