Super Featherweight warrior Jordan Gill scored a great upset win over Michael Conlan on Saturday night in Belfast, the former European and Commonwealth featherweight champion reviving his career. In stopping the favoured Conlan, on his home turf, Gill of Cambridgeshire scored his first win since February of 2022. Back in October of 2022, Gill was stopped by Spanish veteran Kiko Martinez, and Gill was devastated.
So much so that the 29 year old, as he revealed in an interview with The Star, tried to kill himself. Gill says he “lost touch with myself” after losing via 4th round stoppage against Martinez.
“Not many people know what I’ve been through this year,” Gill said after picking up his big win over Conlan. “After the Kiko loss I lost touch with myself. I broke up with my wife and on June 30, I was in a field after drinking a litre of vodka and was going to kill myself. Somebody came and saved me that day….my dad has been by my side and my friends and my family have been there supporting me. All my friends, I can’t thank you enough. I’ve just changed my life.”
It’s impossible not to feel good for Gill, for how he has overcome such terrible demons. None of us can really understand what a fighter goes through, and how a loss can really hit them hard. Gill is, sadly, not the only fighter to have hit the bottle after suffering depression due to losing a fight. But Gill, a genuine fighter in life, has won his battle. As such, “The Thrill” is nothing but an enormous inspiration to many, many people.
Southpaw Gill, 28-2-1(9) can now go on to a bigger fight, and wouldn’t it be some story if he could win a title again, maybe even a world title! But for now, Gill says he is going to take some time out and spend it with his family.
Gill says anyone can turn their life around the way he has done even if they are in a bad place, as he so obviously was.
“If you’re thinking, ‘what am I doing with my life?’ you can do it, you can make a change, just get up and have that belief in yourself and go and do it because nobody believed I could do this but I did and that’s all that matters,” Gill said.
Indeed he did do it. In coming back from the brink, Gill may well claim The British Comeback of the Year award when the time comes to dish out the trophies all fighters work so hard to try and win.
