British former female boxing champion on fighting prejudice, cancer and formidable opponents

Former world champion boxer Michele Aboro believes in self-empowerment through combat sports, whether that’s through her work teaching sex workers in the Netherlands self-defence skills, boxing with nuns in Britain or training wayward Shanghai teens to become professional boxers.

“Combat sports heal. They put you in a place where you believe anything is possible. You think you can’t do a punch or you can’t move out of the way of a punch. [Then] you are able to do it. It makes you feel good. The sense of achievement is profound. It puts you on a path to enlightenment and becoming a better you,” Aboro, 52, says.

The 163cm (five foot four inches) British boxer, who holds a professional boxing record of 21 wins, no losses and 12 knockout victories over a seven-year career, was in Beijing recently teaching a boxing masterclass organised by Krav Maga Global China (Krav Maga is the hand-to-hand combat system developed for the Israel Defence Forces).

Since relocating to Shanghai in 2009 to be with her photographer partner Masca Yuen, Aboro has been sharing her life story around China in talks and boxing lessons. It is a story of immense resilience: overcoming gender discrimination in the boxing world, beating Stage 3 breast cancer, and opening a boxing academy in Shanghai straight out of hospital.

Despite falling in love with boxing as a child, she was not allowed to pursue the sport in England as women at that time were not allowed professional boxing licences. She was forced to switch to kick-boxing instead, and later moved to the Netherlands where her kick-boxing career thrived.