YOU appeared to have so much left to offer when you beat Maxi Hughes in November 2019. Why have you not fought since?
The plan was to fight in March [2020], and the show got cancelled due to Covid. I was pencilled in [to fight on an MTK bill]. I was then pencilled in to fight Paul Hyland for the British title [at lightweight, in March 2021], and got Covid eight or nine days before [and had to withdraw]. But I kept saying to Graham [Everett, my trainer], “This is going to be my last fight”. I’d prepared well and sparred really well, and had decided I was going to be aggressive and swing and have a bit of a wild one, rather than box and not take any risks.
I said I’d be ready [to fight again] probably April, May. I’d had 10 or 12 days off – I didn’t leave the house; I laid on the couch; I was struggling – then started going out running again, went back to the gym, and was breathing really heavily. “What’s happening here? Two weeks ago I was in prime position to fight.” Another two weeks of training I was still thinking, “I’m way off it here, this ain’t going to happen”. It probably didn’t help that half of me knew it was going to be my last fight. I felt… not ashamed, but “Am I just messing people around here?” The desire weren’t deeply there to want to be the best anymore, and I just felt it was going to be such a long road back. Once Maxi won
