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From 5 Operations to World Title Contender | Shauna Browne | Between the Rounds · Between The Rounds Official

• Sarah: Shauna Browne's story has many layers most people never hear about. Five major operations since she was 19, three surgeries on her right arm, six and a half years away from the sports she loved since she was 14. She came back, got sober, won the Irish elite national title after years out of the ring, and then turned pro at 30. She's been Katie Taylor's primary sparring partner for two of biggest fights of her career. She was... Terri Harper's main sparring partner, ahead of the Caroline Dubois Unification. And she believes she's two fights away from a world title shot of her own. Her story has setbacks, comebacks, and what it costs to keep going when nobody else expects you to. Today, I have her on Between the Rounds and Shauna: and all the ups and the downs and the hurdles I have to go through because I am sober and because I these tools that I can use ⁓ to keep me mentally strong when everything around me is falling and failing and like ⁓ not happening the way it ⁓ should happen. Anybody else would quit. Sarah: I'm so excited to have this conversation Welcome to Between the Rounds, Shauna. Shauna: have to say that was a fantastic intro. Sarah: Well, a fantastic intro for a fantastic woman. ⁓ do want to start where all started, right? Not the pro career just yet, not the comeback, but Clonmel. So take me back to Clonmel Boxing Club. You were fixated by 14. What did boxing give you that nothing else could at that age? Shauna: Why thank you, takes one to know one. But I don't. I think I found my place when I started boxing. I was a kid, I used to pack a bag when I was six years of age and try to run away from home. I didn't like being around kids. I preferred being around adults. ⁓ Don't get me wrong, I used to be out playing in the... Sarah: what do you want a young fighter hearing this right now to take away from your ⁓ story? Shauna: My biggest thing is don't put limits on yourself, regardless of what happens in your life. If you have this voice inside you telling you you are destined for more, that you are able for more, voice is there for a reason. a estate used to play football, all these different games. I yeah, I love that part, even my girl friend's group, I really didn't feel like I fitted in. I felt a bit like an outcast in a sense. Until I started boxing and man, I found my home. I would call it my safe haven. So like, matter what was going on outside, whether it was trouble at home. when ⁓ I was sitting and drinking and sessioning with all these people, I had voice in the back of my head telling me, you're way better than this. This isn't you, this isn't your life, you are destined for so much bigger and better. When that voice is there, don't ignore it. ⁓ And don't let other people silence it either, because that can be the thing. Trouble in school, the minute I walked in those doors of the Ellampark Boxing Club and closed this, nothing came with me. That was my safe place and that's what boxing gave me. Sarah: You obviously came up ⁓ through an era where women's boxing wasn't huge at the time, right? You probably like you were the only young female fighter in Clonmel Shauna: People will judge you for trying something that they would never even imagine trying. And you are putting yourself out there doing it. And the people that have an opinion on it, the only reason they have an opinion is because they won't put themselves out there and do it. Or maybe they aren't lucky enough to realize they have a dream and they can go chase it. . even when I started when I was 14, was actually quite hard to keep females around, not many of them stayed in it. Obviously I was lucky to become part of the high performance by the time I was like 15, so being around the likes of Kellie and all those girls all up around Dublin area, because there wasn't too many around Munster, was brilliant. even like that, when you go out and people are like, so I'll give you an example, when we go for the All-Irelands, we get a sponsorship card and you go around to get sponsorship money to raise, because you had to raise 250 quid. And I'd go and knock on doors because I don't really care. I'll walk in and I'm like, yeah, will you sponsor me or I'll go into a pub. Some of the people answering the doors would be like, sorry, you're a woman, a girl, you shouldn't be boxing. That's only for boys. So that's the way it was back then. People's perception on boxing was only for men, not for women. So I did get that quite a lot, like quite a lot growing up. But I didn't really care because I ended up in the club with Martin Fennacy and Martin pushed me just as hard as the men, if not harder, because I think he wanted to see whether it, would make me or break me. And it made me. The more he pushed, the more I progressed on. I ended up falling in love with the sport. I was in the like, it's a funny story. I was in the kids' class Sarah. So it was kids' class beginners, the six to seven. But I fell in love with it so quickly. Within like the first few days. Sarah: of them. Shauna: of me being sneaky, me always thinking of ways of staying around. So the adults class was 7th 8th. So I'd lie and say, I've no lift home, can I please just stay? So I was doing 6th to 8th for three nights a week, every week. And that's why I progressed so quickly. I started boxing in September or October. By that March, I won my first All-Ireland, but I was after beating two previous Irish champions. So obviously it says a lot about my capability being called in by the number one female in the world. Like she's going down in history. This woman is never going to be forgotten for everything she's accomplished in the sport. Best sports person in the world, male and female in my eyes for what she's produced and what she's done. I was 57 kilos and the two girls that I beat, one was the previous year 57 kilo champion and kilo champion from the previous year. And I was like, Shauna O'Keefe came out the door, who the hell are you? Sarah: You were cleaning up. being exposed to it here in Ireland, everyone's kind of taught a very similar playbook Shauna: Katie Taylor did it all. And only that, watch she's produced. Don't get wrong, we can't forget like the Deirdre Gogherty's of the world, Christy Martin's of the world. I only started learning about them in the last year, year and half maybe. And they're powerhouses too, we owe them an awful lot. But in my eyes... Sarah: Back in 2015, was it the same in terms of your exposure to high performance and what you were getting at the club level? Shauna: Taylor is the trailblazer for me because she's who I followed since day dot. I it in interviews when I came back boxing because her first Amanda Serrano fight ⁓ Amy Broadhurst got called out to be her partner and I fought Amy Broadhurst and I beat her. so obviously the high performances, there's a lot more technical work behind it because like working with Zaur Antia, let's be honest about it, he's the governor. I love to work with him. A lot of the stuff even I was learning in the high performance, I was actually bringing it back to my amateur club and I was doing it with all the kids. So anything new I had. Even to this day, if there's any new like... conditioning workout that I have that I know will be really good. I send it over to my amateur coach and that's way it's been since I was up in the high performance since I was 15. I guarantee you if I was boxing I would have been called to be Katie Taylor's sparring partner. So obviously I got back box and my first dream and goal I wrote down, cause I have a whiteboard every six months of the year, swear to God, the minute I turned over, I was like, yes, I'm going to become Katie Taylor's sparring partner. And that was in October. We did have like the Munster High Performance come to us and a lot of the stuff we did in the Munster High Performance when I was 14. A lot of the stuff that we did in the High Performance but the technical stuff you do is Zaur No, And then they brought me over for a week to trial and test it and see was it worth bringing me in. And man, be honest, I surprise myself. Sarah: You are relentless, like in the ring, so I can only, but they're like, yes, bring this work, please. Shauna: I know they love this. I had an amazing work with her. Yeah, she says it's the best round she's had. She's even said it is that sparring me is harder than some of the fights that she's had. So like feedback like that off Katie is just it's extraordinary and it does go to show where I'm at and then even being and Partners for Terri for her fight. I've actually been sparring and Partners for Terri for the last three fights. I have my own kids class Tuesday to Thursday and then I sometimes help with the Carded kids. And I started doing the opposite hand opposite leg stuff. Man, it blew their minds, They could not do it. But that stuff that I was doing since I was like 14. Yeah, it's like second nature, but they couldn't. Sarah: Yeah, so it's just rhythm to you. Yeah. Yeah. Shauna: So it just goes to show how different everybody is. think, personally, as much as they say like the UK is unbelievable, man, I rate Irish fighters and Irish boxing, Irish amateur clubs and Irish coaching just show the caliber of the fighter I am if I mix them with all these world Sarah: What did you learn about yourself, you know, about your own game, being in camp with both Katie and Terri Harper? Shauna: just know my capability. ⁓ capability is extraordinary. then the amazing thing about it is seeing my progress every single spar, how well I ⁓ how well I adapt. Because I've a good eye in the ring. I can see things that I should be doing or see something that's going wrong. I can fix it. And be able to do that and I'm only eight fights in and I'm in against these girls that are world champions, they're veterans of the sport. It just goes to show. Sarah: a different level of strategy, tactics, thinking, like the application of it. You're you're you're really designing your plays Shauna: where I'm at and where I'm going to go. So that gives me, it gives me loads of excitement, but also gives me the belief that I'm capable to do it all. Cause if I can get in the ring and I'm having unbelievable rounds at all these champions and you could see winning rounds, winning moments. I'll have an exciting ahead of ⁓ Sarah: So you're competing and then you're winning and then you face Katie Taylor in the elite finals in 2015. And then it stopped. Walk me through what happened there. Shauna: Well, unfortunately, I have to take some responsibility for it, Sarah. I've made some poor decisions in regards to my team, the choice of team or choice of management, whatever it can be. I fought Katie in 2015, that was November. I got my ACL done that April and I was in with my surgeon that June and he told me I won't box again till the next year. I was in a bad way. It's like my knee surgery didn't work. But I take full responsibility for that. But it's a lot of learning and a lot of life lessons. Even taking the Elif-Turan fight, we knew I shouldn't have taken it and I still took it. I had an amazing win against Taylor Jensen in her back garden seven weeks before this. I should have just enjoyed that win and left it, but the honest truth of it. he pretty much that my career was over. And obviously maybe me just stubborn as ever. like, no, this doesn't feel right. So I went to the gym and went to the swimming pool every single day and I did my own rehab. And by the end of August, I got back in the ring and I boxed in the Celtic Box Cup and I won the Celtic Box Cup. then my coach was like, you win that Shauna and we'll send you to the Intermediate. I fought in the Intermediate, won the Intermediate and I ended up winning the best boxer with the IBA for the Intermediate. And then I fought Katie Taylor. I won third round. I'll take it to the grave. between needing a fight and then obviously finance. This is the thing that nobody knows. And I won the fight against Taylor Jensen. I came home that week and my dad has given me money to pay my rent. I had the fight of my career. but I had no money to pay my rent. So But I was 20 years of age, she was 30. It's Katie Taylor. my coach wanted me to go down to 57, right? And I said no. I wanted the opportunity at 60, But I also wanted the opportunity to share the ring with one of the women that I call my idol. Like I wouldn't have one of those things where my legs will go because I'm like, oh my God, I'm starstruck. No. Obviously taking the Elif-Turan fight was dangerous but I also needed money. So that's also another thing that I'll take responsibility for doing but I wasn't right. I grabbed the opportunity by the horns and that's exactly what I did and it was the best thing I've ever done. It elevated me in ways you'd never understand because I'm 20 years of age only back boxing four months after me now, I think two or three years at that stage. I got in the ring with one of the best fighters in the whole world and I held my own. So like when you're getting in against the likes of that caliber of fighter and you're holding your own. roughly six weeks before I got given her name There was no sparring organized, which was really bad for WBC Eliminator. week, I was originally supposed to fight at 140 and I was 146 and a half, Sarah. There's not too many you're not going to hold your own with. if ⁓ you want to the best you have to be in with the best and that's the way it is. And they changed it to 135 on the Monday. I had over stone to lose in four days. So not only lack of preparation, I was severely weight drained also. I shouldn't have taken it. Sarah: I couldn't agree more. You people thinking that they're best at something, but they're playing in a very safe space. if you could just push yourself just beyond that, what does that look like? And what sort of confidence can you build off of that? Sure. You know, you might not win on the scorecards, but you've accomplished so much more internally for yourself, right? Shauna: All that will happen, will elevate you and it will progress you on. Like after I fought Katie I got called to become, to go up to the high performance and be on the team with the guys getting ready for Rio for 2016. I was the only girl of training there for six months, Sarah, and I travelled up every Tuesday to Friday every single week Yeah, so it was good obviously after that because everyone was like, they were questioning who I was and my ability because I got taken out with a shot in the first 30 seconds, but it was the first 30 seconds and I did recover well from the shot. just, I didn't put my hands up in time. And people would say, looked a bit lost, but obviously I was lost. was severely weight drained. You try to go into a fight severely weight drained ⁓ see how you handle it. like women should. It doesn't work for women. the fact that even got into the fight regardless of it is massive. And I did take the shot really well considering how weight drained I was. I wasn't being paid by the high performance. ⁓ There's only one number one that gets paid. ⁓ I worked on the weekends to be able train every weekend, the high performance, and it was the best experience of my life. And then Katie Taylor obviously ends up turning over the summer of 2016 after what in Rio. Sarah: That's amazing. Shauna: So the only person that didn't get a fair ride against Elif Thuram was me, obviously with the notice, with the weight cut with all that, all those factors that need to be factored in I get called to go to the Europeans, the elite Europeans. It's the biggest level you can go at. First ever time. And I finished top eight in Europe. I got beat by the Russian that won the gold. And she fought everybody in the contest and she came up to me and said I was the hardest fight that she had in the whole Sarah: I well Shauna: I literally put my life on the line in the ring. I gave it absolutely everything more than they've ever seen in any fighter. Because like the last 10 seconds of the first round Sarah, she elbowed me in the eye and split my eye open. I couldn't see the blood was gushing down my face. I saw black four times, she hit me so hard. I had concussion for that after that fight for 12 weeks. But you know what? I went through the whole fight. I didn't give up. I gave it my absolute all for the simple reason. How was I to know when I was gonna get an opportunity like that again? Sarah: you did say ⁓ publicly that your greatest achievement isn't anything that's happened the ring, it's getting sober. Can you share a little bit on your story there? Shauna: I used to call myself a seasonal drinker from the age of like 14. So it boxed from September to December. I wouldn't drink, I'd drink for Christmas. I'd be on the dry then from January to May. The minute the summer comes, I go missing for the whole summer But then it was when injuries actually came into it, that's when everything went downhill badly. That's when I kind of lost control of it. Obviously I had injuries between the age of 16 till I was like 19, 20. ⁓ From the age of 20 till I 22, nearly 23, I didn't touch a drink because I was banging box and I was doing really well. ⁓ And then I got injured in the ring. And I hyper extended my elbow and needed two surgeries to fix that. And then I ended up in a car and that also surgery to fix. My career was pretty much over. The surgeon told me I'd never box again. And that was for six and a half years. So ⁓ don't get me wrong, I... I channeled my energy into work. I became a personal trainer and I was unbelievable at it. I opened up a gym with my ex-partner. I'd excelled unbelievably at that, but obviously the darkness inside me without the loss of my boxing because as everybody knows and I've spoken a lot about it, I am who I am as a fighter. I don't function and I'm not on this earth ⁓ I'm surviving. when I don't have my boxing, but when I have my boxing, I am living my best life. I'm living my full potential. Without it then, it's just, it's a dark place and I go with drinking. I end up around the wrong people. I make bad decisions, but since I got back boxing, since I gave up the drink, don't get me wrong, my life hasn't been roses in the garden, but I wake up every single day. I'm extremely grateful. I'm sober. I'm a professional boxer, people would pray to be in my shoes. I'm living in the UK, I'm living on my own, I'm doing alright and it's literally because I gave up the drink and I knew the devil was the drink and I knew I had no life drinking because I couldn't control it, unfortunately. I don't really believe it's a good move because even with the Olympia, they struggle to sell tickets. obviously you have to factor in the weekend. There was a show in Deontay Wilder and Chizora were on the same weekend. It terrible choice of a weekend. But I do know the ticket sales were poor, they go on views because of Sky Sports. And I believe the views were very high. That is also my question as well. I know everybody wants women to get their and their slots and they want to get like, they want more of a hype train around women. It's not women and male boxers. We all are boxers. ⁓ We all train the exact same. We all turn up the same. We all get into fights. They win same belts. We're all fighters. I'm on a call from a person and if it goes really, really well, yeah, it might actually be the saving of my career, just put it that way. I'm not losing hope on my career. As me and my coach even said the other day. I am literally one to two fights away from a world title. That's the reality of it. I need is a good manager and a good promotional team to just get me the fights and get me in line. ⁓ I get that, leave the rest up to me. ⁓ You normally have that phase where there's like stagnation before there's elevation. And I guarantee you, you will look back on this podcast in a few weeks time and I'll be like, yeah, she knew what she was talking about. want all of the 135 division. I'm not gonna lie. I think I've played it too nice. I've been Mrs. Nice Girl sitting in the background, being everybody's sparring partner, getting everybody ready for world titles. I came into this game to be a champion, to win fights, win world titles, make a name for myself. pave my own pathway for other girls and boys to watch and look at me and say I want to be like her. That's what I'm going to do. So every girl at 135, I'm telling you now when I get in that ring and I get a marking and I get mandatory, which I will make myself mandatory, they better be ready because I'm bringing everything. I am telling you now the fire I have in my belly and the belief I have in myself is second to none. They're all in trouble. They're all in trouble. Sarah: I'm excited for what the lightweight division going to look like for you in the coming years. ⁓ So that completed story of Shauna Browne like unified champion at Shauna: 100 % no I want to become understood and then move up and become yes boy yes Sarah: Two weight division. Shauna: Don't believe everything you hear and don't be so easily trusting to people. When they say get a dog if you want a friend, man, it's very, very true. Sarah: Shauna, thank you so much for joining me on Between the Rounds and for giving ⁓ some insights into strategies that shape you as a future champion. Shauna: Thank you so much, Sarah. It was really good to be on.