‘I WANT TO PROVE HOW GOOD I’VE BECOME

YOU’VE been out of the ring for a year now. Although lockdown has obviously been hard in many ways, has it been beneficial for you to step out of the pressure cooker?

Lockdown has been tough for everyone. Everyone’s waiting to be able to socialise again, and we’re slowly getting there. But if you think, when I turned pro I was straight away selling out the O2, and with that there’s pressure. Building the sport as well with my companies, which have done a great job, has meant putting myself forward. With them shut down during the pandemic, I’ve been able to spend my time training. I’ve lived these months as an athlete and it’s been a blessing, as I’ve progressed a lot.

Following the longest layoff of your pro career, could there be a danger of ring rust when you fight Kubrat Pulev?

Oh definitely. This year has just thrown every obstacle at us all. That’s what makes this fight so interesting. I might go in there feeling a million