FALLING off horses has toughed Jansseen Hill up for a career in the boxing ring.
The former point-to-point jockey once had dreams of winning the Grand National, but has swapped the saddle to lace up the gloves and now the ambition for the Ulster Elite 70kg champion is to win a gold medal for Team NI at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games next month.
“It’s like saying you have never had a bloody nose in boxing, what goes up must come down in racing and it is tough, AP McCoy for example broke every bone in his body,” Jansseen Hill ponts out.
“It is a lifestyle where you wake up and face your fears, as Mike Tyson once said, ‘Fear has to be your best friend’, and I fully believe that is massive.
“You have got to believe in yourself especially when there are people out there that are going to doubt you in racing, boxing or any sport, you have got to back yourself.
“Racing is tough on the body as well as the mind it is a lonely sport, not everybody wants to see you doing well. You have to fight for a position in the field, and you have to fight for a position in boxing.
“I had to maake a bit of a sacrifice, lifestyle, before I put on the gloves and it’s something I loved, I dearly loved.
“It was 14 years I was working with horses, I rode on a couple of point-to-points and I sort of didn’t pursue that career and I left my job to fully commit to boxing.”
Hill is delighted to be going to Glasgow and praised her Holy Trinity club coach Mickey Hawkins for helping her on the journey.
““It’s completely surreal, it’s something that I once wrote down, I still write it down every day, I am going, I am going, I am. I believe that having that mindset, seeing things before they happen, seeing things before they’re even created is a massive factor in any sport, Jansseen reveals.
“Micky Hawkins is my Cus D’Amato (Mike Tyson’s trainer and mentor). He is a brilliant guy, he’s a brilliant person, he knows his stuff, to be able to listen and learn and for a coach to have that bond with an athlete is mandatory for the next step in any sport.
“I’m an all in or all out person and all my life all I have known is work, get up a 4am go to the farm and work with horses all day, as soon as I finished work, quick shower, changed and I went training to get good at what I was doing and all of a sudden it happened.
“I never really took it into consideration as such but then whenever I started, I started writing this down. I started writing down, I am a champion, I am a winner I am the best in the world, and not only my success that I’ve achieved and I’m wanting to achieve.
“Part of my success is that I want to give back and for me to do that, I’ve got to be me, I’ve got to be me in this world, and it’s part of my success that I give back, that’s part of my gold medal ambition.”
