Boxing lost a rising star on May 22, 2025, as rising Durham boxing star, Georgia O’Connor passed away untimely at the tender age of 25 years. Her death, as you can imagine, has led to an outpouring of condolences and sorrow from the combat sports community. But her death has made many curious about the exact reason of her death and what conditions she was suffering from that took her life at such a young age.
What cancer did Georgia O’Connor suffer from? All about her condition ulcerative colitis
We unfortunately do not know what type of cancer Georgia O’Connor had been suffering from before she passed away. What we do know is that the Durham native had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) are at elevated risk of getting bowel cancer, bile duct cancer, and anal cancer, according to ‘crohnsandcolitis.org.uk’. So it is likely she had one of these types of cancer.
The other condition O’Connor suffered from was ulcerative colitis. According to the UK’s National Institute of Health, UC is “a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in which abnormal reactions of the immune system cause inflammation and ulcers on the inner lining of your large intestine.” And it seems like the young star was diagnosed with the condition sometime after 2022, as she claims to have fought thrice while unknowingly suffering from it.
“In September 2021, I was going to the toilet between 15 and 20 times per day (). I would notice blood and mucus in my poo and I constantly felt tired and weak. I had pain in my joints and unbearable bowel cramps almost every day. I had 3 professional boxing fights during this time, all of which I somehow managed to win without any form of medication or treatment. Suddenly needing a poo and almost s—-ing myself live on Sky Sports halfway through a fight was great!
I was eventually diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (UC). UC is an autoimmune disease, which means that the immune system is confused and can’t tell the difference between your own cells and foreign cells, causing the body to mistakenly attack normal cells,” O’Connor wrote on her Instagram in February 2024.
The fact that O’Connor battled through such a serious medical condition just shows you the type of stuff she was made of. A fighter in the truest sense, you can see her defiance and willingness to fight to the last in her social media posts. But alas, it turned out that her condition was even worse than initially diagnosed. In January 2025, the Commonwealth gold medallist announced that she had been diagnosed with an ‘incurable’ form of cancer, which eventually took her life in May 2025.
Georgia O’Connor’s boxing record and more
Georgia O’Connor was a high achiever from a young age. As an amateur boxer, she won a gold medal at the 2017 Commonwealth Games, and won a silver and a bronze medal at the Youth World Championships in 2017 and ’18 respectively. The English boxer was actually something of a martial arts prodigy. She held black belt in taekwondo and was a three-time national champion in the sport, and also competed in kickboxing.
O’Connor turned pro in 2021, and her talent was clear for everyone to see by this time. She signed with Ben Shalom’s Boxxer promotion and made her pro debut the same year. She beat Ester Konecna by points in a six round clash to mark a victorious start to her career.
In 2022, the Durham native fought twice, winning both fights on the judges’ scorecard. Mind you, by this time O’Connor reckons she was already suffering from UC (and possibly even cancer), but managed to go the distance in all three of her fights and won them on points. Which means that with her death the boxing world has lost a potential future champion and superstar of the sport. What do you think about Georgia O’Connor’s untimely death?
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