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A Cambridge University graduate who was born in Nottingham and now lives and trains in China, Boutell first moved to Beijing as a teenager to live with her father after what she describes as a difficult adolescence in the UK.<\/p>\n
“Like a lot of kids, I wasn’t sure about my place in the world and I used to act out a lot,” she told BBC World Service’s More Than The Score podcast on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Looking back, I was just under-stimulated. I didn’t find school challenging and I had lots of excess energy that ended up in not great behaviour.”<\/p>\n
Bouttell says her “behaviour problems disappeared”, though she admits she still longed for familiar comforts. “I missed Greggs,” she adds.<\/p>\n
Her love of the Chinese language earned her a place at Cambridge, where she initially focused on powerlifting before discovering boxing in her final year.<\/p>\n
After graduating, Boutell returned to China to teach English and settled in Shanghai. There, she met the coach who now trains her professionally and entered white-collar boxing.<\/p>\n
Bouttell turned professional and has fought seven times in China and once in Thailand.<\/p>\n
Having only competed a handful of times in the UK as an amateur, Bouttell is looking forward to her “homecoming” bout.<\/p>\n
“This will be the first fight my family have seen,” she says. “My brothers will be able to watch me fight for the first time.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n