Ebanie Bridges is the world boxing champion who has worked her way into Conor

• A latecomer to boxing, Bridges has enjoyed a whirlwind start to her career
• The 36-year-old Aussie won the IBF featherweight title in her ninth fight as a pro
• But Bridges has gained even more notoriety for her activities outside of the ring

The old saying ‘looks can be deceiving’ has perhaps never been as true as in the case of IBF featherweight champion Ebanie Bridges.

A late starter in boxing, Bridges trained in karate and muay thai as a youth before embarking on a successful career in bodybuilding, winning various titles around the Sydney area.

Though she had some combat sports experience, Bridges’ route to a career as a professional was unique in that she had initially started taking boxing classes solely as a way to improve her footwork for prospective career in kickboxing.

But it was pugilism where Bridges would find a newfound passion, and despite turning her attention to the sweet science as a relative latecomer she found immediate success, winning Australian Golden Gloves titles at bantamweight in 2016 and 2017.

Making her pro debut aged 32, and despite the early portion of his career being disrupted by the pandemic, Bridges wasted no time undergoing a protracted development phase as a professional.

Instead she garnered a devoted following from the outset thanks to her exciting style and penchant for weighing-in wearing lingerie before fighting for the WBA bantamweight title in just her sixth career outing.

Though she would find herself on the wrong side of a unanimous decision on that night at the Copper Box against Shannon Courtenay in 2021, Bridges continued undeterred.

A Leeds United fan since childhood, the Blonde Bomber has made the Yorkshire city her adopted home for and explained that her love affair with the club began thanks to another of the city’s Australian imports.

‘He’s my fave, what an animal,’ Bridges said of former Whites striker Mark Viduka to Pub Talk podcast.

‘Obviously when I played football in the late 90s and early 00s Leeds was huge in Australia.

‘When you’re around my age group, my era there are a lot of Leeds fans because we were in the Premier League.’

Moving her career permanently to the UK, Bridges returned to winning ways with two further fights in 2021, beating Bec Connolly and Mailys Gangloff to position herself for another world title shot.

This time Bridges would make the best of her opportunity, defeating Maria Cecilia Roman to capture the IBF bantamweight title in her adopted home city, before retaining the belt with a gritty grudge-match TKO of Shannon O’Connell.

But it’s not just Bridges’ exploits inside the ring that have made her one of the…