KACI Rock always wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a boxer – and this summer, at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow the 65kg Ulster Elite champion, will represent Team NI in the ring.
However, dad Jim, the only fighter to hold Irish titles at four different weights wasn’t so keen for his daughter to put the gloves on.
“My dad, obviously, that’s where I picked up boxing from, he trained in Breen’s Gym in Belfast, so I was always watching him growing up,” recalled Kaci.
“I suppose everyone wants to be like their mum and dad, it’s kind of their first idols growing up, but I can still say my dad is still my idol going forward now.
“He never wanted me to box, but then I think when your mum and dad tell you not to do something, you want to do it a little bit more so I went down to the club and I haven’t looked back since.”
Rock’s first experience in the ring came at Peter Taylor’s (father of Katie) gym.
“I was adamant that I wanted to go down to the boxing club and dad said, right, OK, and after a long persuasion time, he brought me down anyways and went in, put me in against two boys that had been there a long, long time and just said, listen hit her a few digs here and she won’t come back, she’s into dolls and prams and princesses and that’s it, she won’t come back,” Kaci laughs.
“I took the digs, I definitely took a load of them that day, but I gave them back. I don’t know if it was the best thing he ever did or the worst thing, he ever did, but I’m still here now.”
Instead of being discouraged, Rock rose to the challenge.
“I think I had that kind of tough streak in me, kind of saying, jeez, they’re after hitting me, (1:40) so I’m going to hit them back, but I think they knew on that day that I had it in me,” she says.
“I wasn’t afraid to take the punches, and I could certainly give them back as well, so it was just a building block from there.”
“Like, it’s hard to even believe now that the Games are coming up, I did it for fun when I was younger and then it was kind of when I was getting older, I had to drop a couple of sports to focus in on the one sport and it always kind of kept it quite enough, it was just like, oh, yeah, she’s the boxer, whatever.
“Then it was kind of when I hit 19, I won the Elites then and joined the Irish high performance and it’s just been going strength to strength from there, so now I’m here now.”
Rock is looking forward to her first Commonwealth Games, adding: “Honestly, it’s a dream come true, it’s such a big milestone and I’m just so happy to be here with a great bunch of people as well, you see the likes of the team that have gone in recent years and you look at how well they did and where they got to and just thinking that I’ve had the opportunity to do that too is good.”
