[3] Born in Fleetwood, Lancashire, Couch was expelled from her school in Blackpool and thereafter lived "a life of booze, drugs and street fighting".

In her first official fight, a Muay Thai match, she defeated a policewoman, about which she said "it was brilliant to flatten one [a police officer] and get paid for it".

[4][5] Claiming sexual discrimination and supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission, Couch managed to have this decision overturned by a tribunal in March 1998.

[9]Couch's first major success occurred in only her fifth pro fight in 1996 when she won the WIBF light welterweight title by outpointing France's Sandra Geiger over ten rounds in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Of this fight, Couch observed in 2004 that "I have never been hit so hard in all my life",[10] and called Geiger "the toughest opponent (she) fought".

[11] The first sanctioned professional boxing match between women in the U.K. was in November 1998 at Streatham in London, between Couch and Simona Lukic.

[16] Couch was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours.