{"id":721248,"date":"2026-07-31T16:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/721248\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:43:10","slug":"bobbi-flood-uses-boxing-to-cope-with-family-tragedies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/721248\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobbi Flood uses boxing to cope with family tragedies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bobbi Flood has committed to a busy two months, culminating in a slot on the undercard of Katie Taylor\u2019s farewell fight at Croke Park<\/a>, Dublin, on September 5.<\/p>\n

Before that, the 21-year-old must take care of business on August 1, featuring on the undercard of Pierce O\u2019Leary vs Mark Chamberlain at Dublin\u2019s 3Arena.<\/p>\n

At the same time, though, it is impossible to ignore what lies beyond his third professional outing, especially with Flood telling Boxing News that he remembers celebrating Taylor\u2019s success in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really special. After winning gold at the London Olympics, Katie came back to Bray [Ireland] and did an open-top bus tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember going down to see her back then, so to now be fighting on her undercard, at Croke Park, is just mental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around a year after witnessing one of Ireland\u2019s most decorated athletes, Flood was struck with grief following the passing of his mum.<\/p>\n

Even now, the Queensberry prospect uses boxing as a coping mechanism, pushing aside his emotions \u2013 even if just momentarily \u2013 while he pounds the bag and smashes the pads.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoxing\u2019s always been my gateway away from the emotional stuff. With me missing my ma, boxing\u2019s always kept me busy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when I lost my granddad two years ago, I ended up winning a national title. Boxing\u2019s just my way of coping.\u201d<\/p>\n

The national title Flood speaks of is just one of his many amateur accolades, while the ultimate goal was always to claim Olympic gold.<\/p>\n

Due to a slight change to the light-middleweight limit, however, the Dubliner decided to turn pro a little sooner than expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal was always to become an Olympic champion but, with the weights changing, it wasn\u2019t meant to be. So now I want to become a world champion in the pro game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith them changing the weight class from 71 to 70kg, that 1kg was too hard to get off when you\u2019re holding the weight for so long. And 80kg was just too big of a jump.\u201d<\/p>\n

While initially gutted to abandon his Olympic dream, it was perhaps a blessing in disguise that Flood turned pro as early as he did.<\/p>\n

He has, after all, managed to develop a tight bond with head coach Stephen \u2018Swifty\u2019 Smith, building a strong foundation from which to fine-tune his skills in Liverpool.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier training with \u2018Swifty\u2019. He treats all of his boxers like his own kids, which is crazy because he must have about 20 kids running around.<\/p>\n

\u201cAway from the gym, I just keep myself busy with this little fella [picks up a dog]. He keeps me busy enough, cleaning up his p**s and s**te.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the benefits to training in Liverpool is Flood\u2019s access to top-class sparring, allowing him to share rounds with the likes of Caoimhin Agyarko and fellow amateur standout John Joe Carrigan.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bobbi Flood has committed to a busy two months, culminating in a slot on the undercard of Katie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-721248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}