Linn Sandström: “We are bringing the world champion to Australia, and I think I will shock the world.”
Linn Sandström: "We are bringing the world champion to Australia, and I think I will shock the world." "It's the big one. We said we would get it, and we finally have." The words of a happy fighter whose dream has just become a reality. In …
Linn Sandström: "We are bringing the world champion to Australia, and I think I will shock the world."
"It's the big one. We said we would get it, and we finally have." The words of a happy fighter whose dream has just become a reality.
In many ways, it has been a long time coming for Linn Sandström. A career in boxing that at the start had no expectations. And even when it began, those expectations dropped even lower. But one person always believed. Sandström always had belief in herself. A conviction that one day she would fight for a world title.
"We are fighting Clara Lescurat, who is the current WBA super-flyweight champion, and we are bringing here over to Australia. It's very exciting," Sandström told me over Zoom.
The setting for our latest interview was more than a little unique. Her plane had just landed in Los Angeles. A temporary prisoner. An earlier-than-expected landing meant Sandström was stuck on that plane until clearance had been granted for the Brazilian-born fighter to begin her latest training camp in the States. One that has a little more meaning.
The fight in April with Lescurat for the WBA super-flyweight champion has been long in the works. It is also a fight that the former international table tennis star firmly believes that she will win.
"These negotiations have been going on for six months," Sandström says. "It's been like a process. Are we fighting, or are we not fighting. It's been a long ride, but we are finally here, and I am over the moon. As soon as I turned professional, I said I would fight for a world title. People might not have believed me back then, but here we are bringing the world champion to Australia, and I think I will shock the world.
"Obviously, I am coming in as the underdog. She is the defending champion and has defended her title a few times now. But I can't wait and I think it will be a really good fight."
In truth, the world title fight could have come even sooner. A ruptured Achilles tendon injury in 2023 delayed the inevitable. The recovery was a minor miracle. Sandström made a winning return in January, and the time away has been well spent, and she now is convinced that she has returned a better fighter than the one we saw before her injury last year.
"My injury is fine," Sandström told me. "I am back now even stronger than I was before, and I believe the injury has made me a better boxer. I think everything happens for a reason, and maybe this happened to prepare me for this world title fight.
"I believe it is destiny. People still can't believe I am six months off an Achilles rupture. People told me it would be 9-12 months before I even started boxing again. But within nine months, we will be fighting for a world title, so it's pretty crazy."
Sandström (8-2-2) could be forgiven if she felt as though she had climbed the boxing summit. But as the old saying goes, she hasn't come this far to only come this far. Sandström is in the fight to win it.
"I think in the rate that we are improving," Sandström says as the reason why she will crown herself a world champion in April. "Everyone in our gym is improving a lot and fast. From one fight to another, we are getting better and better. I am improving really and quickly, and I am really hungry. I have sacrificed a lot to make this happen. I feel good and I am going to give it everything I have to take this opportunity."
The start of her professional career promised very little. The first year was beyond hard. One win in four fights offered little in the way of hope. But Sandström never gave up. She always believed that one day it would all come together. In many ways, Sandström has got this far against all odds.
"I even believed it back then," Sandström said of that unflattering start to her professional boxing life. "I just never gave up. We have just worked super hard. We haven't had the backing of a Matchroom or a Boxxer-type promoter. But we still made this happen, and here we are bringing world titles to Australia. It's not like we are fighting for a vacant world title either. We are fighting the world champion."
Sandström is given herself the best possible chance of victory in her maiden world title opportunity. No stranger to globetrotting, she will spend much of her training camp in America.
"We are spending five weeks over in LA. I have said it before the sparring over here is a killer. We spar world champion after world champion. So I couldn't ask for a better training camp." Sandström says of her preparations for her moment of truth.
The story of Linn Sandström is already a remarkable one. A former international table tennis star in Sweden, who despite that inauspicious start to her boxing career Sandström always believed this day would come. And it has. But just fighting for a world title isn't the end goal. She now wants to win one. Another chapter in a story of perseverance. Win, lose, or draw in Apri, you sense that won't be the final chapter.
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