“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts” – Winston Churchill
Cathy received her Professional Boxing License in August 1998 after six years of competing in kickboxing. She gave up her career as a Forensic Photographer with the Metropolitan Police so she could give 100% to the sport.
Cathy was lucky to find a great trainer in Adam Booth and was coached and mentored from him for 8 years, she started working as a Personal Trainer at Third Space gym in London, so she was able to train twice a day and still earn a living. She met a lot of opposition as not everybody supported her, as some in Britain, including her family, as they felt that a boxing ring was not the place for a woman. But, after seeing her perform, a lot of people re-evaluated their attitude and she won the hearts of some of the unsure, although her parents still did not support her career choice, but that did not dissuade her as she was determined to follow her heart.
Pushing Forward
It was a difficult sales pitch for Cathy after becoming only the 2nd woman in the UK to receive a professional boxing licence, so all her opponents had to be shipped over from abroad, thus it was expensive for the promoters to put her on their shows.
For that reason, she made an agreement with a couple of the British Boxing Promoters that she would sell enough tickets for their shows to cover her opponents and trainers purse, travel and accommodation plus give the promoter a profit. Consequently, her purses were never substantial and because companies were afraid to put their name onto female boxing, she never received any sponsorship. Therefore, she had to do a lot of ‘leg work’ selling tickets coming up to each fight whilst training and working, but she was determined to be successful in the sport that she loved. She named herself “The Bitch” as she needed a controversial ring name so that it would catch the media’s eye. Mixed with her passion for the sport and her feminine appearance she made a big bee line to the press and did her own PR, and it worked, they loved Cathy and she got a lot of TV and Media Coverage (see THE MEDIA VOICE). She wanted people to recognise that women could fight, in an attempt to persuade more Boxing Promoters to put women on their shows, and still look feminine and be successful to encourage more females to enter into the sport. Her determination and passion for boxing led her to win English and European titles and becoming ranked number 3 in the World. Which shows that hard work, perseverance and determination pay off.