Even by the standards of women’s boxing, Nina Hughes’ rise to the top has been supercharged.
She became WBA bantamweight champion in November last year by outpointing Jamie Mitchell in Dubai, in just her fifth professional fight.
This is made more remarkable by Hughes being a 41-year-old mother of two who still works a part-time secretarial job to help support her young children.
“It’s crazy,” she tells BBC Sport. “Five fights and I become world champion, it has happened all so quickly.”
Yet not quite as quickly as it might first appear. Hughes has been boxing for more than 15 years. She has been written off plenty of times, not least by herself.
Hughes, from Grays in Essex, began boxercise classes at the age of 25. She had no intention of stepping into the ring competitively.
“I was purely enjoying the fitness, but I got talked into it by my coach,” she says. “So I started sparring, then he said ‘you’re ready to box’.
“I didn’t think I was good, the boys kept beating me up!” (BBC Sport)