2025-10-19 09:30:50
Shannon Ryan has vowed “never again” to try MMA.
The super-flyweight tried to qualify for the Olympics in taekwondo when she was 19 years old before settling on boxing three years later, but she first made a brief detour into mixed martial artis, only to find she didn’t enjoy it.
She told Boxing News magazine: “I had just one MMA training session and never again.
“I didn’t like that at all. IT was the grappling side of it, it just didn’t appeal to me.”
If she hadn’t found success in boxing, Shannon thinks her life would have been very different.
She said: “I think I would be on a film set, either in a film or editing films.
“I love that sort of thing; films and TV, how they get made.
“But from an early age, I have always loved being in front of the camera rather than behind it.
“Or even a dancer, I do like to dance.”
The 28-year-old fighter thinks her sport has changed her “for the better”.
She said: “Boxing has changed my life. I am partnered with O2, a company I used to work for, so I don’t have to work and I can box full time.
“Boxing has done tremendous things for me. It allows me to be in the gym every day.
“It gives me my freedom. It gives me a platform to potentially help others in the future and build a community.
“It’s done a lot but the most important thing is, it has changed me for the better.”
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