Meet boxing's next rising star who lost over two stone in remarkable transformation after being inspired by Tyson Fury

09/05/2024 04:00 AM

Lillie Winch is entering the professional ranks having already undertaken a remarkable journey.

The new female star on the block has recently turned over as a professional and picked up a comfortable win on her debut outpointing Angelika Oles in June.

She will no doubt attract more interest as her journey continues this weekend when she faces Katherine Quintana in her latest step in Essex.

But it is her journey before making it to the ring which draws the attention, having shed a remarkable 13.2kg [nearly two stone] from 75kg to 61.8kg to make weight for boxing.

Winch has revealed that she is proud to have made the achievement, and believes it set her up nicely moving forward.

“Yeah it’s a great thing to have as part of my journey,” Winch told talkSPORT.com.

“If I’m honest I never meant to get that big anyway. It was more I was just fed up of feeling that way.

“I felt sluggish and before I’d always been generally been around the late 50kgs, early 60kgs then I ballooned up.

“I had a knee injury and I had really bad mental health, which mean I stayed in bed for weeks and months and didn’t do anything.

“I was never supposed to get that big and I just did from eating so much and not doing anything with it.

“It was after Christmas [2020]. I thought, ‘I can’t keep feeling like this every day’, and I just needed to get back in the gym.

“So I got back into the gym, had a meeting over my license and I didn’t want to fight at that weight as I felt horrible.

“So I decided to come down and here we are and I’m in a much better place.”

An instrumental figure in many people’s weight loss journeys from the world of boxing is former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

Fury reached the peak of the sport when he beat Wladimir Klitschko against the odds in 2015 to become unified world champion.

But after a battle with mental health struggles, Fury ballooned to around 400lbs in weight [28 stone] which put his boxing career in tatters.

But he managed to lose in excess of 150lbs to return to fighting weight and improve his health, in an inspirational journey which has seen him return to the pinnacle of his game in the present day.

And Winch has revealed watching the ‘Gypsy King’s documentary on his battle got her to consider making a change of her own.

“Yeah we went away for a camp in Spain to train and it fell when my knee injury came and when I was in a really bad place,” Winch continued.

“When we wasn’t training I did nothing other than sat in bed. When I was there I watched his documentary.

“Every day it gave me that hope that one day I would wake up and feel better.

“And I kept thinking that if he can do it with all the pressure on him, then I can do it without all the pressure on me.”

It has been an emotional rollercoaster for the young talent, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 13.

She has been a strong advocate for mental health and plans to rise to the top of the sport, and use her platform to express to the masses about mental health awareness.

In the present day, Winch is in great shape and is eyeing a rise to the summit of the sport.

And she believes that one day she will follow in the footsteps of modern-era star Fury by lifting a world title belt.

She concluded: “I’d love to be a world champion in multiple weight divisions.

“That is the plan for me. But that is in the long-term really, so I can look forward to that.

“For now I’d like to keep boxing, stay active and keep plugging away.

“I want to keep learning on the job, keep gaining new experiences and opportunities.”

Winch fights in Brentwood, Essex this Saturday.