Will this fight at Wembley Arena be the biggest event you’ve boxed on?
Biggest venue to date, definitely. I can’t wait. Really excited for this. It’s a good job I boxed recently. My weight’s all good. I’m feeling fit. I just can’t wait to get in there.
How did you feel in your last fight (Jevgenijs Andrejevs in September)?
I hadn’t been out for a little while so it was good to get the ringrust out before this show and I felt really fit. It felt really nice.
How tough is it starting out as a professional fighter?
It’s really tough. Unless you’ve been to the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games in the amateurs or something like that and then you get a big contract. It’s hard work. You’ve got to sell tickets. Unless you can sell two, three hundred tickets each fight, it’s a struggle, it’s a real struggle. You’ve just got to work at it. Don’t give up, keep going and hopefully you get there. It’s a long process, building your fanbase up, longer than I thought when I turned pro.
You’ve had your first loss as a pro, against Colin Farricker, can you talk me through that?
Leading up to it, I felt strong because I had got ready for another fight and that fight got cancelled. Then they said you’re going to box in another three or four weeks, so I trained for that. So what happened, I trained flat out still, instead of thinking I’ll give myself a little rest, recover. I thought another four weeks to get even fitter and by the time that fight came round my body just felt completely burnt out.
It’s taught me things. I still feel in that fight I could have done a lot more to win it but I just felt my body wasn’t there and my mind wasn’t there. I was fatigued mentally.
I never used to believe there was such a thing as overtraining but now I’ve learned there really is.
You were an ABA champion, boxed and beat all the top guys, but it wasn’t easy turning pro.
The Olympians that’s where the promoters put the money into now. Whereas Britain and England didn’t used to produce so many Olympians and Olympic champions, silvers medallists and that, now the whole team is winning medals. It used to be the ABA champions who would get the money. Now we’re doing so well in the Olympics, that’s the new ABAs.
The biggest names I boxed John Ryder, Anthony Ogogo, Frank Buglioni, Hosea Burton… I’ve mixed with the best in the amateurs.
Are they, along with Anthony Yarde, people that you’d like to fight?
Definitely, anyone up there with a title, a bigger name, I’ll fight anyone.
