Sophia Maycroft: “I really enjoy boxing, and I want to see how far I can get. I don’t want any regrets.”

Sophia Maycroft: “I really enjoy boxing, and I want to see how far I can get. I don’t want any regrets.”

The domestic female flyweight ranks are already stacked deep with talent. Very soon, a brand new addition will deepen that talent pool even more. In the coming months, the 22-year-old Sophia Maycroft will turn professional with high hopes of reaching the very top of her sport.

In her formative years, Maycroft had a lot of energy to burn. Boxing helped with that. “I was a horrible teenager,” Maycroft told me over Zoom. “I had a lot of built-in anger. I was always sporty, I did a lot of football before I did boxing. My best friend at the time did boxing, mainly for fitness, and she said why don’t you have a look. My cousin is Stuart Hall, and I used to watch him when he was boxing for world titles and stuff. I always thought that I wanted to have a go at that. I persuaded my mum to let me go, because she was always against her baby girl going and starting to box. I was only going for fitness and to release some anger. But a couple of months in, the coach said do you want to start fighting, he could see I was picking it up really quickly, and I just said yes. I went home, told my mum, and she wasn’t too pleased. The journey started from there, really.”

“Boxing gives me a good outlet on life,” Maycroft added. “Obviously, with eating clean, it gives me a very healthy lifestyle, which suits me down to the ground. Without boxing, my mental health would probably be all over the place, to be honest with you. It gives me that stability. When I have a break, I can feel myself declining, and my anxiety creeps in. But also, I just love the sport, and now I have made the decision to turn professional.

“It was hard to stay on weight in the amateurs, because I was always working away. I was in and out of the gym. But now I am going pro, I have got that set date where I know I will be fighting, and I will be in a fight camp. Work has been really good; if I am in a fight camp, I won’t be working away. They have been really supportive of me now that I am turning pro.”

Maycroft will combine her professional boxing career with her regular day job. A Field Service Technician working alongside the water companies, repairing leaks on the water networks. After a period on the road, which has put her boxing on hold for the past few years, Maycroft has now found the balance she needs to pick up the pieces of her promising boxing life.

There was a sixteen-fight amateur run that included a National Youth and a Senior Development title. Maycroft will move forward in Darlington, being trained by Peter Shepperson, alongside the unbeaten super-lightweight prospect Hannah Robinson. The professional debut is looking like it will be in April, and Maycroft is looking to build up her resume in the opening period of her professional run.

“I want to get some fights in, and then see where it takes me from there. I want to get my pro debut over with because of work; I have had two years out of the ring. I couldn’t commit fully to boxing. But I have always been training; I just haven’t fought for two years. I am at home now, and things have settled down at work, so I am back. It’s a lot better for my routine.”

In the beginning, Sophia Maycroft wants to get some fights in to shake off the ring rust accumulated in her lengthy absence from her sport. But eventually, and in time, she wants titles.

“Since I was a kid, my dream has been to become a world champion,” Maycroft says. “But I want to win any title, the British, if I could get my hands on that, that would be something I could tick off. I enjoy my job, so I am not turning professional just to make some money. I really enjoy boxing, and I want to see how far I can get. I don’t want any regrets.”