Two fights into her pro career – with a third outing in June expected to be confirmed soon – and Ellie Scotney is buzzing.
Catford’s former Team GB amateur standout was last in action in March, securing a super-bantamweight victory against Mailys Gangloff.
Now a perfect 2-0 after a garlanded amateur career, Scotney tells Boxing Social she will be staying put at 122lbs, despite having made her pro debut at featherweight (126lbs).
“Yep, I’m going to be boxing at super-bantam,” the 23-year-old – who is trained and managed by Adam Booth – confirms. “Boxrec still have me at feather but I’m sticking at super-bantam.”
The animated and good-humoured Scotney is particularly thrilled to have entered the pro ranks at a time when – despite the pandemic – women’s boxing is growing stronger and more high profile every week.
“Women’s boxing is really starting to take off,” she enthuses. “We’re all really willing to fight each other rather than hand-picked opponents. There isn’t the depth where you can hand-pick to be honest. So we’re able to really bring it and challenge that old school mentality of ‘women shouldn’t fight’. Every fight is a punch-up right now. It’s really good.”
Scotney first walked into the Lynn AC gym in Camberwell at the age of nine and credits her older brothers with instilling in her a certain toughness which has held her in good stead ever since.
“Growing up with five brothers really helped me I think. You’re a bit of a target being the youngest. Also my mum told me I’d never be a model, so becoming a boxer wasn’t a problem where my mum’s concerned!”
Wisecracks aside – and Scotney delivers a great wisecrack by the way – she admits that she has always taken pleasure in proving the sexists and the misogynists wrong.
“When I used to go to the gym people would say: ‘What, a girl fighter?’” she recalls. “They’d point at me but then I’d get in there and spar the boys and then they’d have to say: ‘Oh, she can really fight!’
“I used to love walking in, getting pre-judged as a girl and then shutting them up when I started to fight. I loved that! Some people would find it daunting but that’s what I liked the most to be honest!
“There’s nothing better than someone saying to me: ‘You fight like a man’. As long as they’re not saying I look like one, I’ll take that compliment every day!”