To grasp just how early Tiah Ayton began her journey into boxing, you needn't look any further than the YouTube channel her dad Mike set up in 2013 to to show off her talents.

The first video is titled 'Tiah Ayton 6 vs. Boy 7 Kickboxing'. A further 14 videos were uploaded, all of them with similar titles. 'Tiah Ayton 6 pulling 15kg in a sprint', 'Tiah Ayton three boys 3 min rounds sparring'.

The channel hasn't been touched since Ayton, who makes her professional debut this weekend in Birmingham after signing with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom, turned seven.

As a schoolgirl, however, the channel was talk of the town in corridors and classrooms, much to the embarrassment of Ayton, whose record as an amateur was unblemished and rife with stoppages.

"When we were in the computer rooms at school, everyone's searching me up and they'd just look at me and I used to feel embarrassed," she tells The Ring.

"I'm proud now but sometimes if my manager sends me a video of me on YouTube he's found, I'm like, 'Oh my God, don't share that with anyone. that's not me anymore'.

"I used to get put in the ring with anyone. If anyone wanted to fight me, I'd have to fight them, I think that's what makes me so tough now, I was just chucked in there. One time I won a girls category and then I got put in the boys category and won the boys category as well."

The desire from Matchroom to sign Ayton, despite Hearn's admittance that they were scaling back on putting on 'mid-level' female fights for the foreseeable, was made clear when the Matchroom chief first followed Ayton on social media at the end of 2024.

Hearn's belief is that there is a "big market" for the "big fights" and a "solid market" for the "lower entry stuff". Unified junior featherweight champion Ellie Scotney was most recently allowed to leave, joining Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions, who have made a serious push to acquire much of the sport's top female talent in the last few months.

However, Ayton, he believes, is "destined to become the next superstar of women's boxing."

The 18-year-old Bristolian, who kicked her combat sports journey off with stints in kickboxing and Muay Thai, reels off a list of achievements which speaks to why Hearn was so desperate to land her signature.

"I've done kickboxing, Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, MMA," she adds. "Now I do boxing. But I was a world champion kickboxer, and a world champion Muay Thai. I've won like British, European and everything else in kickboxing. I fought in Cyprus with MMA. As a boxer I'm a five-time national champion. I'm a world champion. I'm a tri-nations champion."

Earlier this year, Ayton was brought into former WBC featherweight champion Skye Nicolson's camp for some sparring before her eventual defeat to Tiara Brown in March. Hearn was present for one of those spars.

"[Hearn] followed me on Instagram when I was fighting in the world in November," she said. "And then I went and sparred Skye and he came and watched the spar. So from there, we started speaking about how he wanted to sign me and everything.

"When he followed me, I called my dad up. I was like, 'Oh my God, you never guess what?'. I told him 'Eddie Hearn followed me' and he said 'What?!'. I said 'Hopefully now I can turn pro, hopefully he wants to sign me'. And here we are."

Ayton's record in the unpaid ranks was 21-0 with 9 knockouts but the professional game is often described as a different sport altogether. But that isn't something which worries Ayton, who is more anxious about having to be surrounded by cameras on fight week.

"I think after the first couple of punches I've thrown, I think 'I got them'. Or I think 'Oh, they're a bit difficult'.

"What I'm most nervous about is walking out. Honestly, I am so nervous to walk out, but as soon as I'm in the ring, I'll be fine. Fighting is the easiest part. I think the cameras are the worst.

"Hopefully things run the same, really. Hopefully some knockouts come. I just want to be exciting and to keep the people entertained."