After months on the sidelines, there’s nothing quite like winning a GB senior title to convince a boxer they still have it.
And for Niamh Mitchell, her maiden senior title couldn’t have come at a better time.
After seven months out of action due to a hand injury, Mitchell stepped into the ring for her first-ever senior fight in June. By the end of that weekend, she was British champion and confirmed, yet again, that she’s one of Scotland’s brightest prospects in the ring. And the 19-year-old from Fife rediscovered her fitness and form just in time to be selected in Scotland’s 10-strong squad for the inaugural World Boxing Championships, which begin today in Liverpool.
It’s been a long and tortuous road to Mitchell's World Championships debut, though. Recent months have been far from smooth for the -60kg fighter and she admits that in the immediate aftermath of her hand injury, she even wondered if her career in boxing was over just as it was beginning.
“My injury was something to do with a metatarsal in my hand and I could hardly move it,” the teenager says.
“The only thing I was able to do was go out running so it was really tough to be out for so long. The fight where I got hurt, I'd lost so the first month after that defeat I was really down and I really did think I might be done with boxing.”
It wasn’t long, though, before Mitchell’s hunger to box returned. And while she would never have chosen to be injured, with hindsight, the teenager admits she was able to glean some positives from her enforced break from the sport.
“The one upside of being injured was I could be normal for a little while and do things like go out with my friends, which I'm not usually able to do” she says.
“I remember saying to my dad that I didn't actually realise how much I loved boxing until I couldn’t do it. When I’m in camp, it’s so physically draining that I always have a moment where I have second thoughts and wonder if boxing is for me so while, of course, it's not a good thing to be out injured, actually some positives did come out of it because I realised how desperate I was to box.”
Mitchell first broke into the spotlight in 2022 when she became the first Scottish female to win gold at the European Junior Boxing Championships. It was quite an achievement for someone who took up boxing merely to defend herself against bullies and the result of such an eye-catching performance was that, immediately, considerable pressure was heaped upon her shoulders.
But Mitchell has long been unfazed by pressure and indeed, she believes it’s her own self-belief that’s enabled her to reach this point in the sport and remain untouched by any external expectations.
“I wouldn't say that winning my European junior title changed my expectations because I've actually always had a real belief in myself because I think that if you don't believe in something, it's never going to happen,” she says.
“It might sound stupid but before fights I manifest what I want to happen. Ever since I was young, I visualised how I want things to go. I think boxing is very much about your head as much as it's about the physical side of things so you have to believe in yourself or you'll never achieve anything.”
Mitchell goes into this week’s World Championships as one of Scotland’s most talked-about young fighters. The senior game is, she admits, a very different challenge to junior boxing but having adapted well, she’s hopeful that she can add world silverware to her European Junior title from a few years ago.
“The seniors is a whole different game to the juniors. In juniors, everyone you're fighting is a similar age whereas in seniors, I could go up against someone who's 10 years older than me, which is why it was massive for me to win the British title earlier this year,” she says.
“I'm so excited about this World Championships. I've had a really good camp with some really good sparring so I'm feeling good.
“I don't want to put too much pressure on myself but I would love to think I can push for a medal.
“I know how hard that will be to achieve because there's some really good boxers but on the day, anyone can win.
“I've been looking forward to this tournament all year so I can't wait to get out there and fight.”
