Ruth “Ruthless” Nelson never set out to be a champion kickboxer. What started as a way to gain fitness after having a child quickly transformed into a remarkable career that saw her rise to the top of the sport. Representing Team GB, Nelson won five consecutive national caps and clinched three world championships, solidifying her place as one of the country’s most formidable female fighters.
Despite her dominance in the ring, Nelson never considered herself a traditional professional athlete. Balancing gruelling training sessions with a full-time job and the demands of raising a child, making her journey all the more extraordinary. The pressures of competing at the highest level were immense, but she found ways to adapt, even adjusting her fighting schedule to accommodate motherhood.
Her decorated career included multiple titles, among them the ISKA and WKA World Championships, along with numerous national and European accolades. She eventually retired from competitive kickboxing in 2018, but the discipline and resilience she honed in the sport remain central to her life. Now training five days a week, she continues to push herself through fitness classes and has expanded her skill set into MMA.
Beyond her athletic achievements, Nelson has become an advocate for mental health in sports, particularly for female athletes dealing with challenges that were rarely discussed in previous generations. She believes progress is being made in addressing these issues, but there is still work to be done.
Her journey has also led her to the big screen. Nelson plays a key role in the upcoming film Tramp, which explores the struggles and sacrifices of a female fighter. She believes the movie’s themes of perseverance and resilience will resonate with audiences far beyond the world of combat sports.
TRAMP is an emotionally charged sports drama following Grazyna “The Tramp” Jarzynowska, a British-Polish MMA fighter whose meteoric rise is abruptly halted by an unexpected pregnancy. Nelson also talks on how she can personally relate to the lead character Grazyna’s journey played by actress Izabella Malewska. ALT’s Editor/ Publisher caught up with Nelson ahead a the film’s expected UK release later this year.
ALT A:
First of all, Ruth Nelson, thank you so much for talking to ALT A Review. We truly appreciate your time. I’d like to start with what we were discussing earlier—how did you get into the sport? When did it all begin for you?
RRN:
It’s actually quite a funny story. A friend and I were just trying to find something to do. We had worked together previously, and at the time, I had my son, who was about three years old. I wanted to do something active and thought, Right, I need to get into a sport—what can I do?
We tried the gym, but it got boring. We tried circuit training—same thing. Then my friend suggested kickboxing. I had never done it before and didn’t really think much about it. I just thought, Okay, let’s give it a go. I went to a class, really enjoyed it, and from that moment on, I was hooked.
I’ve trained at the same school throughout my entire fighting and coaching career. I competed there, taught there, and represented them. It’s a local club near me, and I owe a lot of my success to it. My friend eventually left when she had her child, but when she came back, she was shocked at how much I had progressed. I had essentially taken over!
That school set the foundation for everything—I trained, competed, and even travelled the world for tournaments and training. It took me to so many different places.
ALT A:
You made five consecutive appearances for Team GB in kickboxing championships, including three world championships—
RRN:
Yes! Oh, you’ve done your research.
ALT A:
Of course! (Laughs) Did you ever imagine that your love for the sport would lead to such success?
RRN:
No, not at all. Sometimes it’s still hard to absorb. Kickboxing was never my main job. People refer to me as a professional athlete, but I’m actually fully retired now. Any work I do in the sport comes from the skills I developed, but I also have a career, I’m a mother, I run my household, and I have a small property business. Thankfully, it doesn’t take up too much of my time.
When I won my first world championship, I remember talking to my coach. He said, This is a massive achievement, but it didn’t sink in right away. It just felt like another competition, despite all the hard training. I don’t think I fully appreciated what I had accomplished at the time.
Even now, I don’t consider myself a professional athlete in the same way because I’m no longer doing the rigorous training required to compete at a Team GB level. But looking back, it was an incredible journey.
ALT A:
What was it like representing Team GB? Did the pressure feel different? Was the training more intense?
RRN:
Oh, it was definitely different. The pressure was huge.
For example, in training, we would do step-ups—just running up and down three steps. But in my head, I wasn’t just doing a workout. I was thinking, The Russians are training harder than you. A friend once told me that, and it stuck with me. It became my internal motivator.
The Team GB squad was very close-knit. Some of my best friends today are people I met through the sport. One of my closest friends still competes professionally, and I support him where I can. But the experience of training, competing, and winning at that level—it’s something you don’t truly appreciate until you’re there, standing on the podium, hearing the national anthem.
I remember my first time on the podium—I didn’t know what to do! I was fidgeting, just standing there awkwardly. After that, I learned to compose myself and take in the moment properly.
ALT A:
Professional sports are intense, and getting to championship level requires so much effort. Along the way, were your family and community supportive? Where did you draw motivation from?
RRN:
That’s an interesting question. My father had already passed away by the time I got into the sport, so it was just my mom. She supported us in everything, no matter what. But I didn’t want her to see me fight—it was just too much.
She only attended one of my fights, and that was a charity event. It was light-hearted and community-focused, nothing too intense. But throughout my career, after every tournament, I’d drive to her house and say, Here you go—another trophy for you. She loved seeing them all.
Sadly, she passed away a few years ago. When I first represented Team GB, it was shortly after she had died, so standing on that podium was an emotional moment. When you see athletes looking up during those big moments, often they’re thinking about someone they’ve lost. For me, that was my mom.
ALT A:
Wow. Let’s talk about Tramp—your cameo, playing yourself, Ruthless Nelson. How did that opportunity come about?
RRN:
It happened completely by accident!
I was at an event near where I live, and people were warming up, cameras were everywhere because they were filming their own blogs and content. I saw a woman being filmed and thought she might be a good match for my friend, an MMA fighter struggling to find opponents.
I walked over and asked, Hey, are you fighting? And they said, No, we’re making a film. That’s how the conversation started! I had no idea who she was, what club she belonged to, or anything like that. Then I realized I was speaking to the lead actress.
It turned out they were filming part of Tramp during the interval at an MMA event. A week later, I got a call about being involved, and that was that!
ALT A:
How does the character in Tramp resonate with you as a woman in competitive sport?
RRN:
It really hits home.
I started training when my son was just three years old, and balancing family life with sport was tough. As I progressed, he got involved too, which was great. He even represented Team GB as a junior. But when he moved up to adult competition, I couldn’t handle the stress of competing while watching my own son fight. That’s when I stepped back.
The character in Tramp faces a similar challenge—balancing family, stepping away to have a child, then deciding to return. That struggle is very real, and I related to it completely.
ALT A:
We touched on mental health earlier. Women’s sports now have bigger conversations around issues like menstrual cycles and mental well-being. Have you seen positive changes? What could still improve?
RRN:
When I competed, we didn’t talk about these things. I always seemed to get my period during major competitions, and I just had to push through. There was no discussion, no saying, I don’t feel great today. You just got on with it.
Now, young athletes feel more comfortable speaking up. Parents even message coaches about their daughters missing training due to cramps. I always tell them, Look, every time I competed, I was going through the same thing—and I still won.
It’s great that these conversations are happening now. There’s always more to be done, but it’s definitely moving in the right direction.
ALT A:
Sports requires a certain amount of motivation and inspiration to keep going. As you say, it might be your time of the month might be pouring of rain, but you have to get up there, you have to train. So what tips do you give to anyone? Maybe just someone who’s generally trying to get themselves up there to just be fit or someone to go into high level of sport. What’s are some of the tips you can give for being motivated and staying on call?
RRN:
I do feel it’s definitely your mindset and also who you surround yourself with. I always say to people, surround yourself with like-minded people because if I’m an athlete and I’ve got somebody around me who is not and doesn’t understand what it takes to go through that kind of thing, or I’m not saying all my friends have to be martial artists, but if there’s something that doesn’t understand why I’m going to the gym four or five times a week, why I’ll go rather than on holiday instead of going to Tenerife with my friends when I was younger just to go and drink and whatnot, I would be going to Romani because there was a tournament and that is kind of what I’m taking annual from work for. Remember I said I do have a day job as well, so I’m taking annual leave. And I’ve had colleagues, like friendly colleagues, people I call friends I said to me, you just want to go on a normal holiday. This is a normal holiday with again like-minded people. So one tip I’d definitely say is surround yourself with like-minded people. Take that positive aspect of life and push forward and absolutely any negativity around you, you’ve got to get that out. You’ve got to get it out no matter what. But generally in your own mindset, you need to just try and stay positive. Mindset has got a lot to do with it. I never used to be on social media really. And then I started up, so my social media pages when I started the sport to motivate people. So I’d get quotes from people that I’d be scrolling through and I’d be like, yeah, that’s it. Repost it and just sharing it. And I used to get a lot of comments and a lot of positive feedback saying, look, do you know what I really needed to hear that today.
I still scroll through social media and there’s things I’ll be like, do you know what? If someone watching me, I needed to hear that today. Because life isn’t always rosy. We all go through things, we’re all human beings, we all have problems. It’s not always clear for everyone to see.
And even on social media, social media is what people choose to put on there. It’s such a big impact on everybody’s lives nowadays, but it’s what people choose to put on social media. So that’s why I use that as a platform. I chose to try and help people and motivate them into sticking with the sport. There’s benefits of sport, obviously the health, particularly in combat sport, in martial arts, in the martial arts I’ve been involved in. I do find it does turn a very positive aspect on people because of the competitiveness in it. So when I do something, no matter what it is, I want to be good at it because in my head that competitive mindset is there. So no matter what I do, I’ve got to be successful in my day job. That’s a lot of feedback I get things like that.
Again, my business, same thing, bringing up my family, my son, that kind of thing. So definitely positive mindset. Take out all of the negativity. And health, you’ve got to look after yourself as well. If you have a car, you don’t look after it, you don’t service it, you don’t MOT it. It’s probably not going to be great after a while. Do you see what I mean? Same with our bodies. We’ve got to look after yourself. I’m not saying 24 7 eat healthily, but again, a lot of people use social media, use that and try and educate yourself or get different views of things and reading is a good thing to do for longevity as well. Read the right materials and just you want to feed your mind with the right stuff that will keep you positive, healthy, active, et cetera, et cetera. That topic I could talk on all day, but I think I’ll give you enough of it.
ALT A:
So just really quickly, obviously now you’ve retired, so how often do you keep fit or train?
RRN:
Yeah, so I try to keep active at least five days a week spanning over the weekend as well. I’ve just got a normal gym membership. I just go to one of the regular gyms. I tend to do classes because it helps, there’s a little bunch of friends that we all talk and it helps. Again, we motivate each other just even by asking a question. We’ve got a little WhatsApp group and I’ll be like, anyone going to the gym today? People say, oh, do you know what, I weren’t going to go, but if you’ll going then yeah, we’ll go. So that helps. I still do kickboxing, but not as I did when I was competing. So before I’d be in the gym six, seven days a week.
And I mean training, the training is intense. When I started going to the gym, I realized that the training I was doing at kickboxing was completely different. So I still go to kickboxing every now and again. And also, so that’s local. And then also the MMA gym that I do go to. It’s quite away from me. It takes me about an hour and a half to get there. The other side of London. But that’s where the pro fighters are. That’s where my best mate trains and stuff like that. So I always try and go there and I love going there because it means I’m still learning no matter what trophies, what caps, what titles I’ve got, you can always learn. So I do learn a lot in the way of MMA, which did connect it well obviously with the Tramp because that’s the film they were filming about and I was really, really interested when they did mention it was an MMA film, it was an MMA event that we met at.
So yeah, so actively training, trying to keep myself at diet, trying to keep well on the old diet and stuff like that. But although my weakness is sweets, so cakes and stuff like that, I do a lot of baking. So it’s hard because I bake, but I just end up sharing people and try to make the healthy versions. Yeah, but I’ve got to keep active. I have to, as far as I’m concerned, I need to keep myself young. So there you go. I’ve got two big dogs as well, which need walking twice a day so they get regular exercise and like I say, they was even part of the film, so that was great as well.
ALT A:
Wonderful. And you don’t look like you’ve retired from anything at all. Finally, why should someone come out and see this film?
RRN:
Oh, I think, although, okay, it’s an MMA film. Yeah, not everybody does MMA. It doesn’t mean it’s a film for people that love MMA. It’s a film for firstly, but basically the struggles that we can go for in everyday life, don’t just watch the film and relate it to, oh, it’s an MMA fighter, blah blah, blah, blah. It’s a film about life. You go back and look at films like big films like Rocky and stuff like that. Everyone knows about those films, but it doesn’t mean it’s all boxers. It’s a film which you’ll see it’s got a good twist to it. I do love it. I think that acting’s very good as well. It’s very good cast as well. There’s some people in that film that when I was told, oh yeah, this guy’s in it, I was like, oh really? It’s a good bunch of people that star ( Izabella Malewska) in the film, acting is amazing. A lot of work, a lot of research went into the film as well as to really thinking about in reality how the minds of people in that situation really do think. It’s got some great actors, a good team behind the camera as well. And of course Ruthless Nelson is in it. So there you go.
ALT A:
Ruth Nelson thank you for talking to ALT A REVIEW.
RRN:
It’s an honour be to be interviewed by you, absolutely, I’ve looked at your social media, really impressive. So thank you.
ALT A:
Thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, as I say, we’re small, but we do big things!!!
Tramp is directed by Philip James McGoldrick and plans for a release later this year is too be announced.
