NEED TO KNOW
- British boxer Georgia O'Connor has died at the age of 25
- The athlete was diagnosed with cancer in January, after months of pain, she wrote on Instagram
- O'Connor married her longtime boyfriend nearly two weeks ago on May 9
British professional boxer Georgia O’Connor has died at the age of 25.
O’Connor’s promoter Boxxer confirmed her death in a statement, calling her “a true warrior inside and outside the ring.”
“Georgia was loved, respected and admired by her friends here at Boxxer,” the promoter said in a statement obtained by The Guardian. “ Our thoughts are with her loved ones at this difficult time.”
Ben Shalom, founder and CEO of Boxxer added on X: “My heart goes out to Georgia’s parents and partner, who I know did everything they could tirelessly and are going through so much right now.”
O’Connor shared earlier this year in an Instagram post that she had been diagnosed with cancer after weeks of debilitating pain, and she said her concerns went ignored by doctors for more than four months.
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“For 17 weeks since the start of October, I’ve been in constant pain, going back and forth between Durham and Newcastle RVI A&E knowing deep down something was seriously wrong,” O’Connor wrote on January 31. “I said from the start I felt it was cancer. I KNEW the risks. I have colitis and PSC, two diseases that dramatically increase the chances of getting it. I KNOW how high my risk is and they do too. They always did.”
O’Connor’s post continued, “But not one doctor f------ listened to me. Not one doctor took me seriously. Not one doctor did the scans or blood tests I begged for whilst crying on the floor in agony. Instead, they dismissed me. They gaslit me, told me it was nothing, made me feel like I was overreacting. They refused to scan me. They refused to investigate. They REFUSED to listen. One even told me that it’s ‘all in my head.’ And now? Now the cancer has spread.”
Despite suffering from ulcerative colitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, O’Connor had been undefeated in her boxing matches since turning pro in 2021.
As an amateur, she won a gold medal at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games, a silver at the 2017 Youth World Championships and a bronze at the 2018 Youth World Championships.
O’Connor was open in sharing details from her personal life on Instagram — and tried to keep her cancer diagnosis in perspective. In February, she disclosed that she had previously suffered a miscarriage.
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“The last few months have been a rollercoaster,” O’Connor wrote. “I’ve been pregnant with a beautiful baby, suffered a miscarriage, then got diagnosed with ‘incurable’ cancer. But I still feel on top of the world!”
Last week, the athlete announced that she had married her longtime boyfriend Adriano Cardinali earlier this month.
“09.05.2025. The day I married the love of my life. 🤍” she wrote alongside an image of her husband’s hand over her own.