{"id":768242,"date":"2026-06-29T05:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T05:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/768242\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T05:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T05:52:16","slug":"can-a-christian-be-a-boxer-fran-hennessy-is-making-the-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/768242\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a Christian be a boxer? Fran Hennessy is making the case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Francesca<\/p>\n

When Britain\u2019s Francesca \u201cFran\u201d Hennessy beat Italy\u2019s Aurora De Persio at Wembley Arena recently, in defence of her WBC Silver Bantamweight title, televised live on the BBC<\/a>, I marvelled at her style, and I don\u2019t mean her pink satin tracksuit.<\/p>\n

Her assault on De Persio was as methodical and precise as it was vicious. I perched on the edge of the sofa while the daughter of boxing promoter Mick Hennessy powered through the gears, doling out hooks, uppercuts and jabs at a jaw-dropping rate, until midway through the sixth round the fight was stopped on a TKO to huge cheers, including mine.<\/p>\n

But as impressive as that fight was \u2013 her ninth undefeated bout \u2013 it was the \u2018Billion Dollar Babe\u2019s\u2019 post-fight interview that really caught my attention.<\/p>\n

After crossing herself in the ring as she held up her WBC belt, the first words out of her mouth were: \u201cFirst of all, all glory to God,\u201d which she followed with, \u201cI\u2019m truly blessed\u2026\u201d several times during the course of the ringside interview.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018Fearfully and wonderfully made: Why the Olympic gender debate matters for Christians\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

I tried to get a few words in person with Fran about how she squares her public confessions of faith with the violence of boxing, but was unable to get a response from either her or her entourage.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some might see a conflict \u2013 pun intended \u2013 between referencing the Gospel of Peace just moments after knocking the wind out of someone<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some might see a conflict \u2013 pun intended \u2013 between referencing the Gospel of Peace just moments after knocking the wind out of someone, but I would argue that not only is it just another example of sport imitating life, but also that you don\u2019t have to dig too deeply into Scripture to find barely veiled references to fighting. 1 Timothy 6:12 and Isaiah 40:31 are just two examples. And what about Ephesians 6:11 exhorting us to put on the \u201cfull armour of God\u201d daily?<\/p>\n

The Sun newspaper called Francesca Hennessy a \u201cfast-rising prospect in the UK scene\u201d, whilst top boxing pundit Steve Bunce admired Hennessy\u2019s \u201cspitefulness\u201d, remarking: \u201cIf she was an American, we would be raving about how she\u2019s been unbeaten in nine bouts and fights like a Mexican!\u201d\u00a0Bunce is right, but the feisty 21-year-old from Sevenoaks, Kent is making good headway regardless.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Anthony Joshua may no longer identify as a Christian but he could really do with Jesus right now\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Her fighting name, \u2018Billion Dollar Baby\u2019, is more than likely a nod of respect to Christy Martin, America\u2019s first female super-welterweight title fighter, whose trademark was wearing pink boxing shorts in the ring and who broke newspaper headlines by smashing boxing\u2019s barriers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not where I want to be yet, but I\u2019m proud of where I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hennessy is doing the same for a new generation of women. As she put it: \u201cI\u2019m not where I want to be yet, but I\u2019m proud of where I am.\u201d\u00a0Back in the late Nineties, when veteran British boxing promoter Kellie Maloney identified as a man called Frank, he steered the careers of world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, among others. He used to tell any journalist who\u2019d listen that he would never promote women\u2019s fights, and that the only place for women in boxing was carrying ring cards. Note: this was in the days when women were still employed to wear swimsuits and high heels to walk around a boxing ring holding up a card with the number of the next boxing round.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018Why must all sports be fiercely competitive?\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Around the same time, Jane Couch MBE, the former British professional boxer, was forging a path in women\u2019s boxing, becoming Britain\u2019s first licensed female boxer in the process after winning an historic court case in 1998. Before Couch, licensed women\u2019s boxing was banned in Britain.\u00a0Scroll down a couple of decades to Fran, who is open about her past struggles with her weight and dyslexia, which caused her to be bullied at school. She maintains it was boxing that threw her a lifeline out of her emotional pain, as it has done for many. Because sometimes it\u2019s easier to be angry than it is to feel sad.<\/p>\n

In an interview for BBC Radio 4\u2019s Woman\u2019s Hour, she said: \u201cWhen you go into a boxing gym everyone gets on; it doesn\u2019t matter who you are or where you\u2019re from. You learn how to defend yourself. Everyone should learn how to defend themselves.\u201d\u00a0Ben Shalom, her promoter, says: \u201c[Here\u2019s] this 21-year-old coming into the most vicious sport in the world, dressed in pink and being spiteful in the ring. If that isn\u2019t inspiring every female in every boxing ring in Britain, I don\u2019t know what will.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of her Instagram reels gave me goosebumps. It shows her journey from a sweet-faced, pudgy nine-year-old, pushing herself to run eight laps of a track while her father films and cheers her on, cut to years later, her running down the same track, but with the physique and focus of an athlete, and which ends with her striding into the boxing ring like she owns it.<\/p>\n

Her aim is to be the youngest undisputed champion in history. If she wins her next bout against undisputed champion Cherneka Johnson, she will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Britain\u2019s Francesca \u201cFran\u201d Hennessy beat Italy\u2019s Aurora De Persio at Wembley Arena recently, in defence of her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-768242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}