Lauren Price once spent her weekends taxiing more-than-merry party-goers across Cardiff while working for her grandparents’ cab company. This weekend, she fights for a world title. This weekend, she is the party host. This weekend, Cardiff’s finest drink for her.
Beneath the softly-spoken demeanour of the Olympic champion is a catalogue of intrigue, whereby a part-time cabbie would become a pioneering gold-medallist having also conquered as a kickboxing world champion and represented both Cardiff City and Wales on the football pitch.
She is the picture of all-action, who – despite having fought just six times as a professional – has driven the hard miles and run up quite the sporting meter on the road to world title contention.
The biggest moment of Price’s career awaits on Saturday night as she challenges Jessica McCaskill for the IBO, WBA and Ring Magazine welterweight world titles in front of her home fans. Neither the journey or its meaning is lost on one of the new faces for a new, ideally-prosperous chapter in Welsh boxing.
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“It’s crazy really when you think of it,” Price tells Sky Sports. “I was juggling both. I was boxing for Wales Monday to Thursday and I was only getting like £100 a month, and then taxi driving Friday and Saturday nights.
“Back then my main aim was I wanted to become a full time athlete on Team GB, so I didn’t have to work like that was my job. I woke up everyday doing something which I loved, and it paid off in the end.
“I’ve signed a professional contract with Sky Sports and doing something which I love and I’m getting paid for. It’s for my future.
“Going back thinking of me working them long Friday and Saturday nights, picking up the drunks and driving them back and forth in Cardiff is quite funny really. When I look back and think how far I’ve come I couldn’t have done it without the support network of my family and obviously being in GB as well.”
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Price was brought up in Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly by her grandparents from the age of just three days old, both her grandmother and late grandfather having played a starring role in the inner circle that would help shape a blossoming career.
As has always been the case, Price’s grandma Linda will refrain from watching on the night. And yet nobody in Wales will be supporting her with more emotional investment.
“I wouldn’t want her there really, obviously she loves me as her granddaughter, so she’ll probably be recording and watch it back like she did during the Olympics,” says Price.
“They always supported me and told me to believe in my dreams. My nan used to say ‘reach for the moon, if you fall short you’ll land on the stars’.
“Even now she got me a good luck card and I’ll read that before fight night, it’s just the little things.”
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Price admits there had been some lingering uncertainty over how she might be received by fans when it was announced she would face McCaskill in her first world title opportunity.
As she hits the streets of Wales to hand-deliver tickets, any doubts were swiftly quashed as a famously-proud nation of sports fans gathered to hail their pending champion.
“I’m a bit overwhelmed with the amount of tickets that I’ve sold, but we support our own,” she said. “I’m boxing against a legitimate champion. It’s an exciting fight and one I believe that I win the 100 per cent.
“I appreciate that people are spending their hard-earned money to come out and watch, so it was nice to go and meet them and sign some pictures as well. It’s really touched me.”
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She recalls being the eight-year-old girl sat in her living room cheering for Kelly Holmes on her way to Olympic gold, as much inspiring Price to follow suit.
Fast forward, and she takes pride in emerging as her own sporting icon after whom young girls can aspire.
“It’s really nice to see, because that was once me. Kelly Holmes was the one who made me want to go on and become an Olympian, and now it’s like roles reversed.
“I believe that if you work hard enough and you have got dreams, then you can achieve them. I was a kid once and I had three things: I wanted to play football for Wales, I wanted to become a world champion kickboxer and I wanted to go to the Olympics and I managed to tick all three of them with the love and support of my grandparents.
“Having that backing and determination and putting all my effort into my training then you can achieve anything really.”
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Price, her talent and the early traits of a historic legacy in-the-making have only combined to fortify the dragon’s lair, which will do its utmost to unnerve an, admittedly, ice-cold McCaskill this weekend.
The 39-year-old is no stranger to daunting tasks or daunting events. But Cardiff could well offer a different proposition.
“She’s been in big fights, she fought Katie Taylor, Chantelle Cameron and Sandy Ryan. But you see with Joe Calzaghe and Joe Cordina, the Welsh fans come out in force.
“She’s going to be coming into the Dragon’s den, but I’m not thinking too much about that. I know she’ll bring her A game and when the bell goes it’s down to the two of us.
“She knows she’s coming into my backyard and will be prepared for that.”
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McCaskill has been as enthused as any fan or fighter about a week in the Welsh sunshine, the former undisputed world champion taking the time to speak with locals while embracing the prospect of a hostile welcome on Saturday night.
“I feel like the Godzilla vs King Kong kind of thing,” said McCaskill. “I’m going to pet the dragon, make it my pet and put it on a leash and take it home with me, for those who like the theatre or movie type of concept where you have two beasts coming together.
“I just make friends with the monster, it’s mental and I have all my Welsh stuff. I have my Cymru hat, I have a dragon patch on my trunks, I’m taking over the sense of Wales and the pride of being here. I’m attaching myself to Wales so I’m not fighting against it.”
Katie Taylor and her impact in Ireland has been a common point of reference for Price during the lead up to her clash with McCaskill. But here she stands as an Olympic, World and European champion headlining a world title fight on a Welsh homecoming that has provided a stage on which upcoming Welsh fighters have an opportunity to change their lives. A new benchmark is unfolding at pace.
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“People keep saying how I’m making history and that if I win this fight then I’ll become the first female to become a world champion from Wales, but I don’t think of it as pressure,” she said.
“It’s about creating a legacy for myself. I want to bring big time boxing back to Wales. Some of the boys are getting their time to shine and box at home, and that’s what I want to do.
“I want to be flying the flag.”
A special night calls for a special ring walk. Price jokes it may not be Tom Jones, but assures it will be ‘something Welsh’.
“I’m not going to let the cat out the bag,” she said.
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A famous win would see to her becoming the first ever female boxing world champion from Wales, with the added bonus of doing it in front of friends and family.
The plan? Victory on Saturday, celebratory dinner with Nan on Sunday.
“A lot of my cousins, my aunties, my uncles are coming. A lot of the girls who played football for for Wales are coming as well,” she said.
“Nana’s gonna obviously stay home because she never watches me box. She gets too nervous, but I’ll be going home to her afterwards to one of our Sunday dinners the next day. I look forward to that!”
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