Sandy Ryan says she got to know herself better and proved what “she’s talking about” by avenging her first and only pro loss to date.
The 29-year-old light middleweight beat former world champion Erica Farias in a rematch in August, just five months after being beaten by the Argentine.
Ryan takes on three-weight world champion Anahi Sanchez on Saturday knowing she could set up a world title fight.
“I learned a lot from the defeat,” Ryan told BBC East Midlands Today.
“It was nothing about boxing. I learned more about myself, how to manage life, how to manage my mind and how to manage people around me.
“When I suffered this defeat, the people who were in the locker room are the people I have around me now.
“When you get a win, you want to see how many people are in the dressing room.
“Now it makes me think that when I win, yes, I’ll take the praise and all, but I’ll be more grateful for the praise from the team that was around me when I lost.”
Derbyshire’s Ryan, who won Commonwealth Games gold in 2018 during a successful amateur career, said Farias, 38, became her only focus when she was beaten in a decision at the points split at Nottingham in March.
Any path she took to fight for a world title had to include the Argentinian scalp.
“I wouldn’t have wanted another fight knowing I had suffered a loss,” Ryan said.
“For me to avenge this loss, and in the right way really, to put myself in a good ranking – I showed my boxing ability against a world class operator.
“There aren’t many women who do that, you see them suffer a loss and they don’t retaliate and try another route to the top.
“It just shows what I am.”
Ryan, who has only done turned pro in 2021 and has four wins in five fights in 16 months, said she and her team will hold promoter Eddie Hearn to his assertion that she will soon earn a tilt for a world title.
“I’m already highly ranked up there,” Ryan said.
“I can do it and I deserve it.
“Every boxer wants to fight for a world title and I’ve been saying that ever since I turned professional. So that says it all.”
