Much is expected of gifted 19-year-old Tiah-Mai Ayton.
Ayton is undefeated after five professional fights and has scored four stoppages. She is being looked after by Irish manager Brian Peters, who also handles the career of Irish great Katie Taylor, and Ayton is being tipped for the top by Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, who promotes her.
But with great fanfare and exposure comes the downside.
Ayton, a victim of her own success, went the distance in her previous fight – going eight rounds with Catherine Tacone Ramos in February – and immediately the unadulterated praise of previous nights was vanquished by stinging critique.
In the same breath, though, a less-than-stellar showing from the Ayton alleviated some of the burdensome stresses.
“After my last fight, I feel like the pressure’s off a bit, because I didn't get a stoppage and stuff,” Ayton told BoxingScene. “In that sense, the pressure’s gone. But then it also is like, I’ve been performing well, so it’s the pressure of staying at that level.”
There was also a benefit of getting the rounds in. Ayton has always had power. She started kickboxing at the age of 6 and then boxed internationally as an amateur. She was able to stop opponents even then, so although she would like to dazzle each time and boast a 100 per cent KO ratio, she knows the education of a distance fight is invaluable.
“It is about learning and developing, because I am only young, like I’m 19,” she said. “And I’ve got years of this. So I would rather have bad fights now and learn from my mistakes now, because there's no belts on the line and it’s not like I’m out-out there yet. But it was also like, when you do underperform, you still get like the backlash of it, like on social media. So you can’t win, really. I do have a lot of pressure on me, but I’ve had pressure on me my whole life, to be honest. This is just normal to me now.”
Did she get a “backlash” last time out?
“Yeah, I did,” she sighed. “I didn’t go on my phone for, like, a week. [But] I’ve chosen to be in the public’s eye and everything. So just hearing what they’ve said, I've chosen to do that. I’ve just got to take it, just get on with it, just improve and get better.”
She also said she needs to develop a thicker skin.
“I’m really sensitive,” Ayton explained. “When I see, like, hate comments, I do get upset about it. But I have good family and friends around me. They’re always telling me like, ‘Don't listen to them, you’re doing great.’ And my coaches, they're great. And my manager is great as well. I’m very lucky to have, like, everyone around me being so positive. My dad literally told me he was looking at the comments and he was telling me, ‘Oh, you got loads of good ones. You got loads of good ones.’ And then my sister told me a bad one that I had. And I just remember that one bad one other than everyone just being nice to me. It’s weird. It’s true, that saying: You’re only as good as your last fight.”
But it can’t be denied that Ayton’s stock is still rising. Her supporters have not jumped off the gravy train, and her backers still have every belief in her ahead of her outing against experienced Stevi Levy in Wolverhampton, England, this weekend on the bill topped by the local Midlands derby between Conah Walker and Sam Eggington.
She hopes it will be the first of three or four fights through the rest of the year but joked she didn’t want to be too active due to having to make featherweight all the time.
Ayton’s quick wit is matched by her ambition. As long as Peters and Matchroom say she can win a fight, she will box anyone she’s instructed to.
“I don’t really mind,” she said of how quickly she might progress. “I would literally fight anyone. If I got offered a world title shot in 12 to 18 months against someone, I would take it. I feel like women’s boxing moves a lot quicker than male boxing. Either way, I’m gonna have to fight for a world title sooner than later.”
She’s living a dream for now. She always hoped she would be picked up by Matchroom and box on the big shows.
She wants to be an undisputed champion at a couple of weights and one day headline at Ashton Gate, home of Bristol City Football Club.
With Peters and her promoter trying to get Taylor the farewell fight at Croke Park she’s craving, Ayton is with the right people.
“It’s great because I get to see everything Katie’s accomplished, making women’s boxing big and everything,” Ayton said. “And if [Peters has] done all that with Katie, then hopefully he can do the exact same with me.”
And despite the criticism last time out, there is nowhere Ayton would rather be than in the middle of the ring in front of a large crowd letting her hands go. It’s all she has ever wanted.
“It’s mad that is actually happening,” she said. “Because people have dreams in life, but it is hard to make it in a sport. Nowadays, everyone wants to be a champ, everyone wants to be a boxer or a footballer or a rugby player. So it’s mad that I'm actually being able to, like, do it.
“Hopefully, this time I can do great again, and everyone will start gassing me up again saying how great I am.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
