This week I chat to the UK’s first professional boxer with type 1 diabetes Muhammad Ali, who made history in 2018 as the first British professional boxer with type 1 diabetes. Three years earlier his licence application was rejected because of his condition, threatening to end his career. We talk through how he went about convincing the British Boxing Board of Control that he was fit to fight and how advances in diabetes technology helped to get him there – along with a huge amount of resilience and determination!
Ali was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 5 and always played sports, but after watching Ricky Hatton fight at the age of 12, he knew boxing was the one for him. His dad wasn’t convinced, and so his mum ended up sneaking him to his first boxing session! Ali speaks so inspiringly about how his diabetes and boxing go hand-in-hand, and how having diabetes has given him discipline both inside and outside of the ring. He also chats about being made to feel different because of his diabetes, and how he now uses his platform on the world stage to motivate children with diabetes to achieve their dreams, and satisfying his sweet tooth while on an athlete’s diet!
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