Sam Nott: Izzy Wilkins is a professional Muay Thai fighter, coach and content creator. She holds a record of 16 and 2. She's gone 3 and 0 in the Thai circuit and recently won the Pah Tong Stadium title as the underdog. Here's what makes her story different. She didn't start Muay Thai until she was 20 and didn't take her first fight until 22. She came into the sport later than most. Everyone she competes with, especially in Thailand, where fighters have been training since childhood. She also coaches boxing and K-1 across adults and children, and she's been documenting her entire journey online. Izzy, when you're fighting people in Thailand who've been doing this their entire lives, it like knowing you walk into the gym ⁓ almost a decade or more less experience than
Izzi: Yeah, it's a bit of a tough one because I know people find combat sports at a later age. I know 20 isn't necessarily that late. But yes, when you're standing across the ring from someone who's been doing it since they were five, six, seven, or since, you know, their parents own a gym or something like that, there's always kind of a to the sport. And I came to it a little bit later than normal and achieved quite a lot quite quickly. But also just have to realise I'm on my own path and ⁓ I just enjoy the and ⁓ stick with win news or draw. I just try perform my best. Sometimes that works, sometimes not so much, but at the end of the day that's the plan really.
Sam Nott: And you said you didn't even like sports growing up. So what sparked you to do it in the first place?
Izzi: Yeah, so I, maybe when I was like 10 and younger, enjoyed sports, I enjoyed sports with the with the boys in my school, maybe like rugby and football and stuff like that. And then going through the teenage years, I just completely lost interest. And I convinced myself sport wasn't for me. Yeah, which is physical education, which is our ⁓ character in sport, at school that you have to take. I hated, you know, I started to find ways to get out of it and ⁓ a bit of weight and just thought this is my life you know I'm not going to be one of those sporty or fit people and kind of changed in lockdown funny enough I just decided one day I'm to start running the next day I think I managed an eight minute run it was like the worst eight minutes of my life and then from there I just tried to get better and better at running and then I tried doing circuits at home and then ⁓ And then I found my gym, which is where I started Muay Thai. it's lots of little baby steps that got me there. But yeah, at one point in my life, I convinced myself fitness and sport and being healthy wasn't for me. And then you just gotta find your sport and you've got to find your calling. ⁓ So a good time, but we got there in the end.
Sam Nott: Yeah, and everyone has their own version of what their calling is physically. I'm curious, what do you love about fighting so much?
Izzi: funny enough, I'm not a particularly aggressive person. but, I enjoy how smart you have to be with it ⁓ and how have to yourself further than you have before. And so for me, I love working on my fight IQ. So I love being smarter and more controlled in the ring. I'm working on my aestheticism and making sure I'm stronger and more powerful each and every fight. those are the things that really fire me up in and improving myself. And say I'm matched up against someone who, when paper should beat me or has got x amount of years more experience than me or more fights or whatever it is, I enjoy the process. It can be rough and it can, I can struggle, but just to keep on, keep my eyes forward and focus on, okay. I want to step in that ring and be the best I can be. And it seems to be working. Yeah, for me, kind of the ideology of what I could be in the ring is what keeps me going, if that makes sense. Like if I knew I've had a fight 10 weeks from today, I'm going to be a completely different person in 10 weeks and that really, really excites me.
Sam Nott: And common sense would say the earlier that you start, the better that you would be. I want to challenge that for a second. Do you think there's any disadvantages that those that started earlier have? Maybe you see things from a different perspective. Maybe you have a different outlook on things. What advantages do you have starting later?
Izzi: Yeah, that's really interesting, actually. There's kind of a difficult point when a junior comes up if they've been competing for years and years and years. In the UK, for example, we have no head contact with 16 and under. So these juniors are used to having their hands down, down here. And as I started, you know, I spentily, I had to learn to keep my hands clear. And to make it as small as that is really important because these juniors are going into the ring at 12, 13, whatever, and they're winning and they're doing really well and they're point scoring. And then when they get to steam, they have to get out of that habit of hands can't be here anymore, because you're going to be hitting your face. They've got to be up there. So something like that is quite tangible. You can see it. You're trying to teach a young adult out of their bad habits. So that's probably one thing that I've seen. quite frequently. then another tangent would be if a parent is too pushy with their child, you know, their young kid is doing really well with the competing and the fighting and they're traveling up and down the country. And then they're pushing that child so much that the kid is like, no, I don't want anything more to do with this sport. I want to go do football instead or basketball or whatever. Like, or maybe I want to do any sport at all. can kind of flip. Unfortunately, the kids in my gym have been really good at having that equal support of go for it, but also take time to rest. But I have seen where kids can go through adolescence and just start to hate the sport, unfortunately, which is so sad, because it shapes, it shapes me as an adult, so it would shape them as an adult. it's, that's a difficult one to balance, I think. And one day when I do have kids, I need to figure that one out because I want to keep them in combat sports. don't know, I don't mind what they would do, but I don't want to be that pushy parent and be like get in the ring now sort of thing. So it's a difficult one, but yeah, that's another side to it, which is rough to watch definitely.
Sam Nott: Yeah, burnout is all too real.
Izzi: Yes, yeah, especially that age, they're so questionable and their brains are still like sponges and they could still learn so much about the sport but then something clicks and they're like, no, I don't want to do it anymore. that's a difficult one. And I don't think that that's not just combat sports. That's, think, any sport or anything tough at that age, definitely.
Sam Nott: Yeah. And at such a young age, it's like you said, they're almost pushed into it. So it's not, it's like they're not even making the decision for themselves. And I think that's a large area where the burnout actually comes from. in your own mind, starting later, do you think you have lower than other starting in the sport where you're just so happy with the growth and the progress that you've made versus somebody that might have been in this sport for 10 plus years and has high expectations of themselves?
Izzi: Hmm, an interesting one. I'm too sure. I like to think that as I've grown in confidence in the sport, I can set myself higher expectation. But then some happen and I have to ground myself and be like, no, actually, you're still new to the sport. For example, the fight I had in February out here in Thailand was my first fight in Thailand. And ⁓ Thailand is the of the sport. So I'm coming ⁓ up against a girl who said, I didn't even know how many fights she had because records out here are just like, they don't, you know, they could have a hundred fights, they don't really care sort of thing. had a lot of fights and a lot more experience than me. And came here being like, yeah, ⁓ I'm doing new here and I'm doing really, really well. But then actually when you go up to that next level and you see, okay, you're ⁓ coming up girls with a hundred plus fights. that's when I'm like, okay, I'm now back down to level one again, and I've got to build myself up here. So I don't know about setting myself at higher standards, but you just grow with the sport, I And as your confidence grows, you grow, then you need to be grounded a little bit and you need to learn to do something a little bit different and learn it that way and go from there.
Sam Nott: do you think has been the hardest part of your journey?
Izzi: About two years I had a loss ⁓ and I was on like a eight fight win streak or something. ⁓ know, my confidence was high. was feeling really good. I thought, ⁓ you know, I'm getting recognition in the UK. And then I came up against girl who was exceptionally talented, called Jenny Radford. I may have, I probably underestimated her because confidence may have been too high for that fight. And so many factors happened on the day where like I didn't get a proper warmup in, I wasn't quite in the right headspace. ⁓ was like too happy, if that makes sense. ⁓ not knocked in. I was, ⁓ yeah, quite there. And then in the ring, ⁓ literally the first bell, something in my brain was like... No, this isn't your fight. Like just give up now. It was a really rough fight. was three, three, three minute rounds. And straight away, she was quite good to me with me and straight away really simple. I wasn't landing anything. And she was meeing my face, elbowing the top of my head, busted my nose. So much was going wrong and I had no answers in my head. And like I said earlier, I like be the smarter fighter, I like to have that fight I can't. And then I swear to God those are like the worst nine minutes. It was just the giant woman coming at me and just landing whatever she wanted sort of thing. And I tried and tried to get to the last round. And then with eight seconds to go in the third round, the ref called it off. So I had two eight counts in that round. And yeah, the second eight count, he just waved it off. And I wasn't really there mentally and I was just all a bit like, I don't know what's just happened. Like I know I'm bleeding. I know, I know she won. Anyway, and I was a bit of a mess afterwards. you know, I didn't figure out what was, what was the, why I had to go through that or what was the point or like, you know, why do this sport if you literally get hurt that much and you get humbled that quickly? And so I remember the fight camp after that one. For my own good, had to get straight back into another fight camp and I was like, I need another fight because if I stop there and take a break, that's me done. I don't think I would have come back from that. I don't know why, just that's the headspace I was in. And I went back, had another fight. It was a tough fight, but I won. And then that was when I was like, okay, you have the highs and you have the lows. And I had a lot of back to back highs with the back to back wins. And then, yeah, this fight just kind of changed my headspace of like, okay, you need to tweak this in your fight campaign. You to go into your warmup with 40 extra minutes, or you need to make sure you're hydrated well enough there. You just kind of learn these things as you fight. And that was the one, one of the one time, one of the times where I really had to reflect and think about it. And funny enough, it's taken me two years. No. a year and a half to watch Black Black YouTube. I refused to watch it because I knew that wasn't me the ring and it still really upset me. Now I can watch it and I'm fine. But like I said, that's taken a year and a half. So you go through a lot and and not just through your team and your family, but you go through these moments. That was a rough moment for me, but get through it. And now I'm out in Thailand and I'm living the dream and I'm fighting I'm pursuing this career and now my headspace has changed of like, and I mentioned this earlier of it doesn't matter about win losing or if you win, lose or draw, you just got to step in there and be the best you can be. On that day I was not my best, not at all. And everyone was slim, but now I want to make sure I am the best. ⁓ yeah, that was a tough moment for me, definitely.
Sam Nott: And we all have our ups and downs. So I appreciate you sharing that. what you know now, what advice would you go back and give yourself before that fight?
Izzi: I found myself to like take it more seriously. I think I was just, I'm such a weird one because I felt confident, I felt strong, my weight was good. Like so many things were good in my fight camp. And I maybe just thought it was too easy. And that's such a silly head space to be in, especially in combat sports. So I'll probably sit myself down and be like, I'm it's so, it's so fun, you know. So think it's too easy, you've got to push yourself further and you've got to get to those moments that are rough and then, you know, that will add up in the ring. So yeah, think, see it as, yeah, take it more seriously. Definitely.
Sam Nott: And I'm curious because you are coach and I respect coaches a ton. So how does coaching help you as a fighter?
Izzi: love coaching. Like I absolutely love it. And at the moment I can't coach because I'm in Thailand, but every now and then I'll pull pads in a class, not here to help with the ratio of like coaches to participants in the class. And holding pads and I'm straight away in love with it again. I'm like, ⁓ can't wait to get home and like start coaching and PT my clients again. And yeah, building that side of my kind of career up as well. But yeah, coaching. On the basic level, you cite revision. It's like, you're going over those fundamentals or those techniques. You haven't actually thought about yourself in a ring in the last year or whatever. So you can go through and you're like, okay, today we're going to learn this. And the reason why is this and you can show them in an hour how to perform it, how to do it on the cards, how to do it on a bag. And then you're like, okay, I need to remember that one. It's quite a good one. And I should probably try it next week in Sparrowing or something like that. on that level, it's yeah, basically just like weekly revision for the sport, is, which is great. And then on the other side of it, you, you have ⁓ ⁓ someone trying again and again and again and gaining it right, if that makes sense, because You can get to the point in the sport where you feel like you've plateaued and you've let a ceiling, but actually seeing someone come back to you every week and they've learned this and their techniques grown like that, or their footwork is massively improved. you're like, okay, everyone improves no matter what level you are, as long as you keep coming back and trying again and repeating and doing that revision, you do ⁓ like, there's that element to it as well, which is incredible. And then also, you know, seeing I have a 16 year old girl, young woman at my gym, reminds me a lot of me when I was that age, kind of a bit like, I need to be polite here. can't be rude. I don't want to be rude at all, but she is very confident and very like loud and a bit. Yeah. She's just, it's great fun anyway. And I love teaching her because she, she has that fire in her and I'm like, right, one day I'm going to get you to fight. First things first, you've got to your exams done. That's way more important. But yeah, in a couple of years, I'll go back to her I'll be like, are you coming back and you're going to fight now? So stuff like that where you see like a little seed in someone and you're like, yes, he's got it in you. So when I finish my fighting, I can pass on my knowledge and build my own fight team and maybe just women, something like that. I absolutely love that. So yeah, I love coaching. It's great fun.
Sam Nott: I love that. And I think it's almost a secret hack if you're someone that still competes and you coach, because just like you're explaining, you have to explain things from different perspectives so that they understand it, not just the way that you understand it in your mind, but so that they can understand it. And then you have those aha moments like you referenced. And it's like, that thing later. ⁓ ⁓ think it's just a
Izzi: Exactly.
Sam Nott: incredible way to help your own development as a competitor. So Izzy, I'm really curious, where does your confidence come from? Because you've transformed your life at 20 years old.
Izzi: Martin Cole, who trained me from my first Muay session, and then about three months into journey, he turned to me and he went, I'm gonna ask you you want to fight one day. And little me was like, what's fighting? Like, I don't like the sound of that. That doesn't sound good. He was like, don't worry, don't worry. It won't be for like another year. since he said that we then started working together quite regularly and then yeah, a year later I had my first fight so I had that timeline of him mentioning it to me and then I went away and did some research and I saw what fighting was in Muay Thai and what that is and what a fight camp is and what I'd have to do and stuff and then just kind of started there and it's kind of snowballed over time. But yeah, he's always been that person who pushed me on the hard fights. You know, he made those match ups when I thought I wasn't ready and he completely believed in me. He's humbled me and he's brought me back down to earth when ⁓ my head got a little bit too big. And he, yeah, he has given me that confidence, ⁓ like matter what. And the fight I had in February here that I mentioned earlier when I was the underdog and You know, I was supposed to lose and a big gamble culture out here in Thailand when it comes to fighting and I was getting my hands wrapped and I'm back to back with my opponent and team, big maybe five, six guys standing around her are talking about me. It's in Thai I don't know what's being said, but they, ⁓ being disrespectful when I later heard what was said. I was getting my hands wrapped and I'm to back with my opponent maybe five, six guys standing around her are talking about me. It's in Thai I don't know what's being said, but they, ⁓ being disrespectful when later heard what was said. kind of like what's this girl doing? Who does she think she is? And stuff like that. And they were putting a lot of money for their girls to win. My coach, who speaks Thai, heard all of this, but just didn't want to, didn't want to tell me, no need to tell me. So there was this kind of big build up of I don't deserve to be there and I am going to lose, I'm going to get really, really hurt. And so I remember phoning my coach from home, kind of like what's this girl doing? Who does she think she is? And stuff like that. And they were putting a lot of money for their girls to win. My coach, who speaks Thai, he is Thai himself, heard all of this, but just didn't want to, didn't want to tell me, no need to tell me. So there was this kind of big build up of I don't deserve to be there and I am going to lose, I'm going to get really, really hurt. And so I remember phoning my coach being from home, sorry. You know, I was worried and I building up these scenarios in my head and you know, what if I can't land anything on her? What if she's smarter than me and stuff? And he sent me a video of way back in the early days of me training. And he said, imagine telling this version of you what you're doing right now. And I was like, yeah. And so like you dug through the videos of like training and whatever on Instagram. And he sent that to me and it just kind of went, it flipped in my head. I was worried and I building up these scenarios in my head and you know, what if I can't land anything on her? What if she's smarter than me and stuff? And he sent me a video ⁓ of way in the early days of me training. And he said, He knows how to speak to me, he knows what works for me and that gave me that confidence of like, yeah, okay, let's go and do this. Yeah, I can do this, no matter what I will do. So I think he is one of root of my confidence on most days, definitely. ⁓ then you learn how to deal with that yourself and talk yourself in a positive way and, you know, what you want and go after it. So. And that all came from him, I think, because I had no interest in this sport, no interest in fighting. And then he said it to me one day and there we go. Now, now we're here.
Sam Nott: What an incredible story and what an inspiring coach. That's a lesson that I'm going to take away and hopefully use for others and send a little clip and say, Hey, this is who you used to be. I think that's genius. That is genius. So he's inspired you. What do you hope others take away from your journey? How do you hope to inspire others?
Izzi: Yes, yeah. I just want to show that you don't have to do the norm. Like, so I'm 26 now, and technically in my timeline of a normal life, I should be buying a house, settling down, having a baby, getting a dog, you know, stuff like that. And something flicked in my brain a couple of years, but then I was like, no, I don't want that. And I wanted to go down this route of training and fighting and seeing how far I could take it. And know 26 isn't old. I'm not trying to make it sound like that, but I could look on social media and see, ⁓ someone's just got engaged. Someone's just had a baby. But out here in Thailand and I pushed for this opportunity and I saved my money and ⁓ I'm going for it. So. I just want to show you that like you don't have to follow the stereotypical life. can, it cringy, but follow your dreams. You know, if you want to go and achieve something, go and do it. It took me years to take this step. So it wasn't a quick and easy thing. You know, I had to leave my job that I really, loved. I had to save up a lot of money. I'm spending ⁓ money out and not earning. So ⁓ that's kind a weird one to get my head around sometimes, but it's all for that life experience and that. want for something better and bigger. yeah, just, and I don't think that's super common spots. I think that's not anything. And ⁓ how social media these days is you can follow people's journeys and see them from day one, all the way to where they are now. And people are doing crazy stuff with the marathons and the high rocks and anything people are pushing themselves every day. And I think it's so inspirational. So yeah, I hope I can just be like a little reminder of just go for whatever you want to achieve. And if that's my tie, then ⁓ better. But yeah, that's what I'd love to say.
Sam Nott: is either really cool thing about you, we're gonna put your social media down below in the show notes. The really cool thing about you is that you share your ups and your downs. You're not just posting, hey, this is all of the great things that I've done. You post to the entire journey. So I think that's true, genuine and authentic. So definitely appreciate you doing that.
Izzi: Thank you, I appreciate that.
Sam Nott: Izzy, the idea of simple wins more ⁓ just the scoreboard or record. What does simple wins ⁓ to you?
Izzi: I think what it boils down to is like consistency over everything. Checking in with yourself every day and doing something like the whole idea of like 1 % better every day. for example, with Muay Thai, going to a session every day or doing your strength session every other day, ⁓ or, you know, going for that run or pushing your PD there. Just everything adds up again and again and again. ⁓ I do love that concept because you can use it with everything in life, which is incredible. But something as powerful as like a sport, for example, you just see, you reap the rewards so quickly. So yeah, I think a simple win to me is just, yeah, that's yourself every day. And I'm not going to lie, there are some days where I don't want to do that. I'm so tired and I'm so... mentally drained or physically exhausted. But if there's just something I can be a little bit better than yesterday, then then I'll go for it. And for example, social media is such a good idea, because means like, okay, I want to that editing in a in a vlog, or I want to publish, ⁓ I to post this ⁓ reel something like that, where you can ⁓ also the rewards very quickly with social media. So Yeah, it all goes hand in hand. But yeah, simple wins is just the system's thing over anything in life.
Sam Nott: Izzy, you've got a lot of wisdom to share. You've got a great heart. You're genuine. You're authentic. I know 26 years old and you really do have a lot of wisdom. Who's going to bet on themselves at 20 years old and reinvent themselves literally. yes, Izzy. Appreciate your time today and best of luck moving forward.
Izzi: ⁓ thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you.
Izzi: Yeah, it's a bit of a tough one because I know people find combat sports at a later age. I know 20 isn't necessarily that late. But yes, when you're standing across the ring from someone who's been doing it since they were five, six, seven, or since, you know, their parents own a gym or something like that, there's always kind of a to the sport. And I came to it a little bit later than normal and achieved quite a lot quite quickly. But also just have to realise I'm on my own path and ⁓ I just enjoy the and ⁓ stick with win news or draw. I just try perform my best. Sometimes that works, sometimes not so much, but at the end of the day that's the plan really.
Sam Nott: And you said you didn't even like sports growing up. So what sparked you to do it in the first place?
Izzi: Yeah, so I, maybe when I was like 10 and younger, enjoyed sports, I enjoyed sports with the with the boys in my school, maybe like rugby and football and stuff like that. And then going through the teenage years, I just completely lost interest. And I convinced myself sport wasn't for me. Yeah, which is physical education, which is our ⁓ character in sport, at school that you have to take. I hated, you know, I started to find ways to get out of it and ⁓ a bit of weight and just thought this is my life you know I'm not going to be one of those sporty or fit people and kind of changed in lockdown funny enough I just decided one day I'm to start running the next day I think I managed an eight minute run it was like the worst eight minutes of my life and then from there I just tried to get better and better at running and then I tried doing circuits at home and then ⁓ And then I found my gym, which is where I started Muay Thai. it's lots of little baby steps that got me there. But yeah, at one point in my life, I convinced myself fitness and sport and being healthy wasn't for me. And then you just gotta find your sport and you've got to find your calling. ⁓ So a good time, but we got there in the end.
Sam Nott: Yeah, and everyone has their own version of what their calling is physically. I'm curious, what do you love about fighting so much?
Izzi: funny enough, I'm not a particularly aggressive person. but, I enjoy how smart you have to be with it ⁓ and how have to yourself further than you have before. And so for me, I love working on my fight IQ. So I love being smarter and more controlled in the ring. I'm working on my aestheticism and making sure I'm stronger and more powerful each and every fight. those are the things that really fire me up in and improving myself. And say I'm matched up against someone who, when paper should beat me or has got x amount of years more experience than me or more fights or whatever it is, I enjoy the process. It can be rough and it can, I can struggle, but just to keep on, keep my eyes forward and focus on, okay. I want to step in that ring and be the best I can be. And it seems to be working. Yeah, for me, kind of the ideology of what I could be in the ring is what keeps me going, if that makes sense. Like if I knew I've had a fight 10 weeks from today, I'm going to be a completely different person in 10 weeks and that really, really excites me.
Sam Nott: And common sense would say the earlier that you start, the better that you would be. I want to challenge that for a second. Do you think there's any disadvantages that those that started earlier have? Maybe you see things from a different perspective. Maybe you have a different outlook on things. What advantages do you have starting later?
Izzi: Yeah, that's really interesting, actually. There's kind of a difficult point when a junior comes up if they've been competing for years and years and years. In the UK, for example, we have no head contact with 16 and under. So these juniors are used to having their hands down, down here. And as I started, you know, I spentily, I had to learn to keep my hands clear. And to make it as small as that is really important because these juniors are going into the ring at 12, 13, whatever, and they're winning and they're doing really well and they're point scoring. And then when they get to steam, they have to get out of that habit of hands can't be here anymore, because you're going to be hitting your face. They've got to be up there. So something like that is quite tangible. You can see it. You're trying to teach a young adult out of their bad habits. So that's probably one thing that I've seen. quite frequently. then another tangent would be if a parent is too pushy with their child, you know, their young kid is doing really well with the competing and the fighting and they're traveling up and down the country. And then they're pushing that child so much that the kid is like, no, I don't want anything more to do with this sport. I want to go do football instead or basketball or whatever. Like, or maybe I want to do any sport at all. can kind of flip. Unfortunately, the kids in my gym have been really good at having that equal support of go for it, but also take time to rest. But I have seen where kids can go through adolescence and just start to hate the sport, unfortunately, which is so sad, because it shapes, it shapes me as an adult, so it would shape them as an adult. it's, that's a difficult one to balance, I think. And one day when I do have kids, I need to figure that one out because I want to keep them in combat sports. don't know, I don't mind what they would do, but I don't want to be that pushy parent and be like get in the ring now sort of thing. So it's a difficult one, but yeah, that's another side to it, which is rough to watch definitely.
Sam Nott: Yeah, burnout is all too real.
Izzi: Yes, yeah, especially that age, they're so questionable and their brains are still like sponges and they could still learn so much about the sport but then something clicks and they're like, no, I don't want to do it anymore. that's a difficult one. And I don't think that that's not just combat sports. That's, think, any sport or anything tough at that age, definitely.
Sam Nott: Yeah. And at such a young age, it's like you said, they're almost pushed into it. So it's not, it's like they're not even making the decision for themselves. And I think that's a large area where the burnout actually comes from. in your own mind, starting later, do you think you have lower than other starting in the sport where you're just so happy with the growth and the progress that you've made versus somebody that might have been in this sport for 10 plus years and has high expectations of themselves?
Izzi: Hmm, an interesting one. I'm too sure. I like to think that as I've grown in confidence in the sport, I can set myself higher expectation. But then some happen and I have to ground myself and be like, no, actually, you're still new to the sport. For example, the fight I had in February out here in Thailand was my first fight in Thailand. And ⁓ Thailand is the of the sport. So I'm coming ⁓ up against a girl who said, I didn't even know how many fights she had because records out here are just like, they don't, you know, they could have a hundred fights, they don't really care sort of thing. had a lot of fights and a lot more experience than me. And came here being like, yeah, ⁓ I'm doing new here and I'm doing really, really well. But then actually when you go up to that next level and you see, okay, you're ⁓ coming up girls with a hundred plus fights. that's when I'm like, okay, I'm now back down to level one again, and I've got to build myself up here. So I don't know about setting myself at higher standards, but you just grow with the sport, I And as your confidence grows, you grow, then you need to be grounded a little bit and you need to learn to do something a little bit different and learn it that way and go from there.
Sam Nott: do you think has been the hardest part of your journey?
Izzi: About two years I had a loss ⁓ and I was on like a eight fight win streak or something. ⁓ know, my confidence was high. was feeling really good. I thought, ⁓ you know, I'm getting recognition in the UK. And then I came up against girl who was exceptionally talented, called Jenny Radford. I may have, I probably underestimated her because confidence may have been too high for that fight. And so many factors happened on the day where like I didn't get a proper warmup in, I wasn't quite in the right headspace. ⁓ was like too happy, if that makes sense. ⁓ not knocked in. I was, ⁓ yeah, quite there. And then in the ring, ⁓ literally the first bell, something in my brain was like... No, this isn't your fight. Like just give up now. It was a really rough fight. was three, three, three minute rounds. And straight away, she was quite good to me with me and straight away really simple. I wasn't landing anything. And she was meeing my face, elbowing the top of my head, busted my nose. So much was going wrong and I had no answers in my head. And like I said earlier, I like be the smarter fighter, I like to have that fight I can't. And then I swear to God those are like the worst nine minutes. It was just the giant woman coming at me and just landing whatever she wanted sort of thing. And I tried and tried to get to the last round. And then with eight seconds to go in the third round, the ref called it off. So I had two eight counts in that round. And yeah, the second eight count, he just waved it off. And I wasn't really there mentally and I was just all a bit like, I don't know what's just happened. Like I know I'm bleeding. I know, I know she won. Anyway, and I was a bit of a mess afterwards. you know, I didn't figure out what was, what was the, why I had to go through that or what was the point or like, you know, why do this sport if you literally get hurt that much and you get humbled that quickly? And so I remember the fight camp after that one. For my own good, had to get straight back into another fight camp and I was like, I need another fight because if I stop there and take a break, that's me done. I don't think I would have come back from that. I don't know why, just that's the headspace I was in. And I went back, had another fight. It was a tough fight, but I won. And then that was when I was like, okay, you have the highs and you have the lows. And I had a lot of back to back highs with the back to back wins. And then, yeah, this fight just kind of changed my headspace of like, okay, you need to tweak this in your fight campaign. You to go into your warmup with 40 extra minutes, or you need to make sure you're hydrated well enough there. You just kind of learn these things as you fight. And that was the one, one of the one time, one of the times where I really had to reflect and think about it. And funny enough, it's taken me two years. No. a year and a half to watch Black Black YouTube. I refused to watch it because I knew that wasn't me the ring and it still really upset me. Now I can watch it and I'm fine. But like I said, that's taken a year and a half. So you go through a lot and and not just through your team and your family, but you go through these moments. That was a rough moment for me, but get through it. And now I'm out in Thailand and I'm living the dream and I'm fighting I'm pursuing this career and now my headspace has changed of like, and I mentioned this earlier of it doesn't matter about win losing or if you win, lose or draw, you just got to step in there and be the best you can be. On that day I was not my best, not at all. And everyone was slim, but now I want to make sure I am the best. ⁓ yeah, that was a tough moment for me, definitely.
Sam Nott: And we all have our ups and downs. So I appreciate you sharing that. what you know now, what advice would you go back and give yourself before that fight?
Izzi: I found myself to like take it more seriously. I think I was just, I'm such a weird one because I felt confident, I felt strong, my weight was good. Like so many things were good in my fight camp. And I maybe just thought it was too easy. And that's such a silly head space to be in, especially in combat sports. So I'll probably sit myself down and be like, I'm it's so, it's so fun, you know. So think it's too easy, you've got to push yourself further and you've got to get to those moments that are rough and then, you know, that will add up in the ring. So yeah, think, see it as, yeah, take it more seriously. Definitely.
Sam Nott: And I'm curious because you are coach and I respect coaches a ton. So how does coaching help you as a fighter?
Izzi: love coaching. Like I absolutely love it. And at the moment I can't coach because I'm in Thailand, but every now and then I'll pull pads in a class, not here to help with the ratio of like coaches to participants in the class. And holding pads and I'm straight away in love with it again. I'm like, ⁓ can't wait to get home and like start coaching and PT my clients again. And yeah, building that side of my kind of career up as well. But yeah, coaching. On the basic level, you cite revision. It's like, you're going over those fundamentals or those techniques. You haven't actually thought about yourself in a ring in the last year or whatever. So you can go through and you're like, okay, today we're going to learn this. And the reason why is this and you can show them in an hour how to perform it, how to do it on the cards, how to do it on a bag. And then you're like, okay, I need to remember that one. It's quite a good one. And I should probably try it next week in Sparrowing or something like that. on that level, it's yeah, basically just like weekly revision for the sport, is, which is great. And then on the other side of it, you, you have ⁓ ⁓ someone trying again and again and again and gaining it right, if that makes sense, because You can get to the point in the sport where you feel like you've plateaued and you've let a ceiling, but actually seeing someone come back to you every week and they've learned this and their techniques grown like that, or their footwork is massively improved. you're like, okay, everyone improves no matter what level you are, as long as you keep coming back and trying again and repeating and doing that revision, you do ⁓ like, there's that element to it as well, which is incredible. And then also, you know, seeing I have a 16 year old girl, young woman at my gym, reminds me a lot of me when I was that age, kind of a bit like, I need to be polite here. can't be rude. I don't want to be rude at all, but she is very confident and very like loud and a bit. Yeah. She's just, it's great fun anyway. And I love teaching her because she, she has that fire in her and I'm like, right, one day I'm going to get you to fight. First things first, you've got to your exams done. That's way more important. But yeah, in a couple of years, I'll go back to her I'll be like, are you coming back and you're going to fight now? So stuff like that where you see like a little seed in someone and you're like, yes, he's got it in you. So when I finish my fighting, I can pass on my knowledge and build my own fight team and maybe just women, something like that. I absolutely love that. So yeah, I love coaching. It's great fun.
Sam Nott: I love that. And I think it's almost a secret hack if you're someone that still competes and you coach, because just like you're explaining, you have to explain things from different perspectives so that they understand it, not just the way that you understand it in your mind, but so that they can understand it. And then you have those aha moments like you referenced. And it's like, that thing later. ⁓ ⁓ think it's just a
Izzi: Exactly.
Sam Nott: incredible way to help your own development as a competitor. So Izzy, I'm really curious, where does your confidence come from? Because you've transformed your life at 20 years old.
Izzi: Martin Cole, who trained me from my first Muay session, and then about three months into journey, he turned to me and he went, I'm gonna ask you you want to fight one day. And little me was like, what's fighting? Like, I don't like the sound of that. That doesn't sound good. He was like, don't worry, don't worry. It won't be for like another year. since he said that we then started working together quite regularly and then yeah, a year later I had my first fight so I had that timeline of him mentioning it to me and then I went away and did some research and I saw what fighting was in Muay Thai and what that is and what a fight camp is and what I'd have to do and stuff and then just kind of started there and it's kind of snowballed over time. But yeah, he's always been that person who pushed me on the hard fights. You know, he made those match ups when I thought I wasn't ready and he completely believed in me. He's humbled me and he's brought me back down to earth when ⁓ my head got a little bit too big. And he, yeah, he has given me that confidence, ⁓ like matter what. And the fight I had in February here that I mentioned earlier when I was the underdog and You know, I was supposed to lose and a big gamble culture out here in Thailand when it comes to fighting and I was getting my hands wrapped and I'm back to back with my opponent and team, big maybe five, six guys standing around her are talking about me. It's in Thai I don't know what's being said, but they, ⁓ being disrespectful when I later heard what was said. I was getting my hands wrapped and I'm to back with my opponent maybe five, six guys standing around her are talking about me. It's in Thai I don't know what's being said, but they, ⁓ being disrespectful when later heard what was said. kind of like what's this girl doing? Who does she think she is? And stuff like that. And they were putting a lot of money for their girls to win. My coach, who speaks Thai, heard all of this, but just didn't want to, didn't want to tell me, no need to tell me. So there was this kind of big build up of I don't deserve to be there and I am going to lose, I'm going to get really, really hurt. And so I remember phoning my coach from home, kind of like what's this girl doing? Who does she think she is? And stuff like that. And they were putting a lot of money for their girls to win. My coach, who speaks Thai, he is Thai himself, heard all of this, but just didn't want to, didn't want to tell me, no need to tell me. So there was this kind of big build up of I don't deserve to be there and I am going to lose, I'm going to get really, really hurt. And so I remember phoning my coach being from home, sorry. You know, I was worried and I building up these scenarios in my head and you know, what if I can't land anything on her? What if she's smarter than me and stuff? And he sent me a video of way back in the early days of me training. And he said, imagine telling this version of you what you're doing right now. And I was like, yeah. And so like you dug through the videos of like training and whatever on Instagram. And he sent that to me and it just kind of went, it flipped in my head. I was worried and I building up these scenarios in my head and you know, what if I can't land anything on her? What if she's smarter than me and stuff? And he sent me a video ⁓ of way in the early days of me training. And he said, He knows how to speak to me, he knows what works for me and that gave me that confidence of like, yeah, okay, let's go and do this. Yeah, I can do this, no matter what I will do. So I think he is one of root of my confidence on most days, definitely. ⁓ then you learn how to deal with that yourself and talk yourself in a positive way and, you know, what you want and go after it. So. And that all came from him, I think, because I had no interest in this sport, no interest in fighting. And then he said it to me one day and there we go. Now, now we're here.
Sam Nott: What an incredible story and what an inspiring coach. That's a lesson that I'm going to take away and hopefully use for others and send a little clip and say, Hey, this is who you used to be. I think that's genius. That is genius. So he's inspired you. What do you hope others take away from your journey? How do you hope to inspire others?
Izzi: Yes, yeah. I just want to show that you don't have to do the norm. Like, so I'm 26 now, and technically in my timeline of a normal life, I should be buying a house, settling down, having a baby, getting a dog, you know, stuff like that. And something flicked in my brain a couple of years, but then I was like, no, I don't want that. And I wanted to go down this route of training and fighting and seeing how far I could take it. And know 26 isn't old. I'm not trying to make it sound like that, but I could look on social media and see, ⁓ someone's just got engaged. Someone's just had a baby. But out here in Thailand and I pushed for this opportunity and I saved my money and ⁓ I'm going for it. So. I just want to show you that like you don't have to follow the stereotypical life. can, it cringy, but follow your dreams. You know, if you want to go and achieve something, go and do it. It took me years to take this step. So it wasn't a quick and easy thing. You know, I had to leave my job that I really, loved. I had to save up a lot of money. I'm spending ⁓ money out and not earning. So ⁓ that's kind a weird one to get my head around sometimes, but it's all for that life experience and that. want for something better and bigger. yeah, just, and I don't think that's super common spots. I think that's not anything. And ⁓ how social media these days is you can follow people's journeys and see them from day one, all the way to where they are now. And people are doing crazy stuff with the marathons and the high rocks and anything people are pushing themselves every day. And I think it's so inspirational. So yeah, I hope I can just be like a little reminder of just go for whatever you want to achieve. And if that's my tie, then ⁓ better. But yeah, that's what I'd love to say.
Sam Nott: is either really cool thing about you, we're gonna put your social media down below in the show notes. The really cool thing about you is that you share your ups and your downs. You're not just posting, hey, this is all of the great things that I've done. You post to the entire journey. So I think that's true, genuine and authentic. So definitely appreciate you doing that.
Izzi: Thank you, I appreciate that.
Sam Nott: Izzy, the idea of simple wins more ⁓ just the scoreboard or record. What does simple wins ⁓ to you?
Izzi: I think what it boils down to is like consistency over everything. Checking in with yourself every day and doing something like the whole idea of like 1 % better every day. for example, with Muay Thai, going to a session every day or doing your strength session every other day, ⁓ or, you know, going for that run or pushing your PD there. Just everything adds up again and again and again. ⁓ I do love that concept because you can use it with everything in life, which is incredible. But something as powerful as like a sport, for example, you just see, you reap the rewards so quickly. So yeah, I think a simple win to me is just, yeah, that's yourself every day. And I'm not going to lie, there are some days where I don't want to do that. I'm so tired and I'm so... mentally drained or physically exhausted. But if there's just something I can be a little bit better than yesterday, then then I'll go for it. And for example, social media is such a good idea, because means like, okay, I want to that editing in a in a vlog, or I want to publish, ⁓ I to post this ⁓ reel something like that, where you can ⁓ also the rewards very quickly with social media. So Yeah, it all goes hand in hand. But yeah, simple wins is just the system's thing over anything in life.
Sam Nott: Izzy, you've got a lot of wisdom to share. You've got a great heart. You're genuine. You're authentic. I know 26 years old and you really do have a lot of wisdom. Who's going to bet on themselves at 20 years old and reinvent themselves literally. yes, Izzy. Appreciate your time today and best of luck moving forward.
Izzi: ⁓ thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you.
