Kick-boxing Kent mum aims for Guinness World Record

Kick-boxing Kent mum Nicola Ireland, 40 years old, is on her way to breaking a Guinness World Record this month.

Ireland plans to kick more than 59 items off people’s heads in just one minute, according to the Kent Messenger.

Before she became a mum, Ireland had a stellar career in Muay Thai, with British, European and World belts to her name. Now she plans another victory on November 27 at Ironworks Gym in Maidstone, kicking boxing gloves off the heads of fellow gym members.

The mum of two said…

“I am really excited to show my two girls they can achieve anything if they work at it and for them to see me achieve this world record.

“My youngest daughter, who’s five, has already said she’s going to try and beat my record when she’s old enough.”

Nicola has already kicked 61 off in a minute during practice – beating the current official record of 59.

She said…

“After leaving Thai boxing in my late 20s to have my two daughters I wanted to challenge myself to see what I could achieve at 40 years old.

“This has given me a sense of self again and it has been amazing for me to do something for myself, other than doing everything for the family.”

Nicola joined the sport aged only 15 when she was introduced to Bruce Lee’s martial art, Jeet Kune Do. She soon tried Muay Thai and immediately fell in love with the soon-to-be Olympic sport.

“As soon as I tried it, it just felt like the most realistic martial art. Thai boxing is the stand-up that you see in UFC. I just loved it. By realistic I mean that you have to be good at defence, at striking, at everything, really. There’s no escaping, you can’t hide.”

Ireland had her first fight when she was 18 and working as a shipping clerk and the situation quickly changed just five years later, Ireland found herself in a Bangkok prison.

She had gone to Thailand to “learn from the best” and improve her fighting skills, but little did she know the challenge ahead of her.

“Obviously not speaking Thai, you just sort of communicate as best you can and the boss at the gym, who was the manager and arranged the fights.

“So all I knew was that it was going to be a fight in a prison, but I’d fought in places like a market and things like that, so I just assumed it was a ring that was set in the grounds of a prison. I didn’t actually know I was fighting an inmate. It definitely got lost in translation.

“On the day, we arrived at this prison and it was like a maximum security place. I was going past all these people in chains. I was like ‘oh my God.’ I didn’t think we’d get to go through the actual prison.

“And then we got through to this courtyard and where this ring was set up and the spectators were a couple of hundred women. And I was like, ‘are these all the prisoners?’ It was just surreal.

“We still didn’t know that I was fighting a prisoner. This was at 11am and normally fights are in the evening, so that was another reason it felt a bit surreal.

“I didn’t know when I was fighting, they just told me to get ready and to warm up. I hadn’t even seen my opponent when I weighed in.

“I was first in the ring. And then came this lady who was the biggest Thai I’ve ever seen, covered in tattoos.

“I was actually a bit worried at that point because everything was coming so quickly. But once we touched gloves, I just had to get on with it.

“Within literally the first couple of minutes I felt that she wasn’t as strong or skilled, so it was fine and I won.”

It was only later that the kick-boxing Kent mum found out through the media that it was an organised event and part of a rehabilitation program.