Shannon Taylor: “My goal is to win the British title, but if I win that, I then want to go further.”

Shannon Taylor: “My goal is to win the British title, but if I win that, I then want to go further.”

A one-time mechanic, now a professional boxer, Shannon Taylor is about to take the next step in her fighting career. 

Like many, boxing has helped Taylor outside of the ring. “I went from doing a very physical job eight hours a day to not doing anything,” Taylor told me over Zoom. “I struggled with my mental health a bit. So with boxing, it gives me something good to focus on, rather than just being a mum and a carer.

“No matter what you have got going on in your life, when you step into a boxing gym, all that gets left at the door. You just have to focus on what you are doing and bottle up everything else for that one hour you are in the gym. You don’t think about anything else other than what you are doing in the gym. Mentally, it gives me a bit of a break, as well as being physically good for me.”

After winning her professional debut in October, Taylor will have fight number two next month in Birmingham. The short-term target is the vacant Midlands Area super-featherweight title, and Taylor is hoping her fight in March will be a six-rounder.

“When I am sparring, I think I do better the more rounds I do,” Taylor says. “So I think it would be good to get a six-rounder in first.”

Taylor won a four-round points decision against Alisha Lewis on that professional debut a few months ago. “It was good, I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I boxed my best,” Taylor says of her first professional fight. “I wasn’t really happy with my performance. But I never am. Even in the amateurs, and I had won by stoppage, I always think there are things I could improve on. I am really looking forward to getting back in there again.”

With Taylor hoping to land a Midlands title fight in the not-too-distant future, she wants an opponent who comes to win for her second professional fight. “If I am selling tickets, I would sooner be in an entertaining fight. I would sooner fight someone who comes to win, and it be a closer fight, rather than fight someone who just tucks up and doesn’t try to win. I’d sooner have a decent opponent for my next fight, and then push on for a Midlands title after that.”

The 30-year-old initially started boxing around eight years ago, but life got in the way before returning to the sport a few years ago. “When I was 22, I used to box a bit,” Taylor relayed to me. “But I was working full-time as a mechanic at the time, and my little one was about 5. I was going once a week, and they asked me to go a few more times so I could compete. But as I was already spending a lot of time away from my kid because of work, I couldn’t commit even more time to boxing. I kept going for a bit, but because there was no end goal to it, I stopped going. But as my son got older, I took him to a boxing gym for fitness purposes. Instead of dropping off and going, I stayed and joined in. They asked if I wanted to fight, and I said yes. I had one unlicensed fight.”

“There was no feeling like it,” Taylor says of her first taste of ring action. “She’d had about ten fights, but I gave her a standing count in the opening round, and then she retired.”

Taylor left the unlicensed world behind to chase glory in a more accepted part of the boxing world. “I decided to go amateur and try to win a national title, and then go pro.” But after just six amateur fights, Taylor decided to turn professional. Domestic honours are the aim, but Shannon Taylor isn’t ruling out winning titles on an even bigger scale.

“My main goal is to win a British title. But if I did win a British title, then the goal posts would move. I don’t want to compare myself to Conah Walker, but he won a British title, and now he might be fighting for a world title. So right now, my goal is to win the British title, but if I win that, I then want to go further. I will just take each fight as it comes.”