By Jake Skinn
JASON Cunningham is a veteran of British boxing with 40 professional fights in a career that lasted over a decade. The ‘Iceman’ certainly isn’t short of achievements. He has held both the British and European super-bantamweight titles and is also a three-weight Commonwealth champion.
However, when Jason announced his retirement from professional boxing in December 2023, his involvement in the sport certainly wasn’t over and would, in fact, lead to one of the craziest years of his life.
When Jason Cunningham stepped onto the ring apron in Sheffield Arena to corner Connor Coghill in his fight against Hopey Price, no one could have imagined the events that would play out in the ring that night.
“It’s sad, really.”
I could hear the somberness in Jason’s voice when I asked him about the aftermath of Connor’s fight. Connor suffered a bleed on his brain during his fight with Hopey and was forced to retire just days later due to the injury.
“It was tragic what happened.”
Jason went on to explain how Connor gave a great account of himself and that he felt it was Connor’s night.
“Eddie Hearn was going to give him another opportunity on a Matchroom show and even looked at putting him into a title fight. That could have been the taking off of Connor’s career; it was his first championship fight, his first fight on TV and it was ripped away from him like that. He can never box again.”
Jason admitted Connor’s fight was one of the main reasons he retired. He had one fight left on his deal with Frank Warren, but after the Liam Davies fight, Jason was left wondering how much longer he wanted to continue. “It gives you a realisation of what can happen. That was it for me, enough was enough.”
Jason’s first big opportunity as a trainer came in March when Jimmy Joe Flint got the call from Matchroom Boxing to be in the away corner against Campbell Hatton.
Once fight week comes for most trainers, the majority of their work is done until fight night. However, for Jason, the Flint vs Hatton fight week was one of the busiest and craziest weeks in his life.
On the Monday morning of fight week, Jason and Jimmy Joe had their pad session. “I went to the hospital with my partner after the pad session as only 10 days prior, we had found out she was pregnant. It was even more of a shock when only three days prior to fight week she had a scan which revealed she was actually five months pregnant. So, on the Monday after I had finished with Jimmy Joe, me and Bec (Jason’s Partner) went to the hospital as we had our first appointment with the midwife to check everything was safe and well with the baby.
“We actually ended up going to the hospital 3 hours before the appointment as Bec was in excruciating pain. When we got there, they ran some tests on Bec and she then paced around the waiting room.
“What happened next was one of the most surreal moments of my life. The nurse came back five minutes later, Bec told her that she felt as if she was having contractions and then the nurse replies you are having contractions, you’re actually in labour.
“Honestly, my head nearly fell off. My baby was born on Tuesday. He weighed 1lbs 4oz. They then immediately transferred him to Hull’s neonatal care ward within the first two hours of him being born. I can’t praise the doctors and nurses enough for what they did for my boy.
“I’ve got all this going on whilst it was fight week for Jimmy Joe, my first fight on TV as a main trainer, I remember thinking to myself what on earth is happening here. Obviously my boy was my priority but at the same time I couldn’t let Jimmy Joe down in the biggest fight of his life.
“That week I was back and forth from Doncaster to Sheffield to Hull. That week was the craziest week of my life. Then when it came round to fight night with it being my first fight as a trainer on TV I was more nervous for that than any of my own fights. But Jimmy Joe stuck to the game plan got the win and put on a great performance in the process.”
Jason wouldn’t have to wait long until his next major opportunity as he would coach and corner flyweight English title holder Conner Kelsall as he challenged for the Commonwealth flyweight championship against Conor Quinn in Quinn’s home country of Northern Ireland.
Jason recalled the event: “Conner went in there as the underdog. Going into the fight it was probably 60-40, 70-30 to Quinn due to the home advantage. Kelsall is an ABA Elite Champion. You can probably count on one hand the ABA Elite Champions from Doncaster.
“That was his night to shine. He stuck to the instructions and had very good discipline. He more or less won the fight with a jab. The plan I set out for him was the jab has to be busy, because this kid (Quinn) is going to try and walk you (Kelsall) down, and we have to give him (Quinn) something to think about. It was a great win for Kelsall, and now Frank Warren has options for him, so we will hopefully have some news for Conner soon.”
While being the main trainer on both a Matchroom and Queensbury card and having both his fighters win were massive achievements for Jason, the next opportunity would be one that Jason and his fighter Josh Padley certainly couldn’t turn down.
It would be the opportunity of a lifetime to fight at Wembley Stadium on a Riyadh Season card headlined by Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois.
“It was a golden ticket of sorts. It was like his name got drawn out of a hat. However, what a lot of people don’t know is that the fight should have been for a WBC ‘Silver’ lightweight title.
“Around four weeks out from the fight, Tom Stalker (Josh’s manager) got a call saying the fight’s going to have to be at 140lbs, which is 5lbs above the natural weight Josh boxes at. He got backed into a corner in a way.
“The whole build-up was just something else. I remember looking down from on the stage at the weigh-in for the entire public. It was crazy how they just shut London down and did the weigh-in in the middle of Trafalgar Square. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before.”
Josh went on to win the fight by unanimous decision and even knocked Mark Chamberlain down in the eighth round.
“It was special, Josh got the win. I can look back at it in years to come and just think, wow, that was special.”
Jason also chose one of the busiest years of his life to launch the Iceman Foundation, which aims to help a wide range of people through the sport of boxing.
“We believe in the transformative power of boxing, offering a unique approach to education and personal development,” he explained.
The foundation, which is based out of Stefy Bull’s Gym in Denaby Main, Doncaster, has a range of different weekly sessions, from an adult youth club to women’s self-defence and fitness classes to men’s mental health sessions. “We are looking to bring a lot to the local community”.
Most recently, Jason and Jimmy Joe showed that Jimmy’s win in March wasn’t a fluke when he once again outpointed Campbell Hatton, this time in Hatton’s home town of Manchester.
“It was a good disciplined performance. He listened and followed every instruction given. It was a solid display which puts him right back into the mix,” said Cunningham.
Whilst Jason’s first year as a coach in the sport of boxing will certainly be hard to top, with Jimmy Joe back on the big stage, Conner Kelsall vs Jay Harris ordered for the European title and Josh Padley in pole position for a big promotional deal, it would appear that for both Jason and his fighters the best is yet to come.
