A football player from a young age, Aaron Cullen was a reluctant participant when his dad first took him along to Garnock Valley Boxing Club. But as he started winning, he fell in love with the sport and now has the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games top of his priority list.
His rise in the sport has seen Scottish and British titles, as well as international honours. In 2022, his final year in the youth age category, he reached the final of four international tournaments, winning two gold. That same year there was heartbreak as he was devastatingly denied a guaranteed medal at the World Youth Championships after a bout review reversed his winning result in the quarter-finals.
He’s taken both successes and knock-backs in his stride and has come a long way from the young boy who would rather have been kicking a football around with his friends.
“I hated it right enough, but my dad kept taking me back,” says Aaron with a laugh. “It was more like boxercise, it was just keeping fit and getting us introduced to it, but it all kicked off from there. My friend packed it in, but I just kept going and I started to get the love for it.”
As he moved up through the age groups that love of the sport and determination to keep winning paid dividends and Aaron’s current coach Neil Armstrong was impressed from the start by his drive and focus.
“As a wee boy he came through all the levels,” says Neil.
“Novice champion, intermediate champion and then eventually the open class. Right from junior, schoolboy, youth to elite level he’s always been dedicated, this has been his sport. He always stood out because he was so determined.
“He was one of the boys who had the skill, he had everything you need to be a boxer. He always listened, leaned, took it on board and came back better.”
That determination made it a special arrival onto the elite level, winning his first three tournaments at senior level and impressing enough to claim a place on the GB Boxing Squad alongside Birmingham 2022 gold medallists Reese Lynch and Sam Hickey.
Those are just some of the names he’s keen to emulate and, having been part of the Achieve programme for young athletes at Birmingham 2022, Aaron has his eyes firmly on a medal in Glasgow this summer. With Team Scotland boxers winning at least one medal at every Games since 1930, the only sport to do so, he’s hoping to become a Commonwealth Games medallist alongside greats of the sport like Dick McTaggart, Alex Arthur and Josh Taylor, and the aforementioned Lynch and Hickey.
“If they can achieve it, I can achieve it,” he says. “The Commonwealth Games is the big one, it’s what I want to win. It’s everything that comes with it, your name becomes so much more if you’ve got that gold medal, especially in boxing. All those eyes, all those people watching.”
He’s already tasted major championship success, with silver at the U23 European Championships and has relished the step up to senior level. From fighting without the headguard that is mandatory at youth levels, to taking on a whole new level of opposition he’s taken it all in his stride.
“I was nervous, it’s a whole different ballgame, just getting that headguard off, but I kind of hit the ground running. I was 18 and fighting other 18-year-olds, but at the elite level suddenly I’m fighting people who are 30, they’ve been in the game for so much longer and you can’t buy that experience.
“Because the Europeans is such a major championship, to get so far was overwhelming, but I’m still gutted not to get the gold. I don’t really think too much about the achievements, I just strive to get the next one. One day I’ll look back and I’ll be happy with myself but for now I’ll just keep going.”
The next few months will be busy with training and competition as he strives to seal his place on Team Scotland for Glasgow and a shot at the podium. When asked why he loves the sport so much, it’s simple.
“Winning,” he says, smiling. “The feeling you get when your hand’s raised, there’s no other feeling like it.”