Ebanie Bridges has become a home favourite in the city of Leeds, winning a the IBF featherweight world title back in March in front of what she will now consider a home crowd.
She will now face the first defence of her crown against former two-weight world champion Shannon O'Connell, with their fight taking place at the First Direct Arena. The fight against her fellow Australian takes place on the undercard of Josh Warrington vs Luis Alberto Lopez, which will be the third time that she has supported the Leeds Warrior.
Having now shared a stage on multiple occasions with Warrington, she also shares a love of Leeds United with the 32-year-old IBF featherweight champion. Traditionally Australia and Yorkshire are bonded in sporting terms by a love of cricket and rugby league, but Bridges and her support of the Whites brings a new bond.
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It is not a new relationship, with Bridges revealing that she became a fan of the Elland Road club while growing up in New South Wales in the 1990s and early 2000s. She revealed on Ray Parlour and Alan Brazil's 'Pub Talk' YouTube show that her early love of the club stemmed from Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell's time at the club.
When prompted by Parlour, who guessed that Viduka was the inspiration behind her support, she said: "He's my fave, what an animal." Bridges explained. "Obviously when I played football in the late 90s and early 00s Leeds was huge in Australia.
"When you're around my age group, my era there are a lot of Leeds fans because we were in the Premier League."
Bridges has also shown her support for the Whites by posing with a scarf and visiting Elland Road. After her fourth professional fight against Crystal Hoy in America, Bridges posed in a Whites shirt in a social media post which had the song ‘glory, glory Leeds United’ playing over the top.
As well as having the United crest stitched into her shorts, Bridges also keeps track of what is going on during matchdays and regularly tweets when her beloved club are playing.
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