British super-bantamweight Shannon Courtenay says she faced a mental health battle in the weeks following her first career defeat in August.(Luke Reddy BBC Sport)
Courtenay, lost on points, in her sixth professional bout, to fellow Briton Rachel Ball but can bounce back against Poland’s Dorota Norek.
“Everyone loves you and is your best mate when you’re winning,” 27-year-old Courtenay told BBC Sport.
“You see people’s true colours when everything isn’t hunky dory.”
Discussing the aftermath of her defeat by Ball, she said: “I will be the first to admit that I struggled at first.
“My mental health struggled big time. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Now, with the camp I have just had, I’m physically in the best shape I’ve been in and I’m thinking: ‘It wasn’t just a blessing, it’s a lesson.’
“When you get that sour taste of something being taken away from you, you never want to taste it again.”
Courtenay’s profile has quickly grown in the sport and earlier this year she told BBC Sport about how she swapped life as a “heavy smoker” and “party animal” to pursue boxing.
She has spoken openly about mental health battles in the past.
Courtenay has limited her use of social media in order to protect her mental health and in preparing to face Norek – who has one defeat in seven bouts – has made other changes in an attempt to return to winning ways.
“I made the choice to move to be where my camp is,” she explained.
“I was travelling for hours every day before that. I was only doing my boxing work at the gym. Now I am in a hotel near my camp, so my evening sessions are with my team as well.
“I’ve been doing three or four hours a day travelling. It was fatiguing my legs, to be honest. My team are there in the evening, pushing me on my sprints. I thought I was giving it everything – but everything in this camp has been about levelling up… and I have.”