For Ellie Scotney, it all started with a Mars bar and a Ribena. As a “child of God”, Scotney now avoids temptation at all costs, but her nine-year-old self was somewhat less disciplined. In the long run, it was for the best; the allure of a sugar rush brought her to her first boxing gym, fuelling her journey to the present day, where she has just become Britain’s youngest-ever undisputed champion.
“I first walked into a gym at nine, because my brother boxed,” Scotney tells The Independent, “and I always mess around and tell the story that he came home with a Mars bar and a Ribena – and I was like: ‘I want that!’ He wouldn’t let me go with him, but my cousin ended up taking me. I stopped because women’s boxing wasn’t a thing; I was the only female, I couldn’t get fights. I only did it for a year.”
