Gemma Brodie: “I did thousands of rounds of sparring, and I really miss it. I would love to be part of that life again.”

Gemma Brodie: “I did thousands of rounds of sparring, and I really miss it. I would love to be part of that life again.”

Women’s boxing is in a completely different place than it was twenty years ago. Seeing girls in a boxing gym isn’t a rarity anymore. It’s now the norm. If they want to fight, they can. It wasn’t always like that. In truth, it was anything but.

Gemma Brodie was part of that forgotten time. “I started boxing in 2006,” Brodie told me over Zoom. “It was just to lose the baby weight. I had a baby the year before. I got in touch with this girl called April, who was one of the fitness instructors. She told me that she was the only female boxer at the time. She told me to come to Morrison’s Boxing Gym in Glasgow. I went down, and I met April. She took me on the pads, and she said I could punch really hard. That was good to hear, but I was only there to lose some weight. But I kept meeting up with her.”

“Back then, April was battling with Amatuer Boxing Scotland to let her get registered,” Brodie added. “There was another girl trying as well. They were having a nightmare trying to get fights. They wouldn’t let these two girls get registered.”

Despite the restrictions of the time, Brodie eventually found a way to fight. “For the first couple of months it was just training,” Brodie says. “But then she asked me if I wanted to spar. This girl had been boxing for a good few years, and I was pretty new to it. I was thinking, can I actually do this? But I was landing punches on this girl, who could actually fight.”

Boxing, as it always does, was beginning to get a hook into Brodie. An initial interest to lose some weight was gradually starting to morph into something more. “April then said Earnie Shavers was coming to Bellahouston Park in Glasgow. I was asked if I wanted to have my first fight there. I didn’t even know who Shavers was, but I said ok. It was just an exhibition. But I did really well against the girl I was fighting. That’s when I thought to myself that I might actually be able to fight.”

Due to the situation in Scotland, it took over a year for Brodie to have her first proper fight. “We were completely up against it in Scotland.” Fighting the system as well as any potential opponents.

Including exhibitions, the 42-year-old had around twenty fights in her boxing journey. A career fighting bigger girls, and constantly going in the away corner, somewhat restricted her achievements.

“Every big fight that I had, I lost on a split decision,” Brodie told me. “That didn’t really reflect how good I was. I was always the away fighter, but I did it just to get fights.”

Brodie has certain regrets about how her career panned out. “If I were fighting now, I would be up there with the big names,” Brodie says. “I was an alright wee boxer. My problem was I was greedy. I loved food. I struggled to diet. I never fought at my perfect weight. I weigh about eight stone now. I was fighting at ten stone. All the girls were a lot bigger than me. I was in the Scottish Championships at 70kg, which is insane because I am only five foot two.

“I regret not taking my weight seriously, because I think I could have gone far if I had. I used to eat what I wanted, and then go and train. I can remember for one exhibition, I went to McDonald’s and then stepped onto the scales, and that’s obviously not what you should do in boxing. I had so much potential. I see all the girls on TV making the big money, and I get so annoyed. I am a wee bit jealous; I am not going to lie.”

The boxing career of Gemma Brodie ended about eight years ago. “I officially retired in 2018,” Brodie relayed to me. “I was suffering a lot from hemiplegic migraines. I was losing the feeling down my left hand side. I was advised against fighting again. I had three kids at the time, and I thought this wasn’t worth it.”

Brodie, who was born in Govan, Glasgow, has a different life now. But she still very much misses her old one. “I just loved fighting, and I still love fighting,” Brodie told me. “But I am an ICU nurse now, and I can’t behave like that in my world. I have to be professional now. I did thousands of rounds of sparring, and I really miss it. I would love to be part of that life again. It’s some buzz.”