I started late with fighting.
I got into it just after I gave birth to my twin daughters when I was around 21 or 22. Back then, I only went to kickboxing classes as a way to lose weight and get back in shape, but I quickly fell in love with the sport.
I went to watch one of the students of the class have a fight at a show and I was immediately drawn in by the atmosphere. I wanted to experience that feeling of having one fight, but I immediately got the bug for it.
I was always into sports. Cross country running, netball – the general sports. I had no interest in training before I had the children. My husband was teaching kickboxing at the time, but I had no interest in training before I had the kids. But until you start to train in it, it’s hard to understand just how good of a sport it is.
It’s not like I was good at it straight away. Not at all. I remember leaving the class a couple of times during sparring to go and cry behind a door. I certainly wasn’t a natural at it.
The thing with me is that I like to learn and understand certain techniques behind why I kept getting caught. I’d go home and put Tiger Balm on my bruises, cry a bit more, but ultimately want to get back in the ring and learn how to block attacks. My character is very much trying to get better at things. I’d think about why I was getting hit on my legs, and the blocks to avoid it next time.
Obviously, “it” was in me somewhere, because to become a champion you have to have certain qualities built in. And if you feel like you never have something new to learn, then you’re never going to progress.
There was a snowball effect in my career.
I had my first fight and won. Then I had a couple more and didn’t win. So from there I went back and worked on my gameplan. Then all of sudden I was in London to watch a Sky Sports kickboxing show. I remember John Wayne Parr [Australian 10x world champion] was on the card and a couple of girls that I’d fought before. One of the girls couldn’t fight, so I said I’d step in.
I wasn’t quite ready, but because I hadn’t had the nerves of the build up, I performed really well – thank goodness it was on Sky TV and my name was pushed out there. From there I started to travel the world and in every country I beat their best fighters. In Jamaica, New York and everywhere else – I also beat Angie Parr [John Wayne Parr’s wife] along the way too.
It was during this time that a commentator referred to me as the “Queen of Muay Thai” and the nickname stuck. It was printed in a magazine too and people started to know me as this. Then people started to become interested in my story – like the fact I got into the sport a little bit later in life and that I had twin girls – and it became quite a hot topic, especially with other females in the sport.
Before any of this I was working in the tourism trade at a hotel doing office work. I started training during this time. But my late father became ill with cancer around the same time and I found myself doing a lot of trips to the hospital with him. I decided to quit the job as it was shift work, which meant I had more time with him, my daughters and in the gym too.
