The Scottish takeover of ONE Championship will continue to ONE Fight Night 24 on Friday, August 2. 31-year-old Amy Pirnie squares off against Yu Yau Pui in an atomweight Muay Thai contest. Ahead of her promotional debut, Pirnie spoke with ONE about her rise from a small village to the global stage.
“I had a relatively normal kind of childhood, as you can living in those types of areas in Glasgow,” Pirnie recalled. “But when I was in primary school, it wasn’t the easiest, and I got bullied and stuff like that. When I went to high school I just did what I could to blend in rather than stick out. My focus was mainly on training, getting through my grades, and spending time with my family.”
Pirnie’s Martial Arts Roots
Her family helped her get through the difficult times. As the Scot remarked, it is not just her immediate family that is closely knit, but rather the entire extended family. Those ties also brought her into the world of martial arts for the first time.
“I was too aggressive for taekwondo. I got bored quite quickly, and just by chance, I went Muay Thai training with my cousin and uncle. Basically, my uncle started a new job and met my coach Rab [Izat] and took my cousin along to his class. I went along to observe the class. I pretty much started then and never looked back,” the 31-year-old said.
Showing a talent for striking, her coach eventually asked her to compete. The passion she felt for the sport led her to accept the proposal despite her lack of experience. The coach was proven correct as Pirnie scored a first-round finish.
“I don’t even think at that point that I had actually spoken properly to him; I was too shy. When he asked me, I was just nodding my head. And then in the fight, the girl retired in the corner after the first round. I was elated. That feeling was just incredible,” Pirnie remarked.
A Fight Outside the Ring
But for the good feelings that it brought, life at home was not as happy. Pirnie recalled a three-year rough stretch as she was just becoming a teen. Her mother’s battles with alcohol and drugs, along with mental health disorders, took its toll behind closed doors. Although it was not the best period of her life, Pirnie would not give the time back.
“It was a big struggle,” the Scot explained. “You have your attention split, so you’re not actually focused on what’s going on and getting good grades, or whether I needed to focus to progress in my sport or social life. I felt that really drew my attention all the way back toward essentially trying to look after my mom, which was quite a lot to take on as a young kid. But I wouldn’t change doing what me or my family have done for my mom.”
Pirnie learned from that experience and could apply it to her life moving forward. Specifically, she learned from her mother that she should never stop fighting in life. She realized where she wanted to go and knew never to stop pushing to achieve her dreams.
“There’s so many things to take from the situation, but one of the biggest things is your family, the people that mean everything to you. So if one goes down, the rest have got your back. It really affirmed that family is everything. And obviously I realized that there were certain things in life that I wanted and certain things that I didn’t want. I didn’t want to go down the same road. The direction in my life took a completely different turn. I would say that definitely put me on a path where I wanted to do better,” Pirnie stated.
The tribulations continued as a professional athlete. Injuries kept cropping up for the Scot, and it took a toll on her mental health. Each time she trained to come back, more injuries came. Even though thoughts of hanging up the gloves came into her head, unfinished business would not let her walk away.
“There was a point where I was like, ‘I’m finished. I’m retired. I’ve had a good run.’ I did genuinely feel at one point I was going to retire. But I didn’t want to retire not having a fight, like a finale. It felt like it was unfinished with my career, as if I hadn’t peaked yet. It almost felt as if it just came to an abrupt stop. And it wasn’t a stop of my choosing,” the Inferno Muay Thai said.
Unbreakable Self-Belief
Trusting herself and her abilities has given way to a life-changing opportunity. She now has a chance to compete in front of a U.S. primetime audience on August 2. Pirnie has arrived on a global platform and can assert herself as a contender in the atomweight division by knocking off the Chinese talent.
“Even though I had that blip of whether I wanted to go back to it or not, I think that hunger to succeed and to be at the top never goes away,” Pirnie said. “If you’re a hungry person and you’ve got that highly competitive nature, that always comes back really, really quickly. I don’t think it actually leaves. I just think when you’ve got something to work toward, it just heightens it. And one thing is that I definitely never go into a fight unprepared. Obviously, I had four years out, but this camp has got me ramped up and ready to go.”
Watch ONE Fight Night 24
ONE Fight Night 24 airs live on Prime Video on Friday, August 2. The action begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The event is free for all Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.
