Amelia Barker: “I want to become a three-weight undisputed champion of the world.”

Amelia Barker: “I want to become a three-weight undisputed champion of the world.”

On the 19th September in Swindon, the professional ranks will get a little deeper. A beyond confident 19-year-old will leave her successful amateur career behind her to start a professional run that she believes will end with her being a multi-weight undisputed champion of the world.

Amelia Barker gets the show on the road in her new world at an age where many might think she could have spent a little longer in the amateur ranks. But Barker sees it differently.

“I don’t think I am suited to the amateurs, to be honest,” Barker told me over Zoom. “Don’t get me wrong, I achieved a lot in the amateurs. I won three national titles and competed in eleven different national competitions. I have had sixty-odd fights, and I just thought, what more do I need to do?”

The pro career starts in September. Barker doesn’t want an easy fight on her professional debut. “I am starting on a six-rounder,” the 19-year-old says. “I am not doing a four; that is less than what I am doing now. I just think I will go out there and blast her out in a couple of rounds. Let’s see what she can take. And then go on to the next. I want to move as quickly as possible. I want to get into title contention as soon as I can. As soon as next year.”

“It won’t be against a journeywoman,” Barker added. “I want somebody who turns up. I don’t want to sell tickets for an opponent who will just be a punching bag.”

Barker will fight in and around the lightweight and super-lightweight divisions. Both weight classes have plenty of domestic opponents ready and waiting for Barker. “I think I would beat them all,” a confident fighter told me.

Like many, the boxing story has a deeper meaning. “I started boxing eight years ago,” Barker said of how it all started for her. “I was a naughty kid at school. I couldn’t control my anger. I had anger issues and all that kind of stuff. I went down to a boxing gym, and just fell in love with it really. I was a chubby kid at school, around 80 kg as an 11-year-old. And now I am like 60 kg.”

Barker can still vividly recall her first-ever taste of ring action. “I sparred an old guy. He was like a keep-fit guy. I tried to take him out. I tried to end his life. I just felt, I like this. There were no girls in the gym, so I was just sparring guys the whole time. I’d stick it on these guys. I had my first fight, and I stopped the girl. I then went on a mad winning streak. I was stopping everybody.”

I didn’t need to dig too deep, but what Barker did say says plenty of what her sport means to her. And gives her. “Boxing gives me an actual life. It gives me a goal. A focus. I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the sport. It’s big for me, to be fair. It saved my life. I have been through loads. I have been through things. Boxing has kept me here, to be fair.”

Barker supplements her boxing alongside her day job as a part-time delivery driver. She trains three or four times a day. There is little time in her life for anything else. “It’s hard on your body,” Barker says of her daily routine. “But I get it done.”

Throughout our interview, the confidence never wavered. Barker wants to be moved quickly. “By this time I want to be number one or two in the country. There are some names, but I would box every single one of them in my debut.” Even before her debut, Barker has unwavering belief in her ability.

“I think I have earned that confidence,” Barker says of her impressive self-belief. “I am very confident, I know that. But I feel that I have earned it. I’ve done rounds with some of the best girls in the world.”

The pro career hasn’t even started yet. Time will tell if that confidence is misplaced. But Amelia Barker is saying all the right things. She knows what she wants out of her career. “I want to become a three-weight undisputed champion of the world.”