A red carpet, delicately laid out upon his arrival, was hardly the welcoming that Louis Greene expected when returning from Saudi Arabia.
More simply, ‘The Medway Mauler’ believed that his career – defined, for so many years, by the away corner – would finally gather a degree of momentum.
At the very least, a sustained run of activity should have followed soon after his stunning first-round stoppage victory over Jack McGann.
But instead, Greene, 17-4 (11 KOs), has endured more of the opposite, with it now being over 14 months since his last outing.
“I felt like I’d finally made it,” the 32-year-old told Boxing News. “All of the away fights – sitting in the hotel rooms on your own, and taking risks in people’s back yards – I felt like it had finally paid off.
“I’d never been a full-time athlete before; I’d always worked six or seven days a week, jumping from job to job.
“So when I finally got a taste of what it’s like [to be a full-time boxer], I felt the real benefits of it.
“I would still do my early morning runs, but then I’d go back home, go to sleep, and wake up full of energy, ready to go to the gym. For me, it was a huge privilege to do that.”
Unfortunately for Greene, life as a full-time boxer only came with a series of trials and tribulations.
First of all, his rematch with Sam Gilley – following on from their thrilling encounter in 2023 – was initially earmarked for the middle of last year.
As their matchup was kicked further down the road, though, the sporadic nature of Greene’s training camps only lent itself to greater turbulence, intensifying that ever-present feeling of uncertainty.
But most of all, the impact that each delay has had on his family is what weighs heaviest on the Kent man’s mind.
“I couldn’t go on days out with my children,” he recalled. “My daughter asked me one time if I could help her out with something at school, but then she had to get another parent to help her instead.
“Things like that infuriate me, because I’m never going to be able to get those times back. For any man who fights, and has a family – that’s what he’s doing it for.
“As a dad, you feel like you’re letting [your kids] down, even though [the inactivity is] out of your control. You’re putting yourself in risky situations and, although you get a thrill and a buzz out of it, it’s not benefiting them. It’s not like my kids don’t live in a mansion.”
Eventually, Greene’s rematch with Gilley was scheduled for last October but, as if matters could not get any worse, the sturdy puncher suddenly fell ill.
“I carried on training, waiting for a date,” he said. “Then I got very ill when I needed to fight the most. It wasn’t even a fact of wanting to fight; I needed to fight by that time.
“It’s the only time where I’ve been at my wit’s end. I’d been in harder predicaments than that, but it was just driving me mad. Everything was plummeting.”
Now, with the Gilley rematch – more recently slated for June 7 – having been cancelled once again, Greene finds himself, in many ways, returning back to square one, hoping that this constant cycle of waiting, but never progressing, ends sooner rather than later.
