Roha Hudson: The long ring walk from zimmer frame to the professional boxing ring
- Published
Roha Hudson won the English ABA national finals at the Sports Dock in London
Shropshire boxer Roha Hudson has her first professional fight in Coventry on Saturday.
The 27-year-old from the Wellington Boxing Academy will be one of three boxers on the undercard at the Coventry Sky Dome making their professional debut.
But it is almost certain that intrepid Roha's long walk to the ring will have been the bravest and unlikeliest.
No fighter's journey into professional boxing can have been as scarred and scary as the lost two years she suffered after contracting Covid pneumonia in the summer of 2021 - at one point even fearing that she might not be able to walk properly again.
"I was undefeated in the amateurs," Hudson told BBC Radio Shropshire. "I was excited. Then I got Covid.
"Pneumonia was diagnosed and it just became a crazy time.
"June, July, August 2021 was just a big blur.
"It was a horrible thing to go though. It was like being in a different world in your head.
"I can't put a mark on any day that was the worst. I just felt so poorly. I wasn't even in bed. I just couldn't move off the sofa.
"I'll never forget the feeling I had. That I'm going to close my eyes and either I'm going to feel a whole lot better, or I'm not going to wake up at all. And at that moment, you don't care. You just want to be at peace.
"Crazy thoughts to have. But obviously I woke up."
Roha Hudson spent two weeks in hospital with Covid Pneumonia
The lowest point came when she was found, semi-conscious, on her sofa in her apartment, by her mother and a concerned neighbour.
"My phone had been dead for two days, I hadn't had a drink for two days and I couldn't move," she said.
"No drink, no phone and people had started asking 'Where's Roha?' The next thing I knew my neighbour, who been keeping an eye on me, and my mum had communicated, I'm on the sofa in and out of consciousness, they knocked my door down and all I could hear was the paramedics saying 'her lips are blue'. Then I'm on a stretcher and in an ambulance.
"I'm just very lucky that my mum and my neighbour were in contact and took care of me.
"I stayed in hospital for two weeks. It was not just physically, the damage to my lungs, but mentally I went through it, and it was hard to get to the other side.
"I couldn't get 70% of feeling in my leg. I was 23 with a four-year-old and I left on a zimmer frame and crutches.
"I was just blessed at being gifted resilience at an early age.
"Six months later, I won a national title. That's when I knew I'd be on to bigger things.
"It wasn't meant to happen this way but it has."
Roha Hudson beat Kat Stanford to win the national ABA title
'I'm not going to lie. It's all about money'
Now it is next stop Coventry - and a meeting with experienced Polish boxer Ester Konecna, nine years her senior at 36, but not with the best ring record - just three wins in 31 professional fights.
Not that it would really matter who Hudson is fighting, she is so fired up with enthusiasm - and genuine hunger.
"I watched a couple of her fights but then I stopped watching," she said.
"I don't need to know a lot about her.
"She won't want the money like I do.
"I'm not going to lie. Nobody enjoys being punched in the face for a living. It's all about the money.
"I've gone through a few ordeals. I had a couple of years taken off my life. I want the money and I want the fame. I want to give my son a good life.
"And now I'm so excited at getting started on Saturday night.
"She's flying over and I'm just looking forward to meeting her. Genuinely.
"Every single person I fight I'm mates with. We get on.
"But I've had to lose 25 pounds to make this weight. I feel like I'm sharper and stronger - and I can't wait to get in the ring."
Trainer/cornerman is Telford's Mo Fiaz, who used to work with Shropshire's ex-world super-middleweight champ Richie Woodhall
Roha Hudson was talking to BBC Radio Shropshire's Johnty O'Donnell