She’s a former Irish dance, kick boxing and stick fighting world champion … and now she’s having a go at boxing.

Huddersfield’s Rebecca Kane has thought about stepping into the boxing ring for a while now and her first fight will be on June 2 in Leeds.

Her feet are incredibly quick due to her Irish dancing skills and she hopes they’ll give her an advantage by preventing opponents from landing blows.

The 38-year-old martial arts and Irish dance teacher harbours no fear of fighting. She won a world Thai boxing title in Germany in 2019 and became a stick fighting world champion in the Philippines back in 2006.

Rebecca, who won the World Irish Dance Association world title in 2017, said: “I hope I’ll be able to dance rings around my opponent in the boxing ring and that my Irish dance skills will prove to be a real benefit. It’s all about staying safe in the ring.”

Rebecca is doing the boxing in memory of her mum, Marcella, who died in 2015 at the age of 63.

“She loved boxing,” said Rebecca. “But never regarded my Thai boxing as proper boxing. I’m thinking that if I don’t give it a go now then I never will.”

Many people will remember Marcella’s father, Thomas Cross, who used to run the legendary Minstrel pub in Huddersfield town centre.

Marcella and her husband, Lawrence Kane, used to run the Commercial pub on Chapel Hill before it was demolished in the early 1980s.

Rebecca has been training for her first bout at the Bethlehem Boxing Club in Leeds run by former Irish professional light middleweight boxing champion Lee Murtagh who is now coaching her.

“I feel like I’m really being looked after there,” said Rebecca.

Rebecca’s opponent in Leeds has yet to be announced but the bout is expected to be four two-minute rounds.

“I’ll see how this first fight goes, but I’m already planning another for August,” she said.

There are several fights on the night at the venue which is the Egan Suite on Savile Drive in Leeds.

Tickets cost £25 and are available from Rebecca by emailing her at info@kaneacademy.com

Rebecca’s martial arts school is the Kane Academy of Martial Arts (https://kaneacademy.com/) and her dance school is called Kane Irish Dance (https://kaneirishdance.com/).

Both are based at St James’ Hall on St James’ Road in Marsh.

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.