Chambers in one corner, The Hitman in the other
In the summer of 2009, Josh was chosen to help Nathan Gorman (the cousin of Tyson Fury) prepare for his British heavyweight title fight against the now IBF world champion, Daniel Dubois, at The O2 in London.
Josh was selected as the ideal sparring partner due to his razor-sharp jab, much like the new world champion.
Adding to the excitement for me, Gorman’s trainer was none other than world champion, Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton.
To express how much this meant to me, I’ll rewind a little.
I’ve been a lifelong boxing fan, always following the big fights. From Iron Mike Tyson, Chris Eubank, and Nigel Benn when I was a kid in the 80s, to Prince Naseem and Robin Reid in the 90s.
Then, in the late 90s, a young man from Hyde in Manchester burst onto the scene with an aggressive, come-forward style and ferocious body shots. His journey culminated one early morning at the Manchester Arena, when he made the pound-for-pound king, Kostya Tszyu, retire on his stool and surrender his IBF world title strap to the man from Hyde.
I traveled to Las Vegas, along with 3,000 other Hatton fans, to watch his first fight in Sin City. The most amazing part of this fight was the venue — a small room at the Paris Hotel, similar in size to where I’d fought back in the day at Melton’s not-so-famous working men’s club.
Now, back to the sparring story. Walking into Ricky’s Hyde gym was an incredible experience. Mike Jackson looked after us, sorting out all the details. Then Ricky walked in. He was exactly as I’d seen him in every interview — making jokes, this time about a fighter from his gym who had just appeared on Love Island, some guy called Tommy Fury.
Then came the sparring. Josh was in for the first three rounds and was told to fire out his sharp jab, mimicking Dubois.
Hearing Ricky calling out instructions to his fighter while I was giving instructions to Josh was an absolute dream come true.
After the first round, Josh was doing great — more than holding his own. He did so well, in fact, that we were invited back for the next sparring session.
Another fighter at that session was a newly turned-over pro. He and Josh did a round together, and once again, Josh did himself proud.
We had a chat after the sparring session. His name was Fabio Wardley — you might have heard of him by now.
We met Fabio again on another adventure of a pad man — but that’s a story for another time.
Bình luận