Nambour grandma makes female boxing history at 71-years-old

Lyn Mills trains with Charlie Wetere.

by Janine Hill

BOXER Lyn Mills did not get a win when she flew to Melbourne for her first fight last month but the consolation prize was not too bad.

Lyn, 71, went home with the record for being the oldest female boxer to fight in a competitive bout in Australia.

“Unless someone else comes in who is older than me, I’ve got that,” she said.

Lyn was beaten unanimously at Ferntree Gully on 25 November by Victoria’s Karen Watts, who at 62 had youth on her side.

Until then, Lyn had only ever fought in an exhibition match at the PanPacific Masters and was approached to take on Karen, who had been unable to find anyone in her age group to fight.

Lyn, who trains with Charlie Wetere at the OneHeart gym, Nambour, ramped up the running and dropped cake and biscuits to shed 9kg for the bout.

Although Charlie had schooled her up for the fight, she found Karen difficult to match.

“She’s got an unorthodox style,” Lyn said. “She was doing jabs but all over the place.”

“I got on top of her in the last round but it was too late by then.”

She said she had no regrets about the fight and would do it again, even though she has been diagnosed with covid since she got back.

“It was a great experience. Even if I had known I was going to come down with covid, I wouldn’t have given up the chance,” she said.

The fight has also led to Lyn being featured in a yet-to-be-completed documentary.

“My granddaughter has a friend who makes documentaries, and my grandson is into UFC. They were sitting around talking and my granddaughter said, ‘My grandma has a fight in November’.”

Lyn said she had been amazed at the opportunities that had opened for her since she began boxing.

“I never thought four years ago when I started training with Charlie that all this would evolve,” she said.

“I never went there to fight. I went there to get fit, and then it went to training for the PanPacs, then a fight, and now a documentary.”

Lyn is under instructions from Charlie not to train for a couple of weeks but plans to get back into it – because who knows what will come next?