Olivia Goodwin hopes to blaze a trail for women in boxing

The world’s youngest female promoter Olivia Goodwin sees no reason why more women cannot make it in the boxing business.

Goodwin has promoted 15 shows to date since obtaining her licence aged just 20 and staging her first show - Search and Destroy - at London's York Hall in Bethnal Green in June 2011.

Goodwin's journey in boxing began during a family holiday many years ago after she decided she did not want to go to university. Her father Stephen - a financial adviser - suggested they try and break into the boxing industry and obtained his promoter's licence before Olivia opted to get hers.    

"For a year I worked alongside my dad and got to know the game before I decided I didn't just want to be his right hand man, if you like," she told Sky Sports.

"I wanted to do it for myself so I applied for a promoter's licence when I was 20 and I haven't looked back really. There aren't really many women involved in the sport, especially as a promoter, and because of my age I was the youngest promoter in the world at the time.

As long as you know what you're doing, you talk sense and you have enough ambition and passion, people will have to listen to you.

"Coming into boxing as a woman at such a young age came as quite a shock to a lot of people. Many thought I was at a disadvantage being a female, and of course being so young, but I'm different and I see myself at an advantage because of that.

"It made me stand out and nobody should think because they are a certain age or because they are a girl that they can't do something. People may look down on you or not trust you at first, but as long as you know what you're doing, you talk sense and you have enough ambition and passion, people will have to listen to you."

Olivia's brother Josh broke her record by becoming the world's youngest promoter when he obtained his licence two years ago, staging his first show in 2014, aged just 18.

"For the first three years it was me and my dad but from day one - when my brother was 15 or 16 - we'd always talk to him about the matchmaking," 25-year-old Olivia said.

"He was always amazing at matchmaking and nine times out of 10 he was right which is probably why he decided to do his own thing as well.

"We all have our own brands but we are all franchises of Goodwin boxing. It brings everything together and we all work with each other because my dad is a boxing manager, but it is all under the same banner."

This weekend is arguably the biggest to date for Goodwin Boxing with the outfit charged with supplying the undercard for David Haye's comeback fight against Mark de Mori at London's O2 on Saturday night.

"We've been going now for five years and for someone like David Haye to now show interest in some of our fighters for his undercard shows we must be doing something right," Olivia added.

"David's a really likeable guy, a really nice guy who is very down-to-earth and has strong family values.

"He's really talented, he has already achieved so much and nobody can take that away from him.

"To be contacted by somebody that well known wanting to deal with us shows that we have done has worked. We've done things our way and it's onwards and upwards for us as long as we carry on from here."