Alisha Lewis: “I don’t think a Midlands area title would be out of my reach at all. And who knows what else.”

Alisha Lewis: “I don’t think a Midlands area title would be out of my reach at all. And who knows what else.”

Alisha Lewis turned professional in 2025. There were four fights. Four defeats. Those setbacks included a first-round stoppage to Shona Whitwell. But at the fifth time of asking, Lewis is now in the win column.

At the Kings Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, Lewis edged past the previously unbeaten Mae Astbury. A wafer-thin 58-57 scorecard gave the 28-year-old her maiden win as a professional fighter.

“There’s no feeling like it, getting your arm raised,” Lewis said of her victory over Astbury on Saturday night. The fight went more or less as my team and I had planned, with respect always to my opponent. I’d been training to fight longer rounds with a shorter rest. So, when the time came, it felt very relaxed for me, and I’m pleased with how it went. We had expected Astbury to come out all guns blazing, as the typical conduct of a female boxing match. For whatever reason, it is for us all to come out swinging from the first bell like we’ve got something to prove. It’s a man’s sport after all, I suppose. But it was nice to be able to box my own fight and take control of the pace myself. But no, the bout worked out in my favour, I think, with cleaner shots landing. I had control from the get-go with my range. I don’t think she had expected to come up against a back-foot fighter like me.”

Lewis could be forgiven if her somewhat unflattering start to her boxing career had left her frustrated and more. But she is incredibly reflective of her previous four fights.

“Losing those fights never altered my mindset,” Lewis relayed to me. “Being in the away corner is not what people think. It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again, but our records as away boxers do not reflect us as fighters. I made the decision to box in the away corner before my first fight. It’s not about winning for me, it’s about boxing because I love to box. I love training every day and being able to accept fights as and when they come up rather than having to train like a madwoman in camps and intervals, and having everything on the line for one bout. I walk around at my fight weight, and I keep sharp in the gym. We’re ready whenever. I will always put up a fight, barring my fight with Whitwell, which in different personal circumstances would’ve been another result. My goal is to box regularly and cause chaos in my division. Nobody will have an easy fight with me. If the wins are there, we’ll take them. I never wanted to make a full-time job of selling tickets.

“I work two jobs already! It’s much more fun for me and my team to tip up, box, have a laugh, put on a good exhibition and be home ready to watch Eastenders on catch-up! Matty and Col have worked tirelessly with me in and out of the gym to build up the right mental strength. I think I’m just about getting over the ego trip that is being on the road. So, losing four fights previously didn’t really affect me, as I have won rounds in all of them, barring one. I know I put on a good show and gave each opponent a hard night, and that will do me to be honest. It’s nice to steal a win where I can though, and it shows I’m not here to be walked through. So, I was really chuffed to walk out the winner on Saturday.”

Like many, Lewis came into boxing by way of another sport. Much against her parents’ wishes.

“I started boxing in Chadwell Saint Mary in Essex,” Lewis says. “I was originally a long-distance runner, running for Thurrock Harriers. But my friend’s uncle owns the gym there, and I had asked her about it. My parents were dead against me boxing to start with, but I couldn’t get it out of my brain; I just had a strange feeling that I would be good at it. I started using my bus fare to the track instead to pay for my subs at the gym. Getting a used pair of gloves from eBay to practice against my chimney breast at home when my parents weren’t home. When my mum finally found out, she came to the gym and saw me train. She didn’t say anything but bundled me in the car after the session and drove me over to the shop to buy my first pair of gloves (which I still have) and a skipping rope.

“Since then, I’ve moved a lot and been in and out of the gym, but found my home with Fusion, where I started working with Matt. And here we are.”

Lewis is now 1-4, and after her upset victory over Mae Astbury, and she is looking for more.

“I don’t think a Midlands area title would be out of my reach at all. And who knows what else. I’ve got the right team behind me, so who knows what path I’ll end up on. But for now, I’m enjoying boxing regularly and having fun whilst doing so. There’s no pressure on me to sell tickets.”

There is a life outside of boxing for the super-featherweight hopeful. “I work in the gym as the multimedia marketer. So, it’s a lot of photography and social media. Sitting behind a screen, which suits me, as anyone who knows me knows I’m not much of a talker! It works for me, I get to build up and celebrate anyone and anything, and they don’t know it’s me. I can humbly go about my day knowing I’ve made someone else’s. I also own a tattoo studio where I work in my spare time, drawing and painting portraits and sports oil paintings, which I also sell. I spend a lot of time in the gym, obviously. My partner, Tom Ramsden, trains alongside me, so with him fighting as well, there’s not much time for anything other than boxing usually.”

Alisha Lewis will look to build on her first victory in the world of professional boxing. Boxrec has Lewis as the 10th-best super-featherweight in the country. But with upcoming fights against two more unbeaten prospects, Lewis could finish the year a lot higher if she replicates what she did on Saturday night.

Photo Credit: BobbiDee Photography