Still fighting – Mexican-based Babington vows to hunt down first win

Sinead Babington [0-2] lost another fight in Mexico recently but hasn’t lost the fight within.

The Mexico City-based Math teacher climbed through the ropes for a second time at the Auditorio Blackberry in the capital just over two weeks ago and tasted a second successive defeat.

The fighter with the most unique backstory in Irish boxing was competitive and brave against Joana Chavarria Lopez but was stopped on her feet in the dying seconds of a four-round clash.

It’s disappointing for the Carrick-on-Suir lightweight but the 30-year-old won’t allow it to dishearten her or dampen her fighting spirit – and has vowed to keep fighting in every sense of the word.

Rather than back away from the sport, she has vowed to make the changes needed to get a green W on her Boxrec record.

“I am keen to fight and win,” Babington tells Irish-boxing.com “But I’m definitely struggling to juggle being a full-time math teacher and be 100% in my training with the commute in Mexico City traffic, so I’m trying to see what changes I can make,” she adds before eyeing up a move closer to home.

“Possibly even go to UK next year.”

Reflecting on her most recent bout she said: “It didn’t go great. The referee stopped it 15 seconds before the final bell. He warned me to throw more punches or he would. I wasn’t hurt, I think I just tired out a bit.”

Babington, who only had 15 amateur fights and was handed a tough introduction to pro boxing, was expecting to fight a former sparring partner but was handed a much tougher test against a fighter with a winning record last minute.

“I just felt flat. I wasn’t hurt and her nose was bleeding from the first round,” she adds. “I was landing straight punches but she knew how to get inside and pin me against the ropes.”

The Tipp fighter’s back may still be against the ropes somewhat but she is planning to fight her way out of trouble and already has plans to make improvements – and if worse comes to worst she may just get some well-earned luck on her third time out.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board and keep going. I’ll look at getting some strength and conditioning training for the next one because my conditioning failed me a bit. It also wasn’t good timing having been just back into school full-time teaching and training for the last five weeks. Hopefully, it will be third time lucky.”