Above: In her most recent fight, Price shut out former European junior welterweight champion Silvia Bortot. (Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images)

A FORTUNATE TWIST OF FATE ALLOWED LAUREN PRICE TO ESCAPE A HOPELESS SITUATION AND THRIVE, BUT HER DESTINY IS NOW FIRMLY IN HER OWN HANDS

Lauren Price shouldn’t be where she’s at today. She knows it, too. It’s why she calls herself “The Lucky One,” and it’s a story that Hollywood would turn down saying no one would ever believe it.

“I know,” said Price. “Sometimes I’m a bit laid back when people actually say that to me, but it’s a bit mad, really.” 

“Mad” doesn’t begin to cover it. Just three days after she was born in 1994, Price was left with her grandparents Derek and Linda, and they raised her. 

“I’ve got two older sisters and a brother, as well, so, for me, I was the lucky one, because the life they had wasn’t great,” said Price. “Both parents, they were alcoholics. My brother, he’s passed away recently, and he didn’t have a great life. And that’s why I thank them (her grandparents) so much. I look at them as being two amazing people who just fell in love with me, and I never went back.”

Price became the first Welsh boxer to win an Olympic gold medal. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

It gets better. As rumor has it, at the age of 8, Price was given a school assignment to write down three goals. Already enthralled by sports, she wrote that she wanted to play football (soccer) for Wales, become a kickboxing world champion and go to the Olympics (as a participant, not a spectator).

Lauren Price will turn 30 on June 25. She’s already hit all three marks, earning 52 caps (appearances) on the soccer pitch for Wales, winning four kickboxing world championships, and in the 2020 Olympics, Price brought home a gold medal for Great Britain in boxing.

Not bad for the 8-year-old prophet of Newport. Does she have any lottery number picks she can share?

She laughs, then goes on to explain this amazing journey in a way that makes it sound matter-of-fact when it’s anything but that. 

“My granddad was mad about football, so he got me involved with football. And then, from the age of 8, being sat in my living room watching the Olympics and seeing Kelly Holmes (the 800m and 1,500m gold medalist in Athens), she was the one who inspired me. To see her cross that finish line and have an Olympic gold medal around her neck, that was when the dream really started of wanting to go to the Olympics. I’ve always been sport mad anyway, even in school, so I was always involved from a young age. I started kickboxing, playing football and then, through the years, got pretty good at it.”

Welterweight champion Jessica McCaskill will risk her belts on Price’s home turf in Wales. (Photo by Huw Fairclough/Getty Images)

Pretty good, eh? At the moment, Price is 6-0 as a professional boxer, ranked fourth in the welterweight division by The Ring, and the question about her winning a world title and invading the pound-for-pound list isn’t if, but when. And that day may be May 11, when Price meets Jessica McCaskill for the Ring Magazine and WBA titles. And as modest as she is, Price has heard the chatter that she may be the greatest athlete Wales has ever produced. 

“It’s a complete honor to hear people say that, because obviously we’ve got great athletes in Wales, but I just take it in my stride; it’s my personality, really. I’m just laid back and chill, so I don’t really get too full ahead with myself. I suppose what I’ve done so far with my achievements, I’m very proud, especially winning the Olympics and stuff like that. But yeah, I think I take it in my stride.”

You won’t find a more grounded athlete, especially one who has done as much as Price has in less than 30 years on this planet, but perhaps that’s the secret to her success and a testament to upbringing her grandparents gave her, which wasn’t easy.

“Over the years, it cost them thousands to send me away to tournaments and taking me to train every night,” Price said. “I didn’t really have a normal child’s life, I suppose, in that aspect, whereas you come home from school and you go out with your friends. For me, it was come home from school, have a nap, you go in training again, go in kickboxing again, changing in the back of the car and going to football training. I’m out seven days a week, I’m training all week, and then I’ve got a football match on the weekend or a kickboxing competition. And yeah, my granddaddy took me everywhere. I’d be coming home at 10 o’clock from training, I’d have a bath run for me, food on the table and I’d be going to school the next day. So that was my life. But I just loved sport, and if it weren’t for them, then I wouldn’t have achieved anything, really.”

Price’s grandfather, Derek, passed away in November of 2020 and didn’t get to see his little girl win Olympic gold. Linda was there, though, and the proud nan is still a major part of her granddaughter’s life, along with a support system that includes coach Rob McCracken and her partner (and fellow Olympic medalist and top pro prospect), Karriss Artingstall.

Artingstall and Price celebrate after Price’s victory over Kirstie Bavington to capture the first British women’s welterweight title. Price has yet to lose a single round on the scorecards as a professional. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

“The pair of us are always saying that we’ve been in previous relationships and a lot of people don’t understand what you go through, especially when you’re in a camp and it comes to the weekend and the last thing I want to do is put makeup on and go out and do this and do that; I just want to chill,” Price said of her relationship with Artingstall. “Same with the dieting; I get it from her point of view and vice versa. I’ve got a small team around me, and to have her by my side through training as well, it helps. If one of us is having a hard day, we pick each other up. Same as in fight week; she supports me, I support her, and when you live and breathe boxing, it’s great to have someone on the journey alongside you.” 

Make no mistake about it, though, Linda is still the captain of Team Price.

“The bond I have with my nan is very special,” said Price. “I check in with her every day. Even if I’m in camp, I’ll go home to her on weekends, look after her, take her food shopping and stuff like that. But what can I say? From the age of 3, that’s why I call myself the lucky one, because she saved me. If it wasn’t for her and my grandfather, then God knows what I would be doing and where I would have ended up.”

Call it fate, a blessing, or a perfect storm that made Lauren Price who she is today. Whatever it is, she’s not done yet. Well, she’s done with football and won’t rule out an MMA fight after boxing is over, but for now, she’s all-in on the sweet science.

“I just want to win, and that’s all it comes down to.”

“I’m a big believer that if you work hard, then you can achieve anything, and I take that into each camp,” said Price. “As long as I tick all the boxes, I train to my best and each camp I’m hitting PBs, I’ll be getting better and better and better.” 

So is hard work the secret to Price’s success? Luck certainly has nothing to do with “The Lucky One” receiving her MBE (Member of the British Empire) from King Charles and being spoken of as Wales’ greatest athlete.

“I just want to win, and that’s all it comes down to,” said Price. “To me, the worst thing is losing. Obviously, you’ve got all the what-ifs, and anything could happen. I know people go in thinking, ‘Oh, what happens if I get knocked out or I get this, that and the other?’ For me, there’s only one outcome.”