In October 2021, FightPost dubbed Kent’s Louise Orton ‘Britain’s Unluckiest Fighter’ because, despite her best efforts, Orton had yet to make her professional debut 2 years into joining the paid ranks.
Now, in her fourth year as a professional, the 32-year-old has only one fight on her resume. Hopefully, this week will see Orton’s luck finally change when she fights at ‘the home of British boxing’—York Hall.
SHE BOXES caught up with Orton to discuss her transition from kickboxing to boxing, the toll that numerous fight cancellations have had on her wellbeing, and her newly announced sponsorship from Undisputed World Champion Chantelle Cameron.
FAST FACTS
NAME: Louise Orton
ALIAS: La Diabla
NATIONALITY: UK
PRE-FIGHT SUPERSTITIONS: Listens to music and speeches from Fearless Motivation in the changing room
POST-FIGHT MEAL: Indian or Turkish food and loves to snack on Pick n Mix
From Troubled Youth to World Champion Kickboxer
Orton admits that she was a handful as a child, always getting herself into trouble. At 12 years old, her mum had had enough of Orton’s behaviour and sent her to a kickboxing class in hopes that she might find a more positive outlet.
“My mum found it quite difficult to cope with my behaviour, she was at her wits’ end. One of her friends suggested a contact sport because she actually did kickboxing herself, just as a keep fit thing. I ended up going to a training session with her and really enjoyed it. I got so much release from kicking and punching a bag that, yeah, I never really looked back.
“When I first started out, it was more of a keep fit/socialising thing and just a way to channel my aggression. As I got a bit older, I got more dedicated and that’s when I started to fight.
“I won the British title, the Three Nations title, and then I went out to Orlando, Florida to fight in the World Kickboxing Championships and won out there as well.”
Switching to Boxing
It’s common to see kickboxers make the transition to boxing. This is mainly because there are more opportunities for top athletes to make a name for themselves in boxing, at both amateur and professional levels.
“The thing with kickboxing is that it’s not an Olympic-recognised sport. The World Championships is really the only major competition. Other than that, you were only ever really fighting in nightclubs for interclub competitions, and it never really got any higher than that.
“Then boxing got accepted into the Olympics and I had been kickboxing with Chantelle Cameron who said, ‘Come on, let’s transfer over.’.
“She went over to boxing first and said it was the best move that she’d made, so I transferred over to boxing as well.”
Switching disciplines paid off for Orton, whose long list of amateur achievements includes beating 2020 Olympic Gold medallist Kellie Harrington.
“I think I’ve had over 45 [amateur] fights. I got the Elite finals 4 times but it wasn’t until my fourth time that I actually won.
“I won the Haringey Box Cup twice and beat Kellie Harrington, which is probably one of my biggest achievements because of her pedigree and the background that she’s got. I actually boxed her twice at Haringey. The first time I boxed her I lost, but then 3 years later I drew her again and yeah, I beat her.
“I also beat Alanna Nihell, who at the time was Alanna Audley-Murphy, she is a Commonwealth Bronze medallist. I won the best female boxer at the competition when I beat both of them, so that was quite a big achievement.”
The Olympic Dilemma
In 2019, off the back of winning the prestigious England Boxing National Elite Championships, Orton had to decide between delaying a professional career in pursuit of making the GB squad or letting go of her Olympic dream to chase professional accolades.
With the next Olympics scheduled for 2020 (although it was delayed until 2021 due to Covid-19), Team GB already had its competition team, so Orton would have had to bide her time in the amateurs for at least 4 more years to try and qualify for the next Olympic cycle.
“I thought realistically age-wise if I do want to have a career in pro boxing, I needed to do it sooner rather than later.
“There were more opportunities in pro, especially with the hype around lots of females turning over, so I just thought, Sod it, I’ll just go pro. So yeah, I turned over in 2019 but that was probably the worst time to turn professional because of Covid.”
‘Britain’s Unluckiest Fighter’
Orton was originally meant to make her debut in February 2020. However, as the show neared, she learned that her then manager had made a mistake and that she wasn’t actually on the undercard.
Her debut was then rescheduled to 3 weeks later in March. Unfortunately, just days before the rearranged date the UK entered its first national lockdown, and everything was cancelled. This pattern of fights being postponed completely out of Orton’s control continued even after lockdown restrictions eased and she’d signed a new management contract.
“I was getting kicked off shows basically to make way for those that were already up there, that had already made a name for themselves.”
“They started to arrange small hall shows and were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll get you on’ and were giving me dates, but because every professional boxer wanted to fight, they were prioritising the popular ones i.e. Matchroom fighters.
“People like me, who hadn’t even made their debut, were not a priority whatsoever. I was getting kicked off shows basically to make way for those that were already up there, that had already made a name for themselves.
“I was then given an actual date where I was 100% going to box, but literally at the scales of the weigh-in I’m told, ‘Nope, show’s been cancelled; someone’s tested positive for Covid.’.
“I’d sold loads of tickets but then had to tell everyone the day before, ‘Oh actually, I’m not fighting now.’. I had so many people that I had to let down. Yeah, they got a refund, but when they’ve already given up a weekend to come and support me, despite what’s happened, they’re still going to get the hump because it’s messed up their weekend.
“This happened probably a good 8 times after that like a week before the fight, a couple of days before the fight, 2 weeks before the fight…they kept getting cancelled. I was consistently in camp for a good year and a half and it kind of broke me.
“My body was exhausted and mentally as well, to keep getting let down. Fight dates would be approaching, and I’d be thinking, Am I actually going to fight? I started to lose confidence.”
Delayed Debut
Orton finally made her debut on Friday 4th March 2022 against Tanzania’s Flora Machela. Despite winning comfortably on points against the competitive Tanzanian, Orton is dissatisfied with her performance.
“Because I hadn’t boxed for a good 3 years, my coach said, ‘Realistically, you can stop this girl within the first kind of 10-20 seconds, but what are you going to achieve by doing that? Yeah, it looks good, but in terms of your development and getting ring rust off, 20 seconds in the ring is not going to teach you anything.’.
“So, the plan was to make it last the 6 rounds. My corner restricted me to no more than 3 shots because they didn’t want it to finish early.
“I found it quite frustrating because the shots were there for me to throw but like my coach said, I needed to get used to fighting without a headguard, 8oz gloves, and get used to being in that professional environment, so I had to make it go the distance.
“Looking back, I probably should have stopped her, but it is what it is, and I got the 6 rounds under my belt.”
Keen to stay active, Orton hoped that her debut would mark the end of her run of bad luck with fights but unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.
“The one thing that I had that was positive in my life, that was my strength, was creating problems for me.”
“I was due to fight again on a show three months later but that got pulled because of Covid. Then fighters were pulling out, and I just kind of lost my head. I thought, I need a break from this, it’s breaking me.
“The one thing that I had that was positive in my life, that was my strength, was creating problems for me. So, I took a year out, got myself back together again, got my head straight, and now I’m back stronger than ever.”
The Resurgence
Feeling refocused after her year out, Orton is on a mission to make a statement this time around. She plans to have one more learning bout before pursuing 50/50 fights and titles. No more pulling her punches to shed ring rust, Orton intends to use her experience to bully her way through the super featherweight and its adjacent divisions.
“This is the best I’ve felt; the coach that I’ve got now, my mentality, my personal life, everything now is a much better situation…”
“I was 12 when I started kickboxing, turned amateur when I was 18, had my first [boxing] fight at 19, and I’m now 32—so it’s been a good like 19/20 years. I’ve had a year out here and there; a couple of years out through injury and to go to uni, but yeah over a 20-year period I’ve boxed.
“I’m not getting any younger. I haven’t got the time now that I had before to ease my way in. I need to get in, get it done, and progress as quickly as I can. There’s no time really to hang around.”
Fans should expect to see a new side to Orton. After all, her life looks completely different compared to this time last year.
“This is the best I’ve felt; the coach that I’ve got now, my mentality, my personal life, everything now is a much better situation than what it was before so I’m feeling a lot more positive.
“When I had my debut, I was working full-time in the prisons as a Mental Health Nurse. I would train before work and then as soon as I’d finished work commute to London. I wasn’t getting home until 9.30/10 at night, it was draining me.
“My coach was a brilliant coach and I’ve still got a really good relationship with him now, but I just couldn’t do the commute anymore.
“When I started up again after my year out, I went to Billy Rumble. He’s a lot closer to home and now I work from home as well.”
Orton is set to make her return to the ring on Saturday 11th November at York Hall in London, but the anxiety about whether she’ll get to fight is looming.
In the time since Orton spoke to SHE BOXES, the fight has already been subject to an opponent change and the threat of being pulled by the UK governing body, the BBBoC, due to a query with her medical. Now, with both those matters resolved, Orton has everything crossed that the evening will go off without a hitch.
Chantelle Cameron Sponsorship
After almost 2 decades in combat sports, it’s no surprise that Orton associates with many of the prospects and champions on the big platforms. In preparation for her next fight alone, Orton has sparred with the likes of Skye Nicolson, Dee Allen, and Raven Chapman who all have world title aspirations.
And of course, it doesn’t get much bigger than her old kickboxing and amateur boxing stablemate, Chantelle Cameron. Cameron is a two-weight World Champion, undisputed at super lightweight, and earlier this year beat previously undefeated boxing royalty Katie Taylor in the away corner.
At the start of October, Orton announced on her social media that Cameron, who had always supported her as a friend, was now financially backing her boxing career as well.
“I pretty much cried when she said she was going to sponsor me.”
“Chantelle’s always been a big supporter of me. She’s always believed in me, even when I’ve not believed in myself. It’s actually because of Chantelle that I came back to boxing, she said, ‘You’ve got so much to give, don’t waste it’ and ‘Don’t give up’.
“She said that she wanted to help me because she knows the struggles that I’ve had, and she wanted to support me on my journey. I pretty much cried when she said she was going to sponsor me. I was so happy and am eternally grateful.
“Obviously, Chantelle has done so well, and she’s not had it easy in boxing either. Beating Katie Taylor was a massive stand-in for her, it’s proved just how good she really is and that she should be getting that recognition. She’s made it now. One of her main goals was to beat Katie Taylor and become undisputed, which she’s done.
“I imagine some people when they reach the top, they kind of forget about everyone at the bottom but Chantelle’s been really good in that sense that she hasn’t and she’s supporting the grassroot people.”
Hoping to follow in Cameron’s footsteps, Orton knows that she has the potential to be another boxing superstar, she just needs the opportunity.
“The goal’s 100% to be World Champion. My short-term goal is to get a domestic belt as soon as possible and hopefully start getting noticed, then fight for the bigger titles on the worldwide platform.
“I’m scheduled to fight again in February, that will probably be more of a 50/50 fight to earn some points and then probably mid-year next year, I’ll be going for a domestic title.”