Mae Astbury: “I still want to become a champion. I have got even more to prove now. Not to other people, but to myself.”

Mae Astbury: “I still want to become a champion. I have got even more to prove now. Not to other people, but to myself.”

I’ve done many an interview after a defeat. Some have been incredibly difficult. Tears have flowed. The words didn’t. At least, not the right ones. But even in defeat, fighters can still inspire. They are different to us mere mortals. Mae Astbury is one who inspires.

Astbury had been moving along quite nicely in her professional career. The 27-year-old turned professional in 2025 and had moved to 3-0. But in her first fight of the year, Astbury lost her unbeaten record at the hands of Alisha Lewis. Last month in Stoke-on-Trent, Lewis edged Astbury over six rounds by a wafer-thin scorecard of 58-57.

“I’m doing alright,” Astbury told me over Zoom just a few days after her first defeat in the pro ranks. “It obviously takes a couple of days for it to sink in. After watching it back, I feel better regarding my performance. We took a risk by fighting Alisha. She was a few weight categories above me. But it was looking like her or no fight at all, and because of that, we did take that chance. It just didn’t go our way. But watching it back, I am still happy and proud of my performance. It was a very close fight. Obviously, I am backing myself, but it could have been a draw or gone in my favour. But scoring is subjective.

“My nose went, which I don’t think helped. There are still a lot of positives to take from it, even though it does mean I have now got a loss on my record. Which wasn’t what I wanted this early in my career. I gave everything in that last round, so it’s not like I walked away thinking I could have done more. It wasn’t a perfect performance, and I have things I need to improve on. But it is not the end of the world in terms of my career. Having that defeat now means the pressure has gone. If anything, I will be more willing to take those risks in the future because I have nothing to lose. For other fighters, I might be more dangerous now. I might be overlooked. I might be more attractive now that I have a loss to be put in against prospects. That will give me the opportunity to beat a prospect and then be put on the big stage and hopefully, put my trajectory back on the up.”

Astbury is reflective about her first professional defeat. One loss doesn’t mean it’s over. Far from it. Plenty of fighters have lost before achieving great things further down the road. “It’s not the end of my career,” Astbury told me. “You just have to move on with it as best as you can.”

Astbury fought Lewis in the home corner. In simple terms, she has to pay for her opponents. Depending on how many tickets you sell, the quality of opponent you can pay for. At the moment, Astbury is restricted to fighting UK-based fighters.

“I am still covering the costs, so I am not currently in a position to afford a foreign fighter,” Astbury says. “So, like I say, it was a case of either fighting Alisha or not fighting at all and waiting even longer to fight. We wanted to kick-start the year, so it was just a decision we made. We just decided to take that chance.”

It was a calculated risk to fight a bigger opponent. Either fight Lewis or don’t fight at all scenario. A sign of the times. A sign of where her side of the sport currently is. For Astbury, it is a lesson learned. “It has given me the confidence to say I would rather not fight and not fight someone who is that much bigger than me. There is a reason why I am not in that weight category. I have got maybe ten years left of my career. If it is not the right fight, then I don’t need to take it. I need to be more confident in my gut feeling. If it doesn’t feel right, I am covering the costs; we will just wait for another fight. I know I have a long career, but I want a smart career. I don’t want to waste fights.”

The defeat to Lewis has somewhat changed her mindset regarding accepting fights. “If I were in the away corner and getting paid, and it was at the correct weight, and the opponent has a winning record, I now have nothing to lose. I am now more likely to take that fight. I don’t want easy fights, and it would be nice to make some money.”

Astbury was still trying to process her shock defeat as our conversation moved on. A fighter still only a few days removed from losing her unbeaten record. But there is a grim determination to move forward and a realisation of how much her career means to her.

“Nobody wants to lose, but it has just shown me how much I want it,” Astbury relayed to me. “It has just given me more fuel to get another fight in to redeem myself.”

“Hopefully, I will be out in June,” Astbury added. “Ideally, I want another two to four fights this year. But I want a minimum of three fights. I want to get a win to turn it around, and by the end of the year, my defeat will be something in the past that I have moved on from. I don’t want to lose again, and it’s given me more drive not to lose again.”

Mae Astbury will hope that her career can recover. There is no reason why it can’t. At 27, time is on her side. When she advances to titles, Astbury will compete for them at super-flyweight, a division that is a natural fit for her frame.

The ambition hasn’t been dimmed by what happened in Stoke-on-Trent. The 0 might have gone, but the belief firmly remains. “I still want to become a champion. I have got even more to prove now. Not to other people, but to myself. I know I can win belts and achieve big things.