Lynn determined to make most of professional opportunity

NOT many Irish women turn professional in boxing, but someone forgot to tell that to a Kilbarrack woman who only first put on the gloves aged 30.

Lynn Harvey (35), a mother-of-one, is only one of three professional female boxers in Ireland and will take on Mary Romero, from Spain, in her second professional bout this Saturday, November 5 after getting off to a winner on her debut. 

That fight only lasted 59 seconds which might make you think Harvey is a natural born fighter. However, the flyweight only joined a boxercise class five years previously and fought in a white collar event “and got bashed”. 

That wouldn’t halt her passion for the sport though, as she instantly fell in love, trained extremely hard and was the Irish Novice Champion a year later.

“It is mad. Honestly I don’t know,” says Harvey while describing her pleasant surprise.

“I’m a lot tougher than I thought I was. I have a naturally aggressive go-forward style which a lot of girl boxers don’t have and you can’t teach that.”

Harvey didn’t linger in the amateur ranks too long like Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington, as she feels her boxing style doesn’t suit the amateur boxing system, so she made the plunge. 

“It is one thing turning pro but it is another thing looking for somewhere to go. Nobody even took me on.

“I rang Paschal Collins (owner of Celtic Warrior Boxing Gym in Corduff and brother of Steve Collins) and of course he didn’t know who I was. I said do you mind if I train in your gym, I’m thinking of turning pro?”

Collins agreed to let Harvey do some training at the gym with her coach.

“I don’t think he actually had the intention of taking this girl on with one of his own coaches,” she says.

Harvey described her first encounter with the gym as if it was a scene in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, where the woman in the film feels like an outsider in a predominantly male environment, due to the lack of pro female fighters.

Coach Daniel O’Sullivan was coming back from a break away from the sport and it was only by chance Collins asked him to go on the pads with Harvey and the pair haven’t looked back since.

“Daniel has taught me loads of things. One thing is being more patient instead of rushing in and trying to kill them. He has taught me how to be a better pro-style boxer. Daniel is a boxing fanatic,” she says. 

Harvey explained that it isn’t always easy juggling the two prominent roles in her life, her son Tyler and her boxing.

“It’s tough because I’m going training all the time and our club only opens at 3.30pm and he’s off at 2.30pm so it isn’t even like I can go to the club when he’s in school so I have to scrounge to get a babysitter,” she says. 

Harvey goes to the gym and the boxing club on alternate days except Sunday and sometimes she gets knocks in training.  It isn’t surprising to see her go on school runs with black eyes, where she says people start questioning her sanity – but that’s what she has to do to serve the two loves in her life. Harvey’s next fight is on November 5 at in the National Stadium with Red Corner Promotions. Why not go shout for your local warrior? For more information on tickets, contact Lynn Harvey on 085-8244554. 

REPORT: Brein McGinn