Aroundtown Magazine January/February 2024 edition

AROUNDTOWNMEETS
meets
Lynsey Lockey
If there’s one person
you’d want in your
corner, it’s Lynsey
Lockey.
A force to be reckoned with in
women’s boxing, she’s a fighter
in every metaphorical way. She’s
fought gender bias and injustice,
battled melanoma, anxiety and
personal loss, and combatted the
struggle of being a busy working
mum to three girls.
She’s stood toe to toe with some
of the sport’s biggest names outside
the ring over the last 20-odd years.
One of only a few female boxing
promoters in Britain, she’s had to
work ten times harder than her male
counterparts to prove herself worthy
of being there.
She’s never thrown a punch. But
she’s also never thrown in the towel.
She’s a warrior who keeps going,
keeps fighting for the rights and
representation of women in boxing.
And now she’s launched her own
not-for-profit organisation to ensure
that future generations of women
don’t have to fight as hard to be
seen and heard.
This dogged determination
started in childhood, spurred on
by being from a working-class
background. She grew up on the
Woodthorpe estate near Intake in
Sheffield with her mum and siblings.
Her dad was from Kashmir and
had restaurants in the city, while her
mum worked on the Caribbean stall
in Castle Market. For many years,
Lynsey was the only mixed-race child
in her class.
“That had its challenges, but
it also made me work harder to
achieve. I was always top of the
class academically, got picked for
every sport team, and was usually
captain. I’d like to say it was down
to leadership skills, but my brother
would say it’s because I’ve got a big
mouth,” she jokes.
There was only an 11-month
age gap between Lynsey and her
younger brother, and she says that
even as youngsters the gender
inequality started to show.
“We were both really sporty
as kids, both good swimmers
and runners. But he always had
opportunities that I didn’t because he
was a boy. At primary school, girls
weren’t allowed to play football, but I
was having none of that.
“When I was about ten, I started
a girls’ team. We had enough
players for a five-a-side team, but I
approached girls from other schools
until we had a full team of 11. Then I
When I was about ten, I started a girls’ team. We
“
had enough players for a five-a-side team, but I
approached girls from other schools until we had a
full team of 11
”
designed our kit, went to companies
for sponsorship and got it paid for.”
Lynsey moved on to the former
City School where, again, there was
no girls’ football. But she played
other sports like netball, cross
country and was a cheerleader for
Sheffield Hatters.
But it was after she left school,
aged 17, that she got into boxing
having been drawn to the discipline
and empowerment of the sport.
But at that time, in the late 1990s,
it wasn’t heard of for women to set
foot in a boxing gym. Lynsey wanted
to change that.
She set up a female-only class
underneath her local boxing gym.
But with all the equipment being
used upstairs by the men, it became
more of a fitness class with shadow
boxing and circuits.
“I’ve never sparred or fought as
it wasn’t an option for me. But being
in sport was. I always joke that I’d
have been a rubbish boxer anyway
as I shut my eyes if someone throws
their keys at me. But I don’t know
how good I’d have been as I didn’t
have the chance to try.”
By the time women were
accepted in boxing gyms, Lynsey
had a young family to think about.
She had her first two daughters at
18 and 20 but kept going back to
boxing in between.
Lynsey went into the business
side of boxing in 2003 aged 23
after realising that nobody else was
providing other staff needed to host
a boxing match such as ticketing,
hospitality or ringside staff. She set
up her own promotional business
and juggled that alongside two
other jobs – a personal trainer and
nightclub promoter – all while raising
two young children.
“When I became a mum, I
wanted a different life. As kids, we
had free school meals and had
to scrape together a pound to go
to youth club on a Friday night. I
wanted my girls to see me achieving
things as a woman.
“I tried to get all my work done
at the weekend while the kids were
with their dad so it didn’t take away
from time spent with them. Some
weekends, I’d finish a shift at the
hotel gym where I worked at 8pm,
go into town for my second job as
a nightclub promoter until 2am, and
then have to be back in the gym
at 6am.”
She was then headhunted
to work for International Sports
Management (ISM), an agency
owned by former golfer Andrew
‘Chubby’ Chandler. They
represented many top golfers such
as Ernie Els, Rory McIlroy, and
Darren Clarke. ISM also branched
into cricket, with people like Michael
Vaughn and Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff
4 aroundtownmagazine.co.uk