Former Team GB boxer Omarah Taylor is set to make her professional debut at home in Birmingham on Wednesday 20th December.
SHE BOXES caught up with the super welterweight prospect to discuss her unconventional path onto GB Boxing, sparring World Champions, and her dream to become undisputed.
FAST FACTS
NAME: Omarah Taylor
ALIAS: OT
NATIONALITY: UK
PRE-FIGHT SUPERSTITIONS: None
POST-FIGHT MEAL: Cookie dough dessert
MAKING TEAM GB AFTER 2 FIGHTS
Taylor describes herself as having always been athletic, with her first sporting passion being hockey.
Eventually though, she found herself wanting to try an individual sport and was encouraged to sign up for a white collar boxing fight.
“I absolutely loved it and got addicted to the routine and what was required. It wasn’t necessarily the fight at the end, I just loved the whole process of it.”
With a newly ignited interest, Taylor had been following the boxing at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics when she saw an advert for #DiscoverYourFight, a campaign by UK Sport to increase female participation in combat sports.
#DiscoverYourFight had been inspired by the likes Anthony Joshua, who had gone from having his first boxing fight at 18 to becoming an Olympic gold medalist within just 5 years. It aimed to identify women who had a certain level of athleticism and fast-track them within either judo, taekwondo, or boxing.
“I only started this to lose weight and before I knew it, 18-months later I was on the national team.”
“I went through serious fitness testing over the course of about 6 months. We had to do certain things on the Wingate, cycle test on the bike, and all that type of stuff. It was kind of like, Can we make you into a boxer?
“I was actually picked to go onto Judo as well. Judo was fun but I got too many burns so in my heart I was always thinking, If I get picked for Judo, I’ll still do boxing anyway. Luckily, the boxing coaches really took a shine to me.
“There were thousands of people and I got down to the last 4; I was picked to go train in Sheffield with the Great Britain team.
“I only started this to lose weight and before I knew it, 18-months later I was on the national team. I was fist-bumping AJ and Buatsi, it was crazy!
“I was on the GB squad after 2 fights, in my third fight I was fighting an Olympic bronze medallist.
“From then, I don’t really think I had chance to say, What am I doing? The person that I am, I just got stuck in. I was flying everywhere, I had international training camps…it was brilliant, I had the best time. I was there on the GB programme for the last 3 and a half years.”
3 YEARS ON GB BOXING
Speaking very highly of her time on the GB Boxing team, Taylor emphasised that above all else it was the environment of being around likeminded people, all striving for greatness, that made the process so enjoyable for her.
When asked if/how the atmosphere changed when she had to compete against her teammates for a spot at the major tournaments, Taylor admitted that it could be challenging.
“You make great friendships there but a lot of the girls that I was closest to weren’t in my weight, that’s just how it goes.
“There’s about 3 or 4 of you at one particular weight. In a way, you’re all kind of competing against each other. Sometimes I did feel that because I’m big on energy so sometimes it was hard to get stuck in, but at the end of the day you’ve just got to think that this is what I want and it’s a single person sport and you’re there for yourself, you know?
“I think you can’t let the environment get to you in those situations, you just have to push on.”
Despite making Team GB, being selected to represent her country on the international stage, and winning competitions like the National Amateur Development Championships, Taylor—being a perfectionist—feels dissatisfied with her amateur career.
“I feel like I’ve got a clean slate with all the experience that I’ve had.”
“I don’t really feel like I fulfilled my potential. That’s why I’ve been out of boxing for the last year because I really needed to like, not grieve, but just kind of get over that because obviously it requires such a huge mental part of you to get into the ring. Now I feel like I’m ready more than anything.
“Other people might look back on my career and say, ‘Oh no, you did really well!’ but how I am, like my dream was to get an ABA medal and I never got that.
“But overall, I had a great time. I made some great friends like the guys we see on the big shows, I’m quite familiar with all of them and it’s really nice to see them doing so well.
“I’m looking forward to my pro career and the future is bright. I feel like I’ve got a clean slate with all the experience that I’ve had.”
SPARRING WORLD CHAMPIONS
After a break from boxing to focus on spending time with her friends and family, running a business (Oneself Wellbeing) with her partner Samantha, and working in security, Taylor is feeling more than ready to take on the paid ranks.
“I thought to myself, I want to see the levels.”
“I’m getting older now, I’m 30 this year, and obviously being in Team GB was great, but I had to spend a lot of time away from family. I was literally living out of a suitcase. Now I love being at home; I don’t mind going away on training camp for a short amount of time, but it just required too much.
“And then also, looking financially, I want to secure my future. With the GB funding you only get an athlete performance allowance, which is funded by UK Sport and The National Lottery, so it was quite limited.
“I’ve been boxing for 6 years now and it just seemed like my apprenticeship had been done. It’s now time to progress on and obviously women’s boxing at the minute is booming, it’s a great place to be for women. It’s still not where it should be, but it’s getting there.”
Ahead of her debut, Taylor has had rounds of sparring with the best of the best including Chantelle Cameron, Natasha Jonas, and Claressa Shields. As well as former GB Boxing teammates and now fellow professional boxing prospects, Paige Murney and Hannah Robinson.
“I thought to myself, I want to see the levels. You need to see who’s the best at each weight and I’ve learnt something different from all of them, whether I’m thinking more or whether they’re faster on their feet, so I’m very grateful for that. It’s been a great progression for me and confidence booster as well.
“This is the thing, I’ve been in with all the girls to a point where [my coach] Joby was like, ‘You’re getting great work with them, what are you doing? When are you coming?’ So here I am now, taking my shot.”
SURROUNDED BY STARS
Taylor is seemingly in good hands having turned over with Joby Clayton, who has worked with her since the early days of her amateur career and currently coaches highly rated prospects, Ben Whittaker and Emanuel Odiase.
“I only have to watch the people that he’s trained and the success that they’ve had and that just instils enough confidence into me that Joby’s the best coach out there for me.”
“100% there’s no question about it, Joby’s my guy. He’s been through it all with me: the ups, the downs, me keeping him up at 3am crying because I’ve had a loss. He’s an amazing coach and he’s starting to get more recognition for how great a coach he is.
“You’ve got the likes of Ben Whittaker now, who’s making a big statement on the pro scene. [Clayton’s] trained Ben from when he was very young, so I only have to watch the people that he’s trained and the success that they’ve had and that just instils enough confidence into me that Joby’s the best coach out there for me. I think with him we can go onto do amazing things.”
No stranger to training alongside the stars, Taylor believes that her stablemates will also help bring out the best in her.
“The thing is with Ben, you look at him and you think, Wow, he’s so skilful. But what I love about him is his work ethic. It’s unmatched.
“He trains really hard, so even just seeing that, I get in and I’m like, ‘How many rounds has he done?’. We might do like 8 rounds and I’ve seen Ben do 12 so I’m like to Joby, ‘Nah, we’re doing 10.’. It just pushes you on a little bit more.”
PROFESSIONAL DEBUT
Sponsored by Oneself Wellbeing, The Junction, Empire, and SH Therapy, the accomplished amateur will make her professional debut in a fight scheduled for 6 rounds at The Eastside Rooms in Birmingham on Wednesday 20th December.
After nearly 4 years of boxing around the world as part of Team GB, Taylor’s looking forward to having the support of a home crowd behind her.
“All I know is I’ll be getting in that ring on the 20th and I’ll be going to 1-0.”
“I’m really happy that it’s local. It’s only up the road and I think it’s going to be a great card as well that night.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Are you going for a knockout?’, and I’m like, ‘No I’m just going take my time and see what happens.’ but obviously I want to perform and put on a good show.
“The hard work is done. I don’t need to prove anything to anyone but myself and I’m just going to enjoy it. All I know is I’ll be getting in that ring on the 20th and I’ll be going to 1-0.”
COMING FOR ALL THE BELTS
Taylor is eager to start making waves in her professional career. Should everything go according to plan, she wants to be doing 8 rounds and chasing titles after her first couple of fights.
“I’m glad I’ve managed to get one out before the end of this year. Hopefully I’ll have 4 fights next year and by the end of next year be contending for a title.
“I want to be moved quite fast, because of my age, but also with the first couple of fights I just really want to get used to it and get back into the swing of things.”
Initially, Taylor stated that her goal was to become a World Champion, before adding that she’d recently seen a few interviews with current champions and that they’d all advised prospects to set their goals higher to keep fuelling the motivation to get up and train.
“I’d love to be undisputed; you know when you see those pictures of champions and they’ve got all the belts, that would be amazing.
“And I always say like, shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars. It’s like you always need to look beyond what you want to get.
“Come on, that’s got to be it: Undisputed.”