Emma-Sue Greentree: “Gold in Glasgow would be amazing.”

Emma-Sue Greentree: “Gold in Glasgow would be amazing.”

“It’s going to be a big one.” The opening words of Emma-Sue Greentree. The 27-year-old Australian is heading into a pivotal year for her boxing career. The Los Angeles Olympics might be two years away, but the qualification process is already on her mind, and a trip to Glasgow for the upcoming Commonwealth Games is a major part of her 2026. “The Commonwealth Games are huge for me,” Greentree told FightPost over Zoom. “But there are the Boxing World Cups, which are important because they give you the ranking points leading into 2028 and the Olympics. They are the tournaments you want to place and win medals at.”

“Gold in Glasgow would be amazing,” Greentree added. “And to get as many podium finishes in the World Cups as I can.”

Greentree failed to make the Australian squad for the Paris Olympics, but that bitter experience has only motivated her further with the next Olympic Games just over two years away. “The Olympics are definitely on my mind. It is the pinnacle for all athletes. After missing out on 2024, I am even hungrier to qualify for 2028. I do want to do the Olympics, and I do want to do more in the professional ranks. But everything can change, depending on how I go and things like that. But I do think it will be the Olympics and then focus on the pros. I’ll have a couple of pro fights here and there when I can fit them in. But that isn’t my main focus at the moment.”

Unbeaten in two professional fights after turning pro in 2024, Greentree is keen to stay at least partially active in the paid ranks. She is already highly ranked as a light-heavyweight. “I do want to stay active as a pro, because sometimes there is a little bit of a break with the amateur stuff,” Greentree says. “Especially in Australia, we have to do all the travelling to get to the tournaments. But if I can get something at home where my friends and family can come and watch, that would be good.”

“That’s a hard one to answer,” Greentree admits when I ask if she would take a world title fight as a professional with her focus currently elsewhere. “It will depend on a lot of things. Obviously, the Olympics are my main priority. My sister went in 2008 and got a bronze medal in softball. So going to the Olympic Games is massive for me. But yeah, anything can happen.”

Greentree is a Type 1 Diabetic, and while her chosen sporting life makes her condition somewhat problematic, she has vowed that it won’t affect her dreams inside a boxing ring. “No days are the same; it’s always up and down. But with the support I have got now, I am definitely more in control of it. I am fine-tuning that control, which is very helpful in a fight and in weight cutting, of course. It does affect the way I train, because it is a weight-making sport. It’s all about calorie cutting. But if I have low blood sugar levels, I have to eat more calories, and that obviously affects my calorie count. But it’s all second nature to me now, so I wouldn’t know any different.”

Emma-Sue Greentree was a little late starting her boxing journey. A sporting career that had once been in track and field and rugby, before boxing found her in her late teenage years. Despite the slight regret that she didn’t start boxing a little sooner, Greentree is happy with her progress and achievements to date. “Getting a bronze medal at the world championships in Liverpool last year was huge for me,” Greentree told me. “I think how my boxing journey has gone so far, has been the right way. The only thing I would change is starting it earlier. I started boxing at 17, so if I could have found it earlier, I would have had that extra time for extra sparring. Extra rounds. But my career so far is how it was meant to be.”