Boxer Lisa Whiteside rocks the boxing world on return

The 36-year-old Preston boxer has been inactive since September 2019 due to a multitude of reasons.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal winner – who was honoured to carry the Queen’s Baton when it visited Preston ahead of this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham – took time out of the sport to give birth to her first child, son Jensen, in the early part of last year.

Her comeback was then hampered by a shoulder injury, picked up in training, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.

There has also been the added frustration of fighters seemingly appearing to avoid her since she turned professional in the early part of 2019 – her stellar amateur record obviously going before her.

Remaining patient has been the name of the game for Whiteside but having signed a promotional deal with Probellum, her career finally seems to be back on track.

Her return took place late last month when she faced tough Serbian fighter Jasmina Nad in Newcastle.

If fight fans were expecting Whiteside to find her feet first on her comeback bout, they were to be very much mistaken as the former World Amateur Championship silver medallist floored Nad within seconds of the opening bell with a right-hander.

It was confirmation to Whiteside that she had lost none of her power, although the early knockdown obviously shocked her opponent who battened down the hatches for the rest of the contest.

The Chorley-born super-bantamweight ace went on to win all six rounds but the way the fight panned out was not quite how her trainer Mick Day had envisaged.

"I was very nervous going into it but it all worked out in the end,” said Whiteside.

"Mick just said to me treat it as a 10-rounder and go into the first round as though it was the third round and just be nice and sharp. But obviously I dropped her within 20 seconds and Mick said to me afterwards, ‘That was a bit too soon’.

"I just replied, ‘Well make your mind up – you told me to be sharp’.

"It was nice to do that – I got lots of nice feedback from people who were saying things like, ‘No way have you been out of the ring for three years’.

"I have been waiting a long time for a fight date and so I’ve been in camp for quite a long time.

"That’s meant that I have been getting loads of sparring in against good quality people so it obviously paid off."

Whiteside – who is managed by S-Jam – admits there have been moment over the past three years when she has often wondered whether she would ever return to the ring.

"I think when my shoulder went that caused me doubts,” she said. “I was just about to sign for Frank Warren but I threw this left hook to the body in sparring and I just knew straight away that something was wrong.

"I couldn’t lift my arm up and I just thought, ‘Here we go!’.

"I am not going to lie, it was tough mentally because I just thought what else is going to get thrown at me.

"I did question whether I would be able to mentally and physically recover from it, but luckily I managed to get a private scan on the injury and had the operation on the NHS.

"There wasn't too much of a waiting list and I just dug deep and got stuck into all the rehab.”

Over the past year or so and while Whiteside has been sidelined, women’s boxing has continued to grow in popularity and she sees no reason why she can’t become one of the sport’s biggest stars in the future.

She added: "I feel like women’s boxing has boomed while I have been away and my managers have been able to go out and see who may be interested in signing me.

"We managed to get a few offers and the best one is with Probellum.

"I am really chuffed to sign with them. I have 100% trust in them and my managers and I really feel that there are big things to come.”

Whiteside has always maintained that she will become a world champion in the future.

She is hoping that her next fight will be later this year.

First through she has to wait another couple of weeks for a cut she sustained against Nad to fully heal before she can resume training.

"I have just got to wait to see what route Probellum want to take me down,” she said.

"I want to fight on the biggest shows – I know some of the girls in my weight category are signed to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. So we will just have to wait and see what the future holds.”