Francesca Burton: “Without boxing in my life, I don’t think I would be the person that I am today.”

Francesca Burton: “Without boxing in my life, I don’t think I would be the person that I am today.”

There was no bold talk about winning world titles. My interview with Francesca Burton ran a little deeper than that. From being bullied at school, through boxing, Burton has turned her whole life around. Demons defeated, Burton now derives pleasure from helping children who are suffering from what she went through in her formative years.

“I live in South Wingfield,” the 17-year-old told me over Zoom. “I live next to sheep in the middle of nowhere.” Away from the hustle and bustle of city life, Burton found solace in boxing. A difficult upbringing, before her sport changed everything for her.

“I was never interested in boxing; I didn’t even watch it,” Burton relayed to me. “But I was always really strong as a kid. I had two elder brothers, so I was always scrapping with them. But I got heavily bullied throughout secondary school. Basically, my mum and dad put me into boxing as a way to help my mental health get better. I never intended to fight; I couldn’t even do a squat. I wasn’t physically fit whatsoever.”

At 14, Burton became the first boxer in her family. The initial entry into boxing came by way of the unlicensed world, before a move into the more regulated world of amateur boxing. “I started with white-collar boxing first, and I had a couple of fights there. I was chucked in without a headguard. My first opponent had three hundred odd fights. I won, but I got a concussion, and I knew it wasn’t for me.”

From that difficult start, boxing has given Francesca Burton so much. “It gives me peace of mind. If I didn’t have boxing, I wouldn’t be myself. Boxing completes me. Without boxing in my life, I don’t think I would be the person that I am today. As soon as I started boxing, I turned into a completely different person. I am now driven to do stuff. It makes me feel comfortable. I feel like everyone in boxing is my family.”

“Keeping the consistency, the training, the dieting,” Burton added when I asked what the toughest part of her sport is. “I have missed out on a lot, friendships and stuff. Losing a fight is really hard, but you push on.”

But for Burton, the positive impact on her life far outweighs any negatives. “Watching my progression,” Burton says of what she finds most rewarding about her sport. “When I reflect on the person I was before, I was doing suicide attempts at a very young age because of the bullying at school. It’s now watching how far I have come. I often help out in the gym and help children who are being bullied or who have autism. I love to work with children; it gives me a spark of happiness. I just get a buzz out of it. A lot of the kids love me at the gym. They have gone home to their parents and said I want to be like that, Frankie. That makes me smile.”

Burton is known to her friends as ‘Fluffy’, a somewhat ironic nickname formed out of the weight of her punch. Those heavy-handed fists could serve her well as her career progresses. Burton is now twelve fights into her boxing life. There are fleeting thoughts of making it to the Olympics in the years to come, as well as turning professional at some point in the coming years.

“I have got talent, I think I am quite good, but I need to build my confidence, because that is the one thing holding me back,” Burton admits. “I want to win the Open championships next year and then get on the Pathway for England Boxing. But I would really love to go pro. It’s proving to myself that I can do it. I love the sport so much.”

There is something refreshing, and inspiring about the Francesca Burton story. In many ways, the sport can often leave you questioning your love for it. But then you hear a story like this, and you realise why you do.