YOU announced your retirement in May 2022, but suggestions persist that you may yet fight again. To what extent do you still consider yourself a retired fighter?
I consider myself a bit of a semi-retired fighter. When you’ve done it since you were nine years old, it’s in me blood; it’s hard to get away from it. Any fighter what has retired, what I’ve spoke to, said the same. The last performance against Amir Khan, and the excitement and the way I executed it, I question myself quite a lot – I’ve not seen anything since I’ve fought Khan [on February 19, 2022] with that excitement in a fight. I’ve not seen no fighter really excite me either. It’s hard to walk away when I know that.
How easy, or difficult, a decision was that to come to after the satisfaction of beating Amir Khan?
It were pretty easy at the time. I’ve obviously done everything in boxing. I’ve been the first guy on the card that nobody knew about. I didn’t get the big Olympics behind me – I were a normal fighter what had to work himself up the rankings to get into the position I ended up getting into. I’ve been in little changing rooms, had it the hard way, become mandatory, boxed for the British [welterweight] title at Bethnal Green, won that outright, [travelled] over to America, had scary fights with Carson Jones – them fights that really test you – and know that I’ve got that grit. I’ve passed everything what’s needed to be passed to be a top-level fighter. Coming over to America; fighting fights people are gobsmacked about.
