'A coach trying to do the best for my fighters'
Holly Sullivan was one of the first female boxing coaches in New Zealand when she began at Woolston Boxing Club in 2007. Now 38, she's head trainer at the club, runs her own business, and raises her two-year-old son Taimana with partner and fellow coach Trevor Swainson. Sports reporter Sam Coughlan caught up with her.
Holly Sullivan didn't set out to break ground in boxing – she simply followed a passion.
That passion has led to a number of notable achievements; the first Kiwi woman to earn international coaching qualifications and the only active female international coach in the country.
It is also believed Sullivan was the first female head boxing trainer in Canterbury, , earning the role at Woolston in 2009, aged 22.
'I never had any problems. It really helped in such a male-dominated community to just be treated as an equal. It was pretty awesome.'
Her first overseas experience came as a development coach for the team that went to the Arafura Games in Darwin in 2019.
At that tournament she cornered for Auckland's Siaki Tu, who won super heavyweight gold, as well as current New Zealand U71kg champion Wendell Stanley, also from Auckland.
' To know that you cornered someone that's potentially going to do some really cool things. It's cool, because I got to corner his first international,' she said about Stanley, who is a prospect for the next Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year.
In 2022, Sullivan and Swainson coached Woolston's Hamuera Tainui at the IBA Youth World Boxing championships in La Nucia, Spain.
Tainui lost in the first round by split decision, but Sullivan said it was the best she'd ever seen him fight.
' It was literally like two punches that made the difference of the whole fight, Hamz (Tainui) won the first round easy. His opponent won the second round and there was literally nothing in the last.'
On the way home, a one-day layover in London coincided with Tyson Fury's fight against Derek Chisora at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
'The atmosphere was crazy,' she said.
'For our fighter too, it's like, this is what you can achieve. We could see him looking up at the crowd and all these people were there.'
They watched on as Fury won by TKO in the 10th round.
Sullivan first stepped into the ring in 2005, aged 18, looking for something to do to keep fit after falling out of love with football – despite playing for Canterbury and trialling for the national team. A talented sportsperson, she also represented Canterbury at tennis.
' I loved soccer, but it got to the point where I dreaded it every day because it felt like it was something I had to go to, and it wasn't a want anymore,' she said.
She played social football for a while, until a teammate introduced her to boxing through her husband's gym. What started as a fitness hobby soon became a passion – and a quick end to her football career.
'I literally quit soccer overnight,' she said.
After a couple of years of fitness training, Sullivan got a taste for fighting while working as a ring girl – when she was asked if she'd try a kickboxing bout.
'The fight only lasted 40 seconds. The other girl didn't want to be in there. I was really mad – I was like, 'I trained so fricking hard for this damn fight and you don't get back up'.'
Sullivan was keen to continue fighting after experiencing the thrill – and having moved into a house two streets over from the Woolston Boxing Club, it was a logical choice.
'They took me in under their wings,' she said.
She qualified for the 2007 national championships in her first year at Woolston but lost her first bout. A series of shoulder injuries followed, resulting in three surgeries that sidelined her for long periods.
' I went through three shoulder surgeries, so I was out for a while,' she said.
'In one of my fights, I said to my coach, 'I can't feel my left arm, like it just popped out,' and he was like, 'that's all right, you've got your right arm.'
'You know what, he was absolutely right. And you just carry on.'
While recovering, she began coaching – a natural fit since she was already leading warm-ups and helping others in the gym.
When then-head trainer Tom Heath stepped down due to work commitments, Sullivan took over.
It was at Woolston she met Swainson, and the pair have been together for five years. Their son Taimana was born in 2023.
' We did not see eye to eye for the first, probably, half a decade of knowing each other,' Sullivan said.
'And we can both openly admit that, but then things changed, obviously now we have a child together.'
As head trainer, she is technically Swainson's boss, but they keep things professional.
' If you came into Woolston, you wouldn't know. Our focus is the team.'
She balances her role at the gym – training three to four days a week – with her full-time job as director of The Mortgage Girls, a company she co-founded with Elyce Peters in 2016.
Motherhood added another layer to her already packed life.
'I didn't think it was gonna be (tricky). I'm pretty stubborn. But it's definitely changed how quickly I can get things done in the background,' she said.
'Taimana still comes to boxing once a week. Every Sunday he is at the boxing gym, he's hitting the speed ball, he runs around and watches sparring. He loves being in the environment.'
While boxing remains '95% male-dominated,' Sullivan doesn't see herself as a trailblazer.
' That was a question I got asked in my early days, but I've never seen myself as a female in the sport, just a coach trying to do the best for my fighters,' she said.
' I don't feel like I was ever treated any differently, my peers in the boxing world, they treated me like they would any other coach.'
Her long-term dream is to coach at high-performance level.
' Having one fighter with you for like a month, it's incredible what you can do with one person.'
Still, she loves looking after young trainees, especially those willing to put in the hard yards, regardless of natural ability.
' You can't underestimate anyone that walks through your gym,' Sullivan said.
'Whether they're naturally talented or the one that needs to practice a lot more than the others, you've got to give them all time because that person could be the one that shines at the end of the day.
'Even if they don't learn to love the sport, they could become a better human in or out of the ring because of what they've learned from the sport.'
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This story originally appeared on the High Performance Sport New Zealand website and is published with permission
