After taking up kickboxing at the age of six and becoming a world champion at 10, pro boxer Tiah Ayton, 19, competed in Muay Thai, MMA and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu before deciding to focus on boxing at the age of 13. Born and raised in Bristol, she made her pro fighting debut June 2025 at the age of 18 and is being hailed as ‘the next big thing’ after winning her first three pro fights by knockout.

Tiah Ayton talks about the early days

I never wanted to start fighting. Before then, I was a horse rider, but my sister and I used to fight all the time, so my dad signed us both up for kickboxing. I liked it because it always made my dad so proud when I won something, and that drove me to do better and set challenges for myself. Obviously, I got hit hard a few times, but it never put me off.

Once I became world champion at 10 and couldn’t win anything else, I tried Muay Thai, MMA and BJJ and won even more titles. It was then that my dad suggested I should try boxing when I was 13, and I like it because there is a clear pathway in terms of competing in the Nationals, the Europeans, the World Championships and also turning pro.

In amateur fights, you do three rounds for three minutes wearing a headguard and 12-ounce gloves, and it’s more about scoring points rather than knockouts. But in professional fights, you do six rounds for two minutes with 10-ounce gloves and no headguard. Making my professional debut was amazing, and I loved every second of it. I just really love fighting, and sometimes I like the training but not all of the time – sometimes I hate training!

Training

I train six days a week, either two or three times a day, and I have a boxing coach and an S&C (strength and conditioning) coach. I always skip for 20-to-30 minutes before every training session to warm up, and for basics, I’ll alternate doing sprints one day at my S&C gym, then running 8-10K on the road another day, plus I’ll do two S&C sessions a week where the focus is on building strength and explosivity.

I spar twice a week, but I punch almost every day. To get to my boxing gym, I have to cycle for 30 minutes to the train station, get on the train for 40 minutes, then cycle to my gym and then do it all again to get home – which is long! When I’m punching and sparring, I work on the things my coach thinks I need to get better at, such as head movement and footwork, but that usually changes with every [fight] camp depending on who my next opponent is and how I performed in my last fight. I never watch my opponents before a fight, but my coaches do; they create the game plan and tell me what to expect.

I can feel a bit ‘yuck’ in training when I’m trying to cut weight before a fight, and Assault Bike and sprint sessions sometimes make me feel a bit sick. I’ve been in camp since March, so my training’s been flat out because I’ve been fighting so regularly – I can’t really remember what not being in camp feels like! To recover, I literally just sleep.

Nutrition

Cutting weight before a fight is definitely hard, especially when my family are all eating really nice meals and I’m eating chicken and salad. It does
get boring, but I’m used to it now, so it’s not too bad. I eat lots of healthy stuff to fuel my training, and I drink lots of water and electrolytes, but I don’t take any other type of supplements.

The one thing I think most fighters struggle with is body dysmorphia, because when you’re on weight, you feel like you look great, but as soon as you put on a bit of weight, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t look in the mirror, I look disgusting.’ Of course, you don’t. It’s all in our heads.

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Mindset

Body dysmorphia is one struggle I get really bad. But other than that, I don’t feel like anything’s changed since I turned pro, because I’ve been experiencing pressure for most of my life. If anything, I feel like I’m far better when I’m under pressure.

I don’t have a mindset coach, but I do have a supportive family around me who gas me up and keep me happy (I’ve got nine siblings, and I’m the oldest). Being a pro fighter does come with a lot of sacrifices. Sometimes, when I see friends partying or going on a girls’ holiday, I do think it would be nice to have some fun. But when you win a fight, there’s no better feeling. I’d rather work hard while I’m younger because I could be retired by the age of 30, and I can live my life and go travelling after that.

I don’t like watching boxing in my spare time because I’ve been around fighting my whole life, and I like to escape from it. Instead, I prepare for a fight
by making sure I’m fully fuelled up, getting enough sleep and getting into the right mindset. Once I’ve got my hair braided, and I’m feeling one hundred per cent, that’s when I know I’m ready to go.

Goals

I want to be a world champion, but what I really want to be is the youngest ever undisputed champion in four weight categories. At the moment,
I’m fighting at bantamweight, but as I get older and naturally heavier, I’d like to move to super-bantamweight, then through to featherweight and super-featherweight. I’ve got high hopes!