OM meets... Ruth Ashdown
From Thai boxing to yoga teaching: OM catches up with former world fighting champ, Ruth Ashdown, to learn more about her incredible journey
Thai boxing photos: Dave Fordisque / Acro photos: Acroseeds
Ruth Ashdown, 43, is a former Muaythai fighter and world champion — she’s also now a qualified yoga and acro instructor.
It’s a big contrast, but she is now taking yoga to a group of people who really didn’t think it was for them — athletes, fighters, men, young people. She wants to show them how challenging yoga can be, how it can improve their training, and help them find some quietness of mind. “So any mental health battles that we are all dealing with, I feel I can help them harness their strength in controlling that inner beast, find positivity, quietness and peace,” she says.
Quite a journey for a young English woman who previously ranked WBC Muaythai World Flyweight and Super Bantamweight champion, as well as the former WBC Muaythai International and Diamond champion.
Ashdown started training at 27, with no prior background in either fitness or sport, and competed professionally from 2007 to 2018. In fact, she was once a photographer at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in London and worked for a time as a sports photographer. This was one of her first loves, which she studied at college.
She tells OM that she first started in Thai boxing primarily for the health and fitness aspect. “I started it for fitness. I wasn’t in the best place at the time, but quickly fell in love with it, got obsessed, and had my first fight within a year,” she says. “I loved the challenge of training, pushing myself, achieving, being someone, feeling good, having focus, being part of a family.”