Clonmel star Shauna O’Keeffe is ready to take the pro boxing world by storm!

Stephen: What a buzz the last few months have been for you Shauna, turning pro and now later this week, your first professional fight, how are you feeling?

Shauna: Preparations have been amazing Stephen, there is so much learning and a lot of hard sparring! All the girls I’ve mixed and sparred with are in my weight division but they have had three, four or ten fights before at my weight division and I have been absolutely flying it against them in the ring. I’m really ready after 11 weeks of hard work.

Stephen: This was a natural progression for you. Have you achieved so much as an amateur, did the time just feel right to turn pro?

Shauna: It has been some journey. Everybody knows I took a six-year break to pursue a career as a part-time trainer and that went really well.

But I put a glove back on my hand in October 2022 and the year just literally skyrocketed between winning the Elites, winning a gold medal in Poland, winning gold in Haringey, then turning pro in September and now my first pro fight. So I had to sit back and do a “pinch me kind of moment” yesterday as it has been amazing.

Stephen: When you took time out did you think the dream was over or did you think “I’m going back there someday” and build your ambition to seize the day?

Shauna: I loved my personal training but I did have moments where I feared I would never get back to boxing because it is unheard of at the level I am at, to take six years out and be able to come back. It really is because the standard is so high. Regarding expectations, when I came back I was written off.

Expectations weren’t even high for me to win the Elites but I am telling you I am a different breed. I proved that and will continue proving that. When I get something in my mind I go for it and nothing will stop me and when I have people questioning and second guessing me, it is fuel to my fire!

Stephen: You had a lot to prove?

Shauna: I had a lot to prove to myself and everybody else that I could do it. Just watching Katie Taylor and a load of other girls in Ireland pursuing their dreams with their careers skyrocketing, I just looked at them and kept telling myself six months before my comeback, that if they can do it then I can do it!

Why aren’t I doing it? I asked myself that over and over - so I finally put a glove back on my hand October twelve months and I have never looked back.

Stephen: Brilliant, I love your spirit and drive. Obviously you stayed fit in your years out of the ring, did you get stronger from it?

Shauna: Yeah - both physically and mentally. I was lifting weights 365 days a year. I didn’t do cardio but I kept myself physically strong and mentally strong. Even though my weight went high it wasn’t that I was eating shit food, it was that I was building loads of muscle. I was eating really well. Since I started boxing at 14 I have looked after myself.

Stephen: I noticed that if you give up a sport you enjoy then go back playing you appreciate it more. Is it fair to say you appreciate it more because you didn’t have it for a while?

Shauna: 100% Stephen. The years out mean I appreciate my sport and the gift I have been given. This time has freed me somehow. I will put it to you this way; in interviews in England I have been asked if I am nervous about this upcoming fight and the answer is no because I have no fear, no nerves, just a fire in me that needs to be let out.

I know what it is like not to have my sport and I don’t want to feel that ever again. No matter what I have to do I will do it. It starts with this fight but I will go all the way to winning a World Title by 2025. Nothing is going to stop me in my tracks. There is a fire in me now.

Stephen: I was at the latest Katie Taylor fight. You were there, did you see where dreams can take you?

Shauna: I was ringside in the 3 Arena for Katie Taylor’s fight and it uplifted me. No joke, all I could feel and say to myself was “I am going to be next..” so I will pack the 3 Arena and I want a homecoming fight in Semple Stadium. There is no reason these things can’t happen. There are no limits on what I can do.

Stephen: I love the thoughts of a world title fight in Thurles, you want all of your county behind you?

Shauna: There is no reason it can’t happen. I was listening to one of the interviews that Eddie Hearn did and they love bringing the shows to Ireland.

There is no reason why they can’t bring one to Tipperary in 18 months time. It is all about backing and support being drummed up so I am rallying for Clonmel to get behind me, for Tipperary to get behind me, for Munster and all of Ireland to get behind me because I am one of their own. I will give it everything.

Stephen: Packing the Tipperary stadium is a vision?

Shauna: I want to fill Semple Stadium, I need people to come with me on this journey, and start backing me now as there is no point doing it when I win a European title or a World title because it is too late. The bus leaves now so come on the ride with me all the way to the top, because now is just the beginning.

Stephen: Friday night lights and showtime are approaching, you want Tipperary people to make this journey with you, how can they do that?

Shauna: Follow me. I want all the people of Tipperary on the road with me. The link will be online for this one and I’d love people to have watch parties and post over Instagram, Facebook and wherever else they can. Follow me for this journey, you won’t regret it is what I want to say, the journey is beginning right now.

YOU CAN WATCH SHAUNA'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL FIGHT ON THIS LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/@fightzonetv4407