68 fights unbeaten - now teenager White is aiming for gold

Despite a run of 68 fights undefeated across her fledgling career, teenage boxer Ruby White was far from expecting a Commonwealth Games call-up when the phone rang.

The 19-year-old had “no clue” when Rob McCracken, performance director of GB Boxing who has trained Anthony Joshua and Carl Froch, wanted to speak to her earlier this summer.

“I was dog sitting at the time,” White told BBC Radio Somerset.

“One of my coaches, Ben Stewart, he text me and said, ‘Let me know when you’ve got off the phone to Rob [McCracken]’ and I thought ‘Oh gosh, why is Rob calling me, am I in trouble?'”

White only joined the Great Britain Boxing academy in May but has been rising through the amateur and junior ranks since she started boxing aged seven.

Her 5ft 1in stature has earned her the nickname the ‘Pocket Rocket’ and among her accolades are seven national championships, four European titles for England and the under-19 world title in 2024 among her unbroken list of victories.

In February she clinched the Golden Girls Boxing Cup in Sweden, a competition where more than 500 female boxers from all over the world took part.

When selection to compete in Glasgow came, White said she did not think she had ever been so happy in her life.

“[Rob] called me and I was like, ‘You’re lying, there’s no way’ and he was like ‘You’re young and you’re hungry and we know you can do well’. I was ecstatic,” she said.

White, from Sturminster Newton in Dorset, will compete in the flyweight 51kg class and is among 14 boxers selected for England who are all making their competition debut.

For many of Britain’s biggest boxing stars, the Commonwealth Games has proved a major stepping stone in their career, with Nicola Adams and Lauren Price among those to have clinched gold in recent editions – two people White takes inspiration from.

“This is the very beginning of my worldwide career journey as an elite,” she said.

“I want to follow in the same footsteps as Nicola Adams and Lauren Price, all those big names who have been training in the GB setup like I am.

“I want to come back with gold from the Commonwealth’s and then the next step is the the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.”

White’s first fight is on Monday (18:30 BST) against South Africa’s Thandolwethu Mathiba and she admits she will likely be “very nervous” when she steps into the SEC Arena for the first time.

“I’m just going to take it one day at a time and I know I’m meant to be there,” she said.

“All the training’s been done, the hard work’s been done in the gym I just need to perform and put on a good display of boxing.”

That being said, the teenager is relishing the prospect that her form coming into the Commonwealth Games had made her a target for others.

“I haven’t lost since I was 11 and every time I step in that ring I know that my opponent wants to take my unbeaten record from me,” White said.

“It’s a lot of pressure but in know that means I care.”

She added: “I get in that ring each time and think me and my opponent both want that victory, both want to win and both want to do well but I want it more.”