Boxing: Grace Buckle – the heavyweight who provides sign language for the biggest fights
Buckle’s boxing and BSL life have seamlessly moulded together, but she came to boxing late just three years ago.
The Covid pandemic proved a pivotal moment, tying together different aspects of Grace’s life.
To combat the isolation of lockdown, Buckle began online – and then in-person – fitness sessions designed to piece together community spirit for groups such as the Deaf Ethnic Women’s Association (DEWA) in north London.
Instruction, counting down and motivation all came with new challenges. Along with the greater use of visual aids, the key to successful sessions, explains Grace, was the ability to demonstrate and emphasise exercises.
A rare positive legacy of the pandemic was the passing of the British Sign Language Act 2022, which made BSL one of the recognised languages of Great Britain.
When she first won the NACs in 2023, Buckle was a novice boxing out of Miquel’s gym in Brixton.
Her triumph at the NACs, when she beat Emily Asquith, a European champion at youth level – despite only having one amateur bout and a handful of white-collar fights under her belt – provided the foundation for a rapid rise.
Buckle subsequently beat the Kazak Lazzat Kungeibayeva, previously a gold medallist at the world championships, at her first overseas tournament for England.
She would go on to win the 2023 Haringey Box Cup, another NAC gold medal in 2024 and the Golden Girl tournament in Sweden in 2025.
“You do get natural born fighters,” says Quinton Shillingford, Buckle’s current coach.
“It’s not just a question of technique and motivation, it’s about whether you keep coming forward when you are hurt and have taken a shot.
“Grace’s mum and dad are both deaf and I know she takes inspiration from them.
“She’s always saying ‘my mum is so strong’. She knows the difficulties they have had to navigate.”
Back in the ring, Buckle has not had things all her own way.
A loss to Celine Lee-Lo of New Zealand at Haringey last year was the catalyst for a move to Shillingford’s Heart of Portsmouth gym and her triumph at this years NACs.
“I used to think it was a cliché, but there is a lot of wisdom in the idea, ‘that it’s not a loss, it’s a learning’,” Buckle says.