Laylie Heath: “I just want to see where I can go. I believe I can reach the top and win world titles.”

Laylie Heath: “I just want to see where I can go. I believe I can reach the top and win world titles.”

The Sunderland-born Laylie Heath is the latest female fighter to announce that she is leaving the amateur ranks to join the ever-increasing professional ranks. The four-time National champion will be a welcome addition to the world of professional boxing. The 19-year-old will add even more depth to her side of the sport. A fighter who expects to win world titles.

Despite her young age and having a seemingly flourishing amateur career, it is the politics of the amateur code that has prompted Heath to seek pastures new. “I won the Nationals in April,” Heath told me over Zoom. “I was on the assessments for GB and England in Sheffield, and they put me on the development squad, which obviously isn’t the main squad. You only go down to Sheffield once a month, and the person I beat was put on the same squad. Nobody at my weight was put on the main squad. It’s been like that for years. Even when I have won a title, I haven’t been picked for anything. I don’t know what it is, but I couldn’t see any point in waiting another year to do it all over again.”

Plans are already being made for her new world. “I have got a trainer, and I am speaking to a few different managers,” Heath relayed to FightPost. “I think I know who I am going to go with, but I am speaking to a few different people. Once I have got all that confirmed, it’s then just going ahead with applying for my licence. But I am looking to make my debut before December.”

Heath had fifty amateur fights. A multitude of honours, including those aforementioned four
National titles. One name stands out on that amateur resume: Tiah-Mai Ayton. Recently signed to Matchroom, and she greatly impressed on her professional debut, Ayton is tipped for big things. But Heath gave the young starlet a more than decent test in 2024, despite coming up short on the scorecards. “It was a close fight to be fair. I think she probably nicked it. But there wasn’t much in it.”

The entry into boxing came at an incredibly early age. There was no obvious catalyst for her desire to box. “There was nothing major, really,” Heath told me. “It was just one Friday night when I was 10 that I decided that I wanted to start boxing. Like I say, I don’t know what it was or for what reason. It was just out of the blue. I messaged the nearest boxing gym, and I was there on the Monday. I didn’t even watch it on the telly, so I don’t know where it all came from.”

Heath was a natural for her new sport. “It was good,” Heath says of her very first fight. “I won it. I won my first five fights, and I stopped three out of those five opponents. So even early on, I was doing really well.”

“People ask me all the time what I get out of boxing, and I don’t really know,” Heath added. “You have to be a bit weird to like it, because what do you get out of it? I tried to pack it in before when it was getting too much for me, and I had lost the love for it a bit. But I just couldn’t do it. But now, after my fights, I give myself a little break. For the first five years, I was constantly in the gym, and I never had a week off. It’s just learning to give yourself a break. I think that helps, and with now turning professional, it’s something I am really looking forward to.”

Laylie Heath will look to compete in the super-featherweight division. The 19-year-old hopes to have that maiden ring walk before the year ends, and while being balanced in her immediate aspirations, Heath is a fighter who firmly believes that she will reach the upper echelons of her sport. “I don’t want to rush things. But then again, if opportunities do come, I can’t really turn them down. I look at some of the world champions, and the standard, sometimes, isn’t very good. I think I could beat some of them now. But I am in no rush, and I just want to get it right.

“I just want to see where I can go. I believe I can reach the top and win world titles. If I thought I could win only an English title, I wouldn’t really do it. It would be good to get that, but if that was my highest point, I think it would be a waste of time. I believe I can go to the top.”