‘I’m whooping fighters at the top level - one-handed’

Muay Thai fighter Jake Peacock tells Alex Pattle how he hopes competing with one fewer limb will inspire others

- Alex Pattle

"When you actually think about it," Jake Peacock begins, "I'm fighting at the highest level, on the biggest martial arts platform in the world, whooping people the majority of the time, and I've got one hand."

Is that to say Peacock, One Championship’s limb-different Muay Thai phenom, doesn’t think about it?

“People can’t believe it, but I never think about it,” insists the 31-year-old Briton, who was born without a right forearm. “I’ve never even thought, I wish I had two hands, what would it be like? But I know it inspires people. I want to leave a legacy of inspiring others to never give up, to pursue their dreams.”

That is because Peacock has never encountered a challenge he could not overcome, he says. The son of former Chelsea footballer Gavin Peacock, and grandson of ex-Charlton coach Keith Peacock, Jake was always encouraged by his family to “just get on with things”. That included karate, from the age of seven.