Teenage sporting sensation grew up to become the woman behind the mask

Victoria Perkins has made history in boxing but she does far more than just compete in the ring

On August 17, at the Selwyn Samuel in Llanelli, Victoria 'VIP' Perkins wrote her name into the history books.

After 10 bruising rounds, Perkins saw off Ashleigh Johnson in front of a fanatical crowd to become the very first women's Welsh boxing champion.

“It’s perfect, it’s made in the stars, isn’t it? I don’t know," she said at the time, the delirium understandably hampering her ability to process the scale of her achievement. "It’s a feeling I can’t describe at the minute. Maybe in the next couple of days I’ll be able to, but right now it’s kind of just a dream!”

Over a month on, and it's fair to say to say the words are still not all that easy to come by.

"It's been a few weeks now," she said. "I don't know if it's set in, but it's definitely starting to feel more real now. Definitely. I'm getting recognised in a couple more places now, which makes things more real.

"I honestly couldn't believe it. There was a lot of hard work beforehand. So in my brain it was kind of like 'what do I do now?' Everything, all my work had gone into that fight. It was all for that camp."

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But the 20-year-old may well have to get used to these sorts of occasions. This, many believe, is the first step towards a long and successful career that could, one day, lead her to the very top.

A self-proclaimed technical fighter, Victoria is a fierce competitor who seemingly oozes confidence inside the ring.

The walls on the Dragons Gym in Trebanos, which she inherited off her dad for her 18th birthday have effectively become a scrapbook to her career so far, with pictures of her time in the ring almost everywhere you look.

But by her own admission, Victoria doesn't particularly enjoy the limelight. Something she's trying to work on given she's chosen a sport that so unapologetically revolves around self-promotion.

Then again, boxing wasn't exactly always the plan.

"At the beginning, I never wanted to box," she admits. "I was known through being a child as a kicky fighter.

"Originally I was meant to go to a dance class, but I was too young for it. I was a little baby but I was going to be a dancer. My dad and my older brother started kick-boxing and I was always a competitive child.

"I just wanted to be better than everyone else, so thought I'd give it a go."

Victoria enjoyed a meteoric rise as a kickboxer, so much so that she says there wasn't really anywhere left to go. Not many people conquer the world as a teenager.

"I'd done it all," she says. "I was three-time world champion by the time I was 16 and got my first world title when I turned 13. It was kind of a loss of love in terms of fighting.

"I still love teaching the kids in it. I teach from three years up. They're still my little babies at the end of the day. But I think fighting it, I lost the love for it."

Having arrived at such an early crossroad in her career was one thing, but the impact of recent Covid-19 pandemic pushed Victoria further towards the reset button.

"I couldn't do anything," she remembers. "It took fighting out completely. I'd just come off a world title win as well. Then they started to announce all the restrictions.

"It was my last year of school as well so everything was kind of all over the place. Lockdown hit and we obviously had no school work as we'd just finished. I had to stay in the house and couldn't do anything whatsoever.

"Going from training six or seven times a week to nothing was a massive difficulty."

The pandemic clearly took a toll on Victoria's mental health, and she fully admits depression and anxiety plagued for much of the pandemic.

"I went from being at the top to sitting in bed doing nothing all day. It was mad. But I think if it wasn't for lockdown I wouldn't have made the transition over to boxing."

It's probably fair to say boxing was the fresh start needed, but the pandemic clearly still knocked her confidence a little, particularly when it comes to handling the limelight.

"I hate cameras," she says. "I hate talking to people. It's got a lot better. when they first put cameras in front of my face, I'd hide behind someone else and get someone else to talk for me. I am getting better at it now, and I am starting to enjoy it a little bit. But at the same time, it's still really nerve-wracking."

Even for this interview, she is flanked by her father, Kristian, who having been a driving force behind her career, while also helping her get accustomed to the attention she gets in the ring.

"That's the whole reason for the mask," he says, referring to Victoria's trademark Purge-inspired pre-fight masks.

"Everyone always asks about the mask. It was because of the nerves and everything. So I said 'right. put a mask on. You'd be hidden behind it. No one can see you. You could be crying, laughing giggling, whatever behind that mask, and you can focus then on the walk out'.

"It's now just become part of everything. The fighting's the easy part. Once someone's trying to punch you, you react. Everything else goes away and you have a fight. But it's the bit before. The nerves and everything. So we stuck the mask on. She's become a different person. It's just really strange how a little bit of plastic has changed everything."

Kristian's influence still looms large on Victoria's career, extending to the very gym we're sitting in, which has established itself as a central part of the local community, giving youngsters a place to go and express themselves.

"My dad gave it to me but he ran the gym for 10 years before hand," she added. "We teach kids here from three to 18. The littlest class is probably our most hectic class.

"Teaching three-year-olds running around in circles and they don't really listen. But we like to keep the gym open to everybody. We have children coming in with additional needs, so we have more than enough teachers to help cover everyone's bases."

"It even helps some of the older kids too," Kristian adds. "Some of them have problems of their own. Stuff happening in school or whatever. But they come in and beat the bag up for an hour and it's a release. Sometimes they want to come into the ring and we chuck them in with our bigger boys, and they punch them until they can go away smiling.

"It's not just in the gym either. We have a group chat with everybody and they've got my home number so if there's ever a problem or they're stuck anywhere they can just pick the phone up and we'll sort it out. We're like an extended family. A dysfunctional family some of the time."

But while it might well be dysfunctional at times, the bid to take Victoria to the top is a serious one, with the search for sponsorships currently at the top of the agenda as team 'VIP' looks to fund a path to the very top.

"It's a million per cent harder in women's boxing," Victoria reveals." They're not on big stages instantly. Women have to work behind the scenes before they get to the big shows. Doing the small hall shows that no one really notices. If you're going to get signed instantly on a big card, it's not the same. Working your way up, it's a lot more difficult to be a female than it is to be a man.

"Women's boxing is on the rise still, but I don't think it's at the top of where it's going to be. I think in the next few years women may even start to take over, because the fights are always exciting.

"As weird as it sounds, I think in a few years' time I don't think we're going to need to promote the sport as female boxers. I think we're going to be able to stand right by the men and say 'this is boxing'. It's not women's boxing. It's not men's boxing. It's just boxing. I think women will be able to top cards just like the men do at the minute. History is being made slowly.

"I'm focused on myself most of the time, as selfish as that sounds. In this game you have to have that selfish side."

An appearance at the Olympics has previously been outlined as a possible ambition, and Victoria says that door is still open.

"We can go back and compete as a pro now," she says. "So it's not out of the possibilities if it does stay in, but it's not on my card right now as I've got a couple more plans and things beforehand."

However, when it comes to future ambitions, there's clearly one stand-out goal.

"No one gets into boxing without dreaming of a world title," she says. "That's in the eyesight. It's not necessarily going to happen in the next year, but at the same time anything is possible. Lauren Price won the world title within five fights. It's possible, although not something I really want next. But I do definitely see my name under the bright lights and with a world title round my waist.

"We're going to hopefully try and challenge for British and Commonwealth titles. That's what I want to have under my belt by the end of next year. To take those two belts and start to take on the top."