Boxing clever Unbeaten teenager Tiah tipped for superstar status

EVERY time Tiah Mai Ayton steps into the ring and fights competitively, she wins.

- Tristan CORK [e-mail]

Hundreds of times. Every time. The last time she lost a fight was when she was just eight years old and doing kickboxing. And she won the rematch, then kept winning to be named world champion. Ever since then, through hundreds and hundreds of fights as a junior and an amateur, transitioning from kickboxing to Muay Thai, MMA and then boxing, Kingswood’s finest has simply never lost.

And now, after turning professional, signing up with Eddie Hearn’s legendary Matchroom Boxing stable and wowing the crowds, and a live TV audience in her first professional fight, the 18-year-old from East Bristol has her sights firmly set on world domination, with Hearn as her biggest cheerleader.

In Birmingham for her first pro fight, Tiah lived up to the hype that had been made about her, by knocking out her first opponent, Sara Orszagi in the third round at the big Matchroom event. It wasn't just the victory, but the manner of the win that got the boxing world to sit up and take notice - Tiah absolutely destroyed her opponent in a way that is rarely seen in women’s boxing, with the kind of strong punches more commonly seen in heavyweight men’s bouts.

"It’s my job to lay down the hype and oversell, but when you've got it with someone you truly believe in, it's a lot of fun," Hearn told IFLTV in the aftermath of Tiah’s first professional fight.