 You can now follow me on all my social media platforms to find out who my latest guest will be and don't forget to click the subscribe button and the notifications button so you're notified for when my next podcast goes live. Beat everyone in the country for like three, four years in a row and I never got sent to one of the, you know, like one of the majors. I never got sent to the Europeans, never got sent to the Worlds and they always just picked some bullshit excuse, my style wouldn't work and then I beat the kid that they sent, then next year I beat the kid that they sent. Happened, I'm in a row. I think when my world title and start thinking about how am I going to be the next or how am I going to get my name to this, nah, I'll be back in the gyms but I'll be in a week later or week and a half later training, fight date training, fight date training, like I've got a legacy and a level of greatness that I want to achieve in this sport that I will only achieve it by dedicating every time I come in the gym. I fought seven times back, back, back, back, back in 14 month period and I had two months off injured, all on TV, all title fights against any of the first opponent they said every single time because I was helping, I'm not going out like the rest of these losers if I'm honest, like they just say no to fights and then when they eventually get beat, no one cares about them. It's the things they tell me I can't because it's mad. Like if you ask me, Sonny, go up to Bantamweight in the next fight and fight any of the world champions on a random hat, I'd say, and I think I could beat them even the scary ones, even the ones that know you couldn't beat them you couldn't even get the ring of them because trust me I've sparred and fought many scary people that when they get the ring aren't as scary normal. Yeah, when he said that about my address and he said that if I'm not there between 11 and 12, whatever he said he's going to walk the whole of Sheffield screaming Sonny Edwards as a coward, yeah. Like, what am I actually supposed to do at this point? Am I just supposed to like ignore it? Am I just meant to block him? Like, someone has physically shown that they are willing to travel four hours from London to Sheffield to see me. Like, I might as well deal with this now. Boom, we're on. Today's guest, we've got world champion boxer, Sonny Edwards, how are you bro? Yeah, well good James, well good thanks for having me down. Good to see you. Yeah, good to see you too. Flying high in life bro, world champion, smashing it. Not on the world champion boxer but I believe world champion shit stirrer make you everywhere, make causing it online, offline. But the main thing is you're causing it in the boxing ring. So fair play, how are you feeling with it all? Yeah, good, good, really good. I mean, as far as life, boxing career, I think 26 years old, I'm sort of living the dream that I saw two a long time ago. I've never done anything else. I've never clocked in for work. I went to uni, I dropped out after my second year, moved to Spain, turn pro and I never looked back. I realised that working kids wasn't the back-up plan that I thought it was going to be, you know what I mean? So I just, I chose to sort of follow the dream and sort of against a lot of people's, I don't know, advice maybe, the time when I turned the age, I turned pro and sort of jumping out of uni. A lot of people sort of had a lot of things to say. But yeah, kind of all worked out better than I probably could have hoped for so far. Yeah, fair play. I always go back to the start of my guests, where you grew up and how it all began. I grew up south London. Bederton is probably my main stomping ground. I was born in Sutton, St. Helio Hospital. Spent my first years. Radcliffe Gardens, Council of State. Went to the school right next to it by our hedges. Moved into, let's say an undesirable house, a location of a house that was like an industrial unit on Bederton Lane in Mitchum, Croydon. Yeah, it was a decent house, but I mean, there was sewage plants about half a mile that way, so it smelled all year round, you know what I mean? But yeah, that was my upbringing. We had it okay. Didn't have the roughest. Seen some hard times, you know, seeing the breakups and all of that. But yeah, for the most part, I think I was a boxer for a long period of my childhood. From nine, I started from about 11 to 14. I was doing it a little bit more than breaking in from 14 to, well, now really I've been pretty much a full-time athlete, if I'm honest. How were you at school? I did good. I was, like, primary school times, I was very competitive. I'm a competitive person, but I can only find things that one, I'm good at. Like, competing, I think I'm good at. And two, like, I like dedicating one thing at a time. So when I was young, I'm talking 10, 11. I'm top of the class. Top of the year, like, I was one of the smartest kids. I went to a grammar school. I was one of the top-on-entry, first couple of years, I'm top 10 in the year of the graded exams at the end. Like, Walton County Grammar School, very good school. At the time, it was top five, top 10 in the country for whatever the, I don't know how to even state, whatever the schools are called. Good education. Did GCSEs, got good grades, 1A star 7As, 2Bs, 2Cs. Got A-levels, BCC. Went to university. Sheffield Hallam. I did sport studies. Really, like, I did best in that stuff, like history and English. I've always been good at arguing. I've always been good at... Waffelin as well. Like, presentation, like, trying to keep an audience captured even in the times that you're forgetting what you're saying and stuff like that. I've always been quite good at that sort of free-styling, gifted a gab, some people may say, but I did sport studies. It was mainly just for the uni thing. I'll be real, I think 90% of the kids that I went to school with go to university, I think 30%, 40% or more was Russell group uni. So, like, I was with, you know, quite an intelligent bunch coming through school. It was a boys' school till sixth form, then it's mixed. But yeah, at sport studies, it was like my backup plan for, like, maybe to be a PE teacher. I realised after a year of coaching lads in the still city gym, there's no way I'm working with kids, do you know what I mean? Now I've got two of my own. I know why it's so funny now that I even thought to work with kids, do you know what I mean? Fucking hard work, mate, Anna. Oh, terribly hard work. Do you have a big family? No. Numbers-wise, probably not the smallest, not the biggest, but we had quite an isolated upbringing in the sense of my family unit was like, we weren't really too close with cousins, we weren't really too close with the other branch of the family. Just, you know, things happen in families and things that I weren't even around for before my time, people that I had not even met, that sort of, you know, split families apart as they do. Yeah, with politics. Yeah, and fucking just horrible evil people living amongst normal people and then ruining people's lives. So I think, you know, stuff like that. Nothing on my immediate family, nothing on my side. I was, you know, for the most part, okay, we had certain upbringings with, we had like a sergeant major as a dad and then the easiest mum in the world. It was like a mad balance. Yeah, but we was kept, especially me and my brother, we was kept away from trauma for the most part, we were kept away from, you know, any sort of unstable life. We had it good, really. Do you think that's helped you know people with a lot of things? I don't know, in what sense of deal? With the attention you're getting, the online stuff, everything that comes with doing well for yourself. I don't know about that. Because with me, I think, I grew up with a phone in my hand at a computer. I was on, before Twitter and Instagram was a thing. I'm having arguments with the boxing scene on warrior boxing forums, 10 or 15 years ago as a kid. But I probably was always going to have a troll side of me, my person, because I've got a lot of opinions. You know, I've probably got some sort of personality things where I like keeping my mind captivated by something. It works fast. You know, it's not like it's no stress to me when I'm having a back and forth, but if anything it's some mild entertainment, to be honest. Because a lot of people do it through frustration, ego, anger. They can drain you. I don't mind a back and forth, but then I go fuck this. I just step back. Because a part of you thinks they've won, then I don't feel as if you stop. That doesn't drain you at any point. Do you know why? Because my good friend, the McCormack twins, they told me this and it stuck with me years ago. And even though they're mad, they say some profound things, right? And they went, it's not how funny you are. It's how far you're willing to go. And that kind of stuck with me, that did. And it kind of makes their whole personality make a lot more sense, but I've got the legs. When it comes to social media back and forth, I literally train for one, two hours a day. And on my backside if I want to be, I don't have to do anything until the next day. Where I probably argue and so on, that's got like a nine to five. Or three kids in the house and you're getting asked to put the bins out. I'm a part-time dad when I'm in camp, you know what I mean? You're probably fighting and losing battle. And I don't know, it is more than anything. I just don't, I genuinely don't get offended by things. I'm an incredibly hard person to offend because outside of something, putting it on my heart strings, nothing actually affects me. Like if it's someone saying something to me, like I grew up at the school, I grew up in the Wollin. Okay, it might not have been the worst for fighting. Obviously there was fights and that, but kids were more probably civilized and maybe in some schools that was around us, right? But one thing that wasn't was everyone's mouths because now you're in the middle of a hundred and thirty each year proper quick-witted individuals that know how to use their mouth to make your feelings hurt. So obviously, I'm small I'm goofy, I was like a fourteen-year-old kid probably looked about ten or eleven, like I was always like maybe underdeveloped catching up late, whatever. So I heard it all, I heard it all growing up, you know what I mean? So I liked it really more than anything. Like I like the back and forth and it's just sort of carried on now. That's made you more fixed-kind. I don't even think it's fixed-kind because like, like do you know if someone gets me all off like, or if someone does something really, like do you know if like if someone snapped like I've had examples where people have like posted a picture of my mum or done something about my mum and then like even like reputable people like, we'll talk about this like this example, when Curtis Woodhouse told him that I went back and forth. I got him so angry, yeah, that eventually he posted something about my mum and deleted it in three minutes and lost like ten clients of his it starts Monday thing. And me and Curtis, since it's like, for me it's all off, it's all back and forth. As soon as I've seen it I just went, got him, do you know what I mean? Like his head's gone, do you know what I mean? Like so I didn't get offended. If anything that just kind of like cemented what I already knew was happening, do you know what I mean? Your head is all over the place. But, like it just is what it is because there's nothing I could read or see that will penetrate my, like my my motion needle, I guess. Like it's just it's just all external nonsense that, okay it can be positive, it can be negative, but like that's always going to let other people have the the last say on what your mood is. Like and then the internet is so like you can put the phone and put it down. That genuinely couldn't, like and my life experience is that anyone anytime anyone ever sees me they get on to me for being Sunday at the boxer it's always pleasant. I've never had one, not one, remotely negative apart from them being a bit too much, I wanted to chat to you too much or being off their face in a club and putting their arm around your arm around your headlock and that, but it's always out of a place of love and respect. So I don't like, I don't feel or, you know, hear the disrespect or the things that you see online which you see every, I see every single day, but not once the way how's the relationship with you and Cutlass now? Yeah, it sounds. I think every now and then he tries to have a little buzz in that, but he's never personal. He just started tweeting me and like, like we had before someone tweets my tweet back, like I very rarely, very rarely you'll you'll see something kick off from me Sunday Ed was his target started this and like that Sunday Ed was, I mean it's usually and I quote and retweet everything and the reason why I quote and retweet everything is because I want you to know exactly why I've just said what I've just said and when you do that replies and it can start getting a bit confusing. I want him to see that this is what they said and this is what I'm saying back to it, but apart from that I don't care. It's just I've got way too much time on my hands I think is more How was your moment of grown up together? For a part, for a part I think for the first 11 years they were, I mean, them being together, I don't know if that necessarily like consists of a happy relationship you know what I mean? I think from the last few years before they separated I'd say and my mum left um they were sleeping in separate bedrooms and that you know what I mean? Just arguing all the time and arguing at this point the conversation is always a shout, you know what I mean? It's just my dad would come home from work not come home from work, come home from dropping us to school, would make sure he put all the mud in there the whole way would go and make breakfast, make sure there's all as many breadcrumbs spread across and every utensil we could possibly genuinely like so petty because my mum was a clean freak so she'd come down to clean all every single time, it was like it was a bit mad. How they were together for so long is probably um more surprising, but yeah, right, 11, first day of school actually first day of secondary school um, the World Cup and yeah, they weren't in the house that was last week, you know what I mean? My mum left and I was with my dad for a few years. With that picture at any point? At the time I didn't think so in conversations with family members I'm the baby obviously so I guess hindsight is lost a bit more on the baby because you're not looking down on anyone you know what I mean? But yeah, I think I went in myself a lot more, I became a lot more you know my dad was very different so losing the soft touch in the house my brother kind of found every excuse not to be in the house probably basically moved out when he was 15 any time I had a girlfriend he was on GB apart from that, do you know what I mean? so it was just me and my dad and I just learnt very early just the safest space was as far away from my dad as possible for a long period of my life, he was basically a boxing trainer Do you think that's why you went to boxing so much at that age just to kind of escape? Nah, because I started at nine um, so you started before that happened? Yeah, so I started at nine they broke up when I was 11 at 14 and I moved out and my dad didn't live with my mom on my own back just decided that's what I was doing one day did it? then seven months of quit boxing got fat I think, I lost so I liked boxing, loved fighting loved sparring, hated training I was just lazy I didn't want to train, I didn't feel the need to train because I wouldn't train I won most of my fights and I didn't really try hard but I just didn't like doing the things I didn't like doing then I lost in two school boy finals probably should have won close fights but to me that was heartbreaking my brother had already won them he was like my benchmark he's always been the hills that I've always been chasing my dad set us in a very competitive environment everything was win, not lose everything was against each other from young so I stopped boxing for seven months and then at the age of 14 at the age of 14 so I stopped boxing and moved my mom and now I had freedom I was allowed out sometimes if it permitted, I'm talking I'm still going house parties at 13-14 and my dad wants to speak to the parents on the phone that was the level he was dropping me then he was picking me up my dad feared the world he wanted to keep us safe all the time I counted for we weren't out wandering but moving my mom she had me down as a sensible kid and to be fair I never brought police I never brought trouble back to her I never really got into these things but obviously it was out being a little bastard so from 14 I moved to South Korea then live with my mom and then for the next seven months I spent I'm talking coming home at two o'clock in the morning when I got school chasing around girls and I lost my virginity these times it was good seven months of freedom that I never had seven months of freedom that I never had I could kind of do what I wanted I loved my mom I didn't need to lie to my mom she was so soft that it was easy for me to do what I was doing and be honest with what I was doing for the most part after seven months I remember at the end of summer came I was just bored at the end of the school year normally there's always athletics cross country just from being a boxer no running training ever I was the best at cross country I was the best at 1500 meters I was the best at 800 meters throughout my whole school life but in this one time I came second in the school which was unheard of in my year at 1500 meters and then I went to the borough one and came lost because every other year I'm good little fat kid and from that moment I remember coming last and making out I pulled the fucking leg and that's why I was so slow and I was just terribly unfit in my head I thought I was still going to be able to run the same do you know what I mean I thought seven months of playing few rugby matches not going boxing not running I thought I'd still be able to run the same in my head for some reason when that happened I was deeply embarrassed even though I weren't boxing I was embarrassed I decided I'm going to have a few more weeks so I was just chilling off over summer like when summer came and then for the next year I wanted to get back into it so I pretty much hired my dad as a boxing trainer about 14 and the only time I seen him from 14 to 18 apart from the time my mum went on holiday and had to stay there a couple of nights reluctantly one of the nights I went and stayed up with mums on my own and got caught I would only see him apart from school he would take me to the gym probably like he would be repped in usually these times or TKO gym up East London or West Ham at the end he would take me there we would do the training and he would drop me home that was the only relationship from 14 to 18 I really had with him mainly for money do you think you'd still be doing boxing if it wasn't for your dad though I don't think I would have started I might have started but I started because of my brother really started because of stories he had from my sister and wanted to ask my dad he took him so I had the choice to quit and never go back at 14 that's what had had happened for seven months but that seven months made me realise that I don't want to just be out here just doing what everyone else is doing I had that freedom for like seven months I used it it was getting parties you know yeah and like seeing what that's about and by the end of the summer my friends were calling me to go out doing what we've been doing all summer and I was making out and my mum wouldn't let me out just so I could stay in for a bit of peace and quiet like I probably felt better being a bit more of a homebody popping out doing what I needed to do and then coming back I don't feel they need to be outside like 24 seven do you know what I mean I think that's important because it's sacrifice it's sacrificing what everybody else can't do everybody likes to go and drink fuck birds smoke weed that was a life I grew up in but that was a life that destroyed me and then when you start opening your eyes you realise I need to distance myself from the people who are still doing that there's still people doing it in their 30s 40s 50s 60s do you know what I mean there's no way out but for you to realise that at a young age and then make excuses for you to stay and it shows you that you'd obviously seen the world a bit differently from everybody else yeah I think something as well that has getting older and I bet I'm related to that but with me personally I struggle to like I struggle to get by if I don't have some sort of physical fight competition I'm injured and I can't spar that's the only time I'll really lose my head I've been sparring and fighting for so many years since I was nine years old I've sparred probably I won't even try and work that out but from a kid I was doing 10-12 rounds of reps doing it up new from a kid and I'll do it 2-3 times a week and I'll carry that on all the way until now so when I had that period of time and I weren't fighting no one I wasn't competing really with no one I felt empty I felt like there's a part of my day a part of my week every week that was one there and it was mental and I'd only been boxing about 5 or 6 years at this time but now I know what it is because I reckon I'll be retired and still be moving around sparring it makes me feel like I don't know maybe some people put their foot down fast in their car or go skydiving boxing makes me feel some sort of freedom invincibility, invulnerableness and freedom and complete concentration but complete nothingness in my mind at the same time it's mad the level of mindset it brings me to and like because I'm so used to that fix of feeling I can't go without it I can't does that worry you then? obviously your career is still starting off do you still worry about when you eventually do hang up the gloves where you'll be? a little bit because if you ask me now I'll be fighting until I'm 40 my body might not let me my career might not let me the viable career options might not let me the rest is unwritten but genuinely I can't see a moment right now where I'd think about retiring and yet it does scare me a little bit because if you're in a position where you finish your career and it's you know every time you hear a finger boxing it's bitter like if that's the last thought process that goes into it and as well maybe something happens where I can't do it no more maybe touch what it doesn't or yeah maybe I just retire I don't know I feel like there's such a big part of my every single day life that I'll be missing just training alone and I think the actual fighting feeling a punch punching someone that whole raw emotion like it's such an honest conversation having a fight a boxing fight I think is the most honest conversation two men can have I think that discipline of standing up there on your two feet looking at each other like yeah I'm ready to throw it and take a shot to do that for 36 minutes without tiring without the shots there throwing being too much without getting knocked out whatever it is such a hard discipline and it's such a like an art that I don't know what I'll do about it that genuinely I'm hoping I'm hoping because I'm already kind of there anyway I hope that the coaching and the managing which I do anyway now alongside of my career just because I'm so invested in boxing it's not this is my career boxing the whole package from commentary to punditry the interviews fighting everything in between it's all one package I think it's good to put these things in place now because a lot of boxers think it will never end it's a very short lived career same as footballers but you'll tend to see a lot of boxers come back 40s 50s they just miss that something yeah but like right now I'm working with three fighters Thomas Assomba former opponent of mine and recently signed Levi Kinciona and Nicolai pretty well Campbell and they're all kind of friends obviously one came from opponent and then sparring partner friend because right now like I'm not going out there it's like it's not a financial thing I'm not going out to try and sign fighters I'm having conversations with people coming to me would you look after me they trust me they trust my opinion on things they trust my my relationships with people in the business they trust my you know assessing of fights what's worth like like already I'm 26 years old and I'm helping them out I'm not naive enough to say yeah I think I can manage on my own and do all of this so now I'm getting them a licensed manager and I'm helping them I'm helping run alongside them speaking sort of deliberate and making sure they're fine and it's a good way to get the experience sort of running alongside what I'm doing because that boxing is a world full of sharks it really is I think people they believe like it is what they have seen in the movies they see the shine and the smiles of the promoters and of the fight night and then they think that's all it is and really boxing is a rotten sport it's rotten to the core in a lot of ways everyone's got a finger in a pie the boxers are no more than cheap prostitutes for most part sometimes expensive ones that instead of getting laid on their back and ragged out they get chucked in a ring and go and see if you can survive go and see if you don't get knocked out I mean I had Joko Zagon last year he was 21 fights I think he was world world champion and he owed the promoters money yeah I know his story he was getting like monthly money he signed a mad contract he didn't read the story for it and he ended up still own money well thank god to people like Joe and stories like it that you know people like me I sat here all these years later and not in the same position I think the education of a fighter now I think everyone people still sign and do dumb things with their career see it all the time but I think it's getting a little bit harder now people a little bit more on it fighters but you know it's horrible if you sign a piece of paper you could sign to anything with boxing it's so easy access it's so anyone that's got a checkbook slightly big enough can promote a boxing show unfortunately it's just the way it is it doesn't even have to be a big one people come in no pass experience and just start you know playing with people's lives as such they can put together cards they can you know fly them in in the hotels make sure their food's not right whatever they're doing anyone can have access anyone can sort of be around the boxing gym getting about fighters here and all of a sudden they're their new manager or their new advisor or their new nutritionist or new strength and conditioning coaches boxing like no other sport has no firewall it has no here we are protected by this union like even the governing bodies that you know like the IBFs and the the the boards like the British I don't want to be talking about anyone specifically you know like getting in trouble but the boards like them sort of like you'd have the Latvian one or the Irish one or the American one where they got all different states but the way it works is they're all taking a slight percent of you and the promoter it's like it's all like a trickle down so when that's the case it's never going to be a legitimate sport it's going to be where's the biggest money for everyone and the biggest shiniest pot of gold everyone's going to look at and then everyone that's sort of just in the in the shadows of the you know the big moment or the big fight or the big promo or the big manager whoever it is that's got a level of conversations everyone else sort of just gets left behind it's like it's sad seeing you were a kid as well when your brother was one in tournaments did you feel an added pressure on yourself um I always had kind of a lot of pressure because I was always seen as like the good one I was a talented one my brother worked hard I mean I was always seen as a talented one I started younger had more success I went like seven or eight fights on beat and like my brother was like 50-50 or less than 50-50 I always had the pressure always had extremely high expectations I mean my brother at 14 years old won a schoolboy European gold medal and then you know the next year I lost in the final I mean of the england I always had that sort of bit in my teeth I wanted to be better I wanted to do better and I can see it you know like if my brother was always getting to that I don't know the London finals and losing and then I lost in the national final it would have been I mean it would have been great it would have been hard like how far we got but we wasn't in that sort of household winning was only the other option it weren't really out for discussion um yeah it was it weren't pressure in the sense of like you know I need to do it but I looked at my brother like was he equals even though I was 3 years younger than him so if he's doing something 3 years older than me I'm thinking I should definitely be doing it 3 years younger do you know what I mean it shouldn't even be up for debate discussion so you're in the household where it's pressure to be, number one pressure to be the best does it take the enjoyment out of it I don't know my dad had different approaches to us both with me he kind of told me and told everyone else that I was smart way beyond my years by 14 there wasn't a boxing trainer in the UK that could tell me anything um and he would say that my brother was the opposite to that that he needs to be told he needs a good trainer otherwise he'll go like so he gave us like two different like mindsets and it probably has ended up you know directly affecting how both of us are like and how both of us react and look at life differently um everything was just competitive because like you know in boxing it's competitive anyway you're running you want to run first you're sparring you want to think you're working you want to work hard it's like it's a competitive world anyway and it's always one-on-one and then you put a one-on-one sport two brothers together okay I'm always smaller but now I've caught up with boxing at the same weight so even now like just the fact that me and him have got brothers in the same industry in the same space in the same level of success like that's competition in its own like there's a concurrent competition where I can't fight or he can't fight um where someone aren't mentioning or he's better than Charlie or he's better than Sunny or or who would win in a fight like kids and obviously yeah obviously we're brothers but at the same time we're brothers you know what I mean so yeah we're brothers but we're brothers so obviously we're gonna you know every everyone that's got a brother can experience a time when it does kick off or when people really do want to win something or do want to beat someone at something the brothers is the worst the brothers it gets it goes to like usually the worst extreme do not mean if two brothers are fighting yeah just because like it's it's that raw we're still seven eight nine and ten like aggression is it that was back to that you get sort of like muscle memory from nostalgic experiences you know I mean that's how I feel anyway like and obviously deal with it different because you're not little kids now rolling around and holding each other down and giving each other dead legs and that but like when you lose it like you lose it I mean what is it your time for twenty I think twenty twenty still quite young yeah what was the decision now um so I never really liked England boxing or GB boxing because I won five five and then six national titles in a row beat everyone in the country for like three four years in a row and I never got sent to one of the you know like one of the majors I never got sent to the Europeans never got sent to the world and they always just pick some bullshit excuse my style wouldn't work and then I beat the kid that they sent then next year I beat the kid that they sent have five times in a row and then I beat the NBA's I beat Galawiyafa in the semis and I beat Joe Maphosa who was already on GB in the final in my first year got on GB fine right within the space of me getting sent to my first tournament for GB Galawiyafa who I'd beat they might as a friend so it's not like negative this is just my perspective and he knows this anyway um before I got sent to my first he's already been sent to five different events a couple of WSB and a couple of tournaments five different and he performed quite well but I beat him and we got on GB at the same weekend and by the time I got sent to my first which wasn't even a good tournament but some good countries there he's already been sent five done WSB twice it's like this clear favoritism and inspiring if I be real like I don't feel like anyone ever gets the better of me ever really like genuinely like I don't and so up there I was very confident how the Spartans were going to beat him I couldn't understand it but I had my first tournament I got sent to after like four or five months um GB's in Finland in my first fight I was the first fight at the whole tournament my first fight as a senior international amateur whatever elite open class for GB I drew the Kazakhstan world number I think two or three three years previously he was the world champion the IEBA world champion he'd qualified he'd been to two Olympics and got quarterfinals twice losing to the gold medalist both times and he'd already qualified for real that was my first fight at the tournament was literally about one it was us two and I beat him frapped snapped the ligament in my thumb got pulled out the next day got sent to Harley Street straight from the airport complete rapture in my thumb complete in the back of the thing so I'm out now within three four weeks that win put me number one definitely there hadn't been a better win at my weight I was out three weeks later Galal got sent to the qualifiers qualifiers three weeks after that I decided against a wish of GB to enter the ABAs they told me not to I thought what am I doing sat around here had one hand jumped in the ABAs lost in the final I thought I should have won it was a close fight nothing fight if honest but mum that decision went fuck this I had made it mine before I got to the change room I said to Grant the first thing I said to him I said fuck this bullshit like I weren't waiting around for another four years a funny story actually a month later so I'd already turned pro I was already turning pro I think I'd already signed a contract Rob McCracken I would say everyone knows Rob McCracken AJ's old trainer he rings me up I hadn't been on GB I just hadn't turned up I just hadn't turned up to stay down I thought fuck that I'm not going I was on full time and I was on my probation they give you three months to see if it would suit your life it didn't suit my life James I mean Rob rang me three weeks after he went son he went you doing anything next week I know you're not been in a gym but he went it's WSB in Great Britain Lionheart so that's Kazakhstan semifinals can't get anyone 49 or 52 kilos wildcard everyone said no and I was like when is it he was like oh you got to meet the team down tomorrow the next day I was like yeah sound just went and met up the team tried to fight I was the wildcard so it had to be five all yeah and it looked like it was going earlier in the day I had an allergic reaction to nuts yeah so I was nearly being sick in the things an allergic reaction to nuts yeah and I'm still warming up to go and fight this kid Kazakhstan international weight above unbox nation I think it was time and I didn't get the chance to fight but I said I'm taking that to Rob I went Rob if I take this yeah if we go to the final you've got to take because the final was in I don't know where it was because against Cuba and I went if I take this fight I said onto a phone you've got to take me to Cuba or fight Cuba wherever it was and he went yeah and he went back on his word and took Gala Muhammad Ali in the but they both were qualified for the Olympics so I did understand but yeah that was like me deciding fuck this I'm sort of dumb and amateur bare-mind I've been watching my brother you know tin can journeyman and get paid for it for the last year and a half it's hard and everyone on GB even the lads I was hearing stories and I've seen messages like I was getting laughed at by the coaches I was getting laughed at by the other fighters by the staff because they didn't think I had the style they didn't think I had the mentality I was always told my style wouldn't work until it did and it's just never not work James I'll be real it's mad that the fucking amateur game same as Josh Taylor I think he had to pay back the Olympics of the Commonwealth four grand and eight grand after one in gold what because he left yeah yeah but that's because he left out of contract I think he left he still had to pay them back money yeah so basically it's like when you get on GB you jump like and there's periods of time when you get on GB you get like a three month like probation and then at the end of that you can just decide I don't want to extend but if not that'll get you racked into like a two a one two or three or four year contract basically and it's literally like a contract people think are amateurs it's a lot of refunded it's all nah there's more money and more fingers and pies in that amateurship than the fucking anything else look how much money the Olympic generates like how corrupt it is it is ridiculous like all I'm saying is yeah there's not one boxing gym from professional boxing that I know that could remotely compare with what the GB setup of they've got about 30 staff they've got fucking nutritionist they've got physios they're like they're like going to GB is like joining a football team or joining a miracle football team or something like that to that level top of the range where's all that money coming from why is trainers on like a grand 100k a year and fighters on 700 pound a month like she's mad yeah that is it's proper like when I when I deep tower like backwards it is like that that amateur game they're giving you like a little chump change and like the coaches that aren't even like full-time coaches on that 30-40 grand year way more than the fighters and they're fucking some of them are useless like not even trying to like some of them are very good coaches some of them are good coaches but some get on there and not good coaches you know I mean everyone like and you'll know which ones aren't because not all want to work with them they'll walk in the thing and everyone will be like not trying to get eye contact for pads you know I mean it is a mad thing but obviously that's kind of the the world we live in and they'll tell you that it's all for like good and positive things and really they're just getting people to fight for nothing and then attract billions of eyes when it comes around that the Olympics and come walks and that's crazy you've got some great names and amateurs but what was a step up like for your first pro fight did you see a difference the first one was a hard one like not a hard fight really but like I'm mixing it with the best one fight in the 41 year old man small I'd lost 70 times the one like 15-20 but genuinely quite tough knew his way around the boxing ring so it was just like a hard range of emotions you know what I mean like because he was better than he looked but he weren't very good but like he was better or tougher but he just looked like an old man you know what I mean and I looked like a young boy he was literally double my age on my debut but he was just like obviously it was my first fight so that was probably like trying to match me like okay let's see what he's got but I'll be real like I've always been a long round fighter I used to spar 10-12 rounds as a 12 year old kid in Newham gym as a 14-15 year old kid in Repton like as a kid like all new comments 5-6 different opponents doing 2 rounds at a time so the rounds for me if anything the problem was free like any time I lost in the amateurs any single time I'd probably lose the first round be back in it by the second and then be on top by the third and it was just how the score would go because I was kind of a slow starter like I'm a legit 36 minute or even longer I'm a I'm a long round fighter like I don't like fighting doesn't phase me I could do 145 minute round it does not phase me like all of that is I'm reading the person that's opposite me I'm reading their engine and trying to drain it and make them fix and I look at boxing from a complete different lens to I think 90% from even more than that and that's why I think I've not found the change easy not found the change hard I've always trained hard I know what training needs to do I've always been fit for it I've got the focus for it I've got the sort of like the focus on it like I don't when I'm in there for 36 minutes there's not one part of me that ever wants to get out of the ring a big shot lands you'll see me smile you'll see you'll hear me tell him it's a good shot like I turn a positive and a negative I don't mind getting hit like I try to avoid it because I don't like losing but like if anything when you get caught with that one shot for me you just switches me on like that whatever that shock is that goes through my central nervous system like it's not a bad thing for me like I don't I've been getting punched in the face for 17 years like it's really kind of like second nature if anything now I feel like when I spar I just have wars all the time even though they're like proper wars like I want to make it like a bus stop because when I fight I don't really get them I'm serious I could show you some even my last fight I let him have a more of a bus stop anytime I wanted to move I could have moved but like I just I like doing what I want to do like go out and wash out into me I've got the rounds countered in my head like I enjoy the physicality of it I enjoy the sport like I wish I liked the business more I wish I liked like the entertainment side of it more I wish I liked even like the media and stuff obviously I'm not right now it sounds a bit like but like genuinely I don't do much really to try and be out there or be seen or be noticed or like I don't want to be known as really anything other than a boxer I like that I can kind of pretty much right now still live my life relatively low key obviously you might get re-bumped people that know you and whatnot but anyone does don't know who you are so I like that it's like that I don't want to you know I think win my world title and start thinking about how am I going to be the next or how am I going to get my name to this nah I was back in the gym sparring a week later or weekend off later training and fight date training I've got a legacy and a level of greatness that I want to achieve in this sport that I will only achieve it by dedicating every time I can in the gym even okay I might be out on a party I might be out on foods and do whatever in between my camps I guarantee no matter where I was or where I've been the night before or be in the gym honestly James like honestly some stories I can't even tell on this camera but certain things have happened I've been in the gym 24 hours crazy I don't miss it I feel like that's the biggest stress you know like missing stuff like that that causing me the stress I feel guilty on myself if I don't go to the gym and train for an hour I'm a full-time athlete and I can't go to the gym and just do like 6 rounds on bags or something just to keep it ticking it's embarrassing of me when there's people that I've got around me that are waking up 6.45 going for a run then going to work until fucking 7 o'clock at night then coming home and training it's embarrassing of me to not go to the gym even if I'm out of camp I still feel bad you always fight ready? fight ready in the sense of to get in the ring and have a fight a billion percent you sell a lot of box and do it on us yeah yeah yeah I think any boxer that does unless you get to the stage of say I went through the weights and now I'm light weight or super light weight and that's what I'm fighting at I'd probably be like a man that's always staying on more but now I feel like it's good to let yourself grow especially when you're younger once you know you can be in control of the range of your weights and I think it's good to manipulate I think I'm developing and filling out more now because I'm having more time between fights consistently over years to sit at a box of 50.8 kilos that's very light within 3 days I'm probably like 58, 59 within 2 weeks 62, 63 and then I just sort of plateau down stay there but it's a lot of weight to some people to me it's not I get on the scales 10 kilos overweight to some people that is ridiculous to hear to me that's I'm in a good place that's what I want to be I put one 2 pound me and I think I'm a fat cunt mate I don't mind me so you're 18 in and out when did you start believing you're so straight away that you know you're going to be a world champion or did it take time to develop I've had a lot of belief in myself for a long time when I'm 15, 16 I was sparring pros and stuff I was my first Ian Napa but he was like the British man maybe not of the record and all the money but he was a very good defensive fighter I used to spar him as like a kid he was a good level at a certain point in his career I got a lot of confidence because I don't have much experience in boxing rings I'm not the man James I'm honest there's I couldn't even really think of a time I've been in the ring with someone that's made me feel like I don't belong and I could literally probably sit here and start naming a list of 100 times people have got that ring of me flustered red face, frustrated head falling off talking about and it's not me being big headed and anyone that spars me I never call people directly they know it's true I'm good, I'm really good I'm much better than anyone's remotely seen in a professional fight I box safe when I fight I box to win I don't box to have fun and I never box to excite unfortunately I think people that do that will end up losing I box to win when I fight I box to show levels if that makes sense where does your movement come from because I used to love Prince Nazima but I see a bit in that kind of movement as well there's not many boxers do that they're moving and the perfection of just slight inches of how they float around the ring you've got that in abundance man it probably come from the first two years of taking clean shots to the face I'd start crying as a boxer from 9 to about 11 I'd start crying not in the sense of it would more be like angry, hyperventilating like crying but not crying it would be like 1, 2, come down getting angry and that that's what I was for about two years just getting hit in the face got me angry and I think going back what I was talking about earlier with what I used to go with my parents and then breaking up I think that might have played because even on football before boxing if something happened to me that I didn't like, I would get so angry like I'd explode like what's that what's that, that Disney film I watch it with my kid when it's like inside out and you can see the emotions anyway this little red angle that used to be me as a kid real bad and I think boxing helped me put a lid on that I think without boxing I probably never would have put a lid on that and now to the point of I'm probably one of the calmest individuals 99% of the time I can get giddy and get excited and I can have a mess about but the most part I'm laid back I'm mentally quite stable and consistent with my actions and my energy but I think boxing helped like I said I was a fucking head case I wouldn't be breathing I'm not making mad noises I've done that like just a fucking little loon like so angry I've got veins on the side of my head prominent veins my kids have them too I don't think I've ever seen anyone else with them but when I get angry they start like, especially when I was young they used to like pulse out the side of my head it was mad but I had it in there I had a burning desire of and that's why I'm so glad I found boxing because I don't think I ever would have got out in football maybe in rugby, I'd played rugby for years but yeah, apart from that I probably wouldn't have ever got out You're 15, 30, you're world title, you're a massive underdog I think, yeah, I probably should have been more than I was, I think I was Was he not 13 years on? 13 years on beaten he got to a point where he was old but he showed no slowing down he'd just been punching everyone up still he's still been beating people convincingly by knockout and going to their country and busting them up and all of him, it was probably the hardest fight I've ever had probably the best person I've ever been in the ring with he he didn't look to have as much success as he made me work, if that makes sense because he weren't really landing all too much and I was doing everything I needed to do at the right time he didn't get to building any of his success but he genuinely posed a threat a level of intimidation a level of physical pressure I have not really seen before in the ring if I'm honest and it weren't because I'm for a world title as the final bell went last 10 that's when I remembered it was for a world title all of them are things, winning, losing drawing, world titles belts, accolades, boxer of the years it's all nice but the main thing I'm like I like fighting so whether it's for a no title, whether it's for my 17 world titles I do not it's not going to change how I want to win in there that's just going to affect the ceremony or how nice people are to me after maybe it doesn't actually change what I do because I go and I'm buzzing and I wake up in the morning and I have my breakfast to go to the spa as if it was a fight I love it that much so all the other stuff is in material I'm going to walk out here you're going to have an opinion on me people that watch this are going to have an opinion on me might be positive, might be negative they might like me, they might not they might think I dress good, they might think I dress bad but what is it going to change even if everyone's the same or everyone's different it's not going to change anything in me I don't really care I'm just trying to exist and thrive in a world that is littered by sharks dead ends and trap doors and snakes and ladders and everything in between but it's fun, it's like the game of life and hopefully I've done so well like even if it all just goes straight from this point onwards I managed to climb up through the rankings when the British international titles slap a world title before I got defeated and defend it twice there's not that many 26 year old boxes anywhere in this world that can say that and be number one in the world and after this next fight we'll be unified and ring hopefully and definitely number one and then maybe the next fight after that push top 10 I've got that all in my sights and there's the interest and the weights that I'm around right now, flyweight and superflyweight there's the investment more importantly from Tom Loeffler before all the superflyer cards, got Eddie Heine now pumping loads of money into all the flyweight, superflyweight fights because general public a bit more the boxing people have realised that these fights are probably up there with the best fights we get there's no one who actually are entertained by both fighters a flyweight fighter is probably as good as superflyweight fighters, probably better than most weights, okay until you see the knockout but the actual fight, the actual watching it the actual reactions, the actual speed, the skill we have smaller bodies more compact, more easy and efficient to do things so sometimes you see fights where a ridiculous amount of punches were thrown that you'd never see a wall or weight or heavyweight, something like that and I think people are getting onto the idea that someone might be 5 foot 3 or other and they can still fucking have it out like it's as simple as that and the fights are good to watch and they're excited and yeah, oh, because he's 6 foot 7 and I think it is changing a bit but don't get me wrong I as a boxing fan outside of a flyweight boxer, there's no night like a big heavyweight fight, like there probably never ever will be that is just the lore of the two Hercules, Esk Alpha Freaks and H's of men fighting each other obviously, it's a different sort of intrigue but I do genuinely think that the flyweight division has been buzzing like it never has been to be honest and I think the money that's getting thrown around for the fights is like it's never even been remotely close to really outside of maybe the odd superstar in one corner but you can't really count for that, they're anomalies do you know what I mean? What's the best title you've won? Happy Earth or Dad I won that twice and the Boxer Rankers you've won a few titles but not even a British your first time, you've won a belt do you know why? Because that British like it went like a proper British fight for me because that kid shouldn't have been in the ring with me really all the other fighters better than him didn't want to fight so then he got it and I've had it for 18 months before I won the world title, not one person do you know what, every month the British board they meet, they sit around the table, whatever they do we've had letters from this fighter, this fighter, this fighter they want to fight for the British title this way again and they do all of that you know for 18 months in a row not one person not one fighter not one manager, not one promoter nothing put forward to the board a wish to fight for the British title on my way for 18 months why? don't want to fight me everyone was offered Pursues but you know, you always hear with me it was always that fight's bigger in the future or we'll fight that for a bigger title but who's got the bigger title you hear a few creep out you hear a few creep out now yeah, you're getting paid well and now if you lose you've lost to a world champion and now, but when I needed you at the crossroads you weren't known to be seen and what happened, the funniest thing is do you know why the reason why I got here so seamlessly and had all the fight dates that I did so it was very easy to work with I negotiated my contract 18 months, 3 years at a time and stuck to it, weren't trying to negotiate more of each fight and being a prima donna oh if I could fight him for that, no I wanted to get there and get there quick James I fought 7 times back, back, back, back in 14 month period and I had 2 months off injured, all on TV all title fights against any, the first opponent they said every single time because I was held then I'm not going out like the rest of these losers if I'm honest, they just say no to fights and when they eventually get beat, no one cares about them but I've said yes to everyone so at least maybe if I did get beat well at least he said yes to every opponent because you know what I mean that was my mindset and because of that mindset I became one of the best fighters to work with BT loved me they had me on like I said, 7 TV slots in the space of 14 months definitely the most active out of any fight to any network and it was all title fights like I said but what happened was every single time, every single level I was calling out everyone people I was on GB with for English and Southern area titles because I know I'm going to get to world level I don't know that you're going to get to world level so I'm not as a fighter here you know what I mean and then look at all them people that I didn't know if they would get to world level and I know they'd get to southern area English or British where are they all now they're not around no more James they're not around no more do you ever get emotional about winning, never that's not one of the titles and I've never released that I fucking told you so release, go back and watch Mariti the Mariti decision so I've just kind of schooled him a bit for 12 rounds my trainer, the fans were shouting go after his corner and you see like the slight break in my coolness I sort of as they're reading out I've realised what I've just done and I like kind of like hit my head a couple of times like just like tap tap tap and then back to call I'm the winner, go save the thing because one thing I was taught and maybe it just stuck to me, maybe it should make maybe like I should take this out of my game because maybe even better if I did my dad always made a point of the other people that couldn't believe that they just won you know what I mean and the winner is you know what I mean what's that why would you want to go out like that why would you want everyone in here to think that you cannot believe you just won you know what I mean and that era of confidence and that era of mystique and that I've just won a world title I broke a smile, went over and then the first thing I've said is I don't think them school cards are right they didn't give my opponent a chance that is my mindset because I believed I was world champion from the moment I signed the fight genuinely hand on heart like I'm world champion now 30th of April, see you then I want nervous like all the fighting that is second nature to me and because I love it so much the higher the stakes the more I love it because with me it's always been stacked the chips against me and I will come over every single time, every single hard hard fight is when I've pulled out the best the times I've lost had setbacks it's always against someone I'm supposed to be yeah for that fight I schooled everybody for 13 years but for you to then school him how did that make you feel being an underdog with that does that spelled you on to prove to people I'm going to show you what I'm capable of or is it a case of just doing a business and move on to the next so I wish I had more interesting answers I just like beating people I just like beating people I just like fighting for me it genuinely doesn't matter who it is I think I'll find a way to beat them weights above me as well and I think I'll go to show it every dog has their day you can have off nights and all that but the way I approach it I don't boxing isn't a cash grab for me boxing isn't boxing isn't I want to be famous boxing isn't I want to prove to everyone that I'm a man and I'm strong and I want to prove to one person that's my opponent that's it everything else James I can't stress it enough it doesn't matter I want my corner to be happy with me I want them to be I want them when I go to the thing I want them to say yeah do you know what and all the time sometimes I don't always listen because sometimes I'm stubborn but like I just want to win I just want to be better like maybe yeah part maybe showing better but actually it doesn't it doesn't matter world titles it doesn't matter that this fight maybe is for 10 times more than money than anything I mean all of that generally doesn't and I'm glad it doesn't I'm glad that that's all an afterthought for me I'm glad that and maybe because of that the negative comments don't or even if I do buy off more than I can chew and now it's I'm picking up the pieces why I don't care because I just want to test myself and I want to push my levels to the the max of their potential and I feel like if I keep using my position of maybe comfortability like I could choose to just you know never go to any other country just I'm arguably the biggest name in the division I could just sort of do the whole yeah this is my thought you have to fight me here all I'm protected and just try and pick my way of work my way for a boxing career I don't want to do that how was your fate and the vibe of the scene yeah fine so like I enjoyed it like it weren't hard it weren't remotely out of something that wasn't what I can do over and over and over again I approached it and fought especially at times a certain way just to show I can do what I did and the scorecards I think were a bit of a joke to be honest I thought their 1-18s 1-17s were more right how they ever gave 1-15 I would never know didn't lose five rounds I think no one had me losing five rounds but it was just again to show that I can pick and choose and do what I want like if I want to box and move for 12 rounds I could probably do it for the next 15 years and no one's beating me James not over 12 rounds let's talk about this mega fight in Mexico what's the plans for this is this cemented down yet well we've been speaking about it for now coming up to about three weeks I'd been chasing it for ages since he pretty much grabbed a ring with my brother to be honest as soon as I got a world title he's who I wanted as soon as I defended it the first time I mentioned him in the ring as soon as I defended him the second time I mentioned him again in the ring I want the fight desperately it's the biggest for legacy it's the biggest it makes the most sense about everything it's also stylistically a fight that I completely love and yeah I love the contrasting styles I love the contrasting cultures the whole Mexico verse Britain has been popping for the last however many years it's been a good little rivalry that we are kind of getting danced all over and at the moment so I'm looking at the poor one back in negotiations I only had one place in my mind that I really wanted to do it and that was Mexico City where Martinez is from one of the roughest areas of he came to London he had a good couple of rounds against my brother he had him hurt when he went down he hit him way late I don't know maybe before he got away with it maybe he was just in the moment maybe because of the way my brother went down maybe he didn't see him fully maybe he did maybe he's just that little dickhead I have no clue I mean I have no clue but I will thank him I will thank my brother because without that without the controversy without the storyline this fight wouldn't be as big as it is this fight wouldn't be as intriguing as interesting like there's a video I posted yesterday the late shot lands and the angle you can see one person and that's me and you can see the way I'm looking at him and then you see me break into the realisation of what happened after but you can see the look in my eye and I remember what was going through my head my big brother just getting put down and hitting late I remember I was coming from that moment I was coming from that moment I was coming from that moment and I wasn't just coming to fight I was coming to you I had been my plan from then so I'm coming over because you've done it another time for me to do it to you because at the end of the day James the song comes up to your house knocks on the door and it's your brother in the face what do you do? go to their house you don't stay at home you don't stay at home James not the way I've been raised or not the way I've grown up or existed to this certain point like I feel like there's certain things that are going to be actual balance I believe in balance and restoring it and I'm going to go over to Mexico hopefully like I said I do believe it's going to be Mexico I push for it I think they're pushing for it it was just getting green lighted so I'm hoping hopefully this ain't because the other option was America but like I said that don't ring the same for me that's neutral to me I want to go where your people are all of your people I want to go in there the kit I'm going to be wearing James is going to be mad I mean if I get this go down do it and it is for the WBC the ring magazine walking in Mexico City what I'll be wearing I think it could go down as an iconic moment in British Boxing History because there's not many British Boxers when to Mexico in one I think Willie Lemon Scottish guy who went to Mexico he fought in front of 40,000, 50,000 Mexicans how many would take their world title to defend over there none I think that shows your character to prove her point do things that's never been done you get that buzz I like doing the things they tell me I can't because it's mad if you ask me Sonny go up to Bandung wait in your next fight and fight any of the world champion on a random hat and I think I could beat them even the scary ones even the ones that know you couldn't beat them because trust me I've sparred and for many scary people when they get anything on they aren't as scary normal I'm like what do you mean fire extinguisher blankets you know what I mean you ain't got a fire extinguisher if you just chuck on it that's kind of like my style I'm like the ice I'm like the water to the fire how long do you stay at Flyweight for it's not that hard for me to make I'm doing something behind the scenes being a bit more serious for this one no more cutting corners because obviously now I'm balancing I'm balancing a lot of people's livelihoods, I'll be real I'm grateful to be in a position where maybe the people that have invested time energy and effort into me are now getting rewarded in a way that they should be on fire at work but with that responsibility comes a lot of people relying on me the pay structure there's first person when you get like 6 grand for a 6 rounder or something and it's just like here you go it's not that anymore it's they get paid and then it's them over there on the way down the belts take their little but that's just but I'm glad that that whole trickle down happens I'm happy with what I get that's what I negotiate I don't negotiate the growth what I'm getting that's what I care about everyone else chop it up as you please but I'm just glad I'm in a position now where I'm sort of helping provide for people that have helped me for so long and maybe helping a couple of fights like this keep going then change everyone's life around me to be honest how do you keep that because when you start doing well the leeches pop out from everywhere do you become kind of a loner where you be careful who to trust definitely it's easy for people to you know want to sniff around you for the wrong reasons but you seem as if you know your energies and that who to fucking kick off and fuck off straight away do you know what it is I'm not like I'm very civil and I'm very like social when I want to be but I'm not easy access like the very few people know how to pull up to my house and I mean they don't know the directions they don't know what area it is they don't know the postcode very few people I would have around my kids very few people I would go and check up on them a lot of friends you have you've seen when you're outside already I've got a lot of very good friends like that some of them they do they break into like you're in a circle but I just don't give that much opportunity I haven't got much of a soft beddy on show like it's not I get money you probably do get a few people I might like you for the wrong reasons but if you trace you know my Instagram pictures from now to six seven years ago five years ago especially you've seen all the same faces before maybe I was while champion earning XYZ and being able to go out and do whatever and people ask me whatever whatever the reason someone might want to leech off me be yeah or leech off me I've got the same people around me that have for years ever since I've been in Sheffield really I've been sort of running with the same sort of click yeah how did your relationship with London start you seem very close a big London man how did that relationship because he's always got your back he's always at your face we're genuinely like kind of best friends obviously we don't live in each other city so we're not every day checking up on each other but we speak every week definitely most days phone call I spoke to him last night at like two o'clock in the morning was having a buzz do you know what I mean we met originally in the ABA he's about 2014 he was in him my brother was in him I weren't I was too young chatted then then was on GB together like just met then on GB and you know when you're just similar energy similar vibes I like GB I'll be real yeah when I was on the development squad so that's every other weekend you go Thursday to Sunday I think it's different now every other weekend I like that I like the lads that we got on with like some of the lads just to name those Felix Cash, Dalton Smith, Lyndon Arthur there's a few more there is a lot more I don't want to be just sitting and listening but that little squad was wicked we had a right good laugh it was proper like everyone got on yeah it was good crap when I went to the podium you know because I just sort of jumped on all these lads I've been on for five years most of them were my brother's friends and I'm sort of the mouthy little annoying brother that just popped on like Jack Bateson fun enough I didn't even like me when I first got on because something that happened previous but now we're good good friends actually yeah it just I actually did like GB at once from the time but then I think it was a full time as well I liked my own coach I liked my own Grant who I'm still with now like I doesn't know working with one person who has their heart like into you into your career when they're doing your corner you're their fighter they want you to do better versus someone that's part of a coaching staff 10 12 coaches maybe even more they're having debriefing meetings how they can do things there's no like the difference the emotions taken out of it you'll go to Poland or wherever people are going the corner won't even be caring if you're winning I can't have that energy around me because I won't thrive in that I need passion I need dedication I went from my dad's steering my career making sure we was in his eyes always in the best place with the best coach and then Grant who's kind of the same he's also a boxing coach but he's a boxing dad as well Dalton Smith obviously being his son so he understood it he understood what I needed and more than anything I just need to make sure I had someone in my life in my coach and that was on it you know organized didn't drop the ball because then I haven't got to worry about all the I'm making sure my sparring is going to be there where am I training or when am I training you know just having someone that it's all just done professionally as if they're running a business that's what I needed because I had that with my dad and I went up somewhere else and I didn't have that it was a bit more all over the place I'm not training might not be there go to everyone get to the track at 8 o'clock in the morning half an hour late to finally get all the training I'll go online just go for a steady I had that as well in the beginning of my pro career so I just think I found a good structure a lane I don't do too much I'm not out here killing myself or torturing myself I have hard sessions but I'm listening to my body I know when I'm fit I'm sparring a lot I'm learning I'm developing my IQ I'm helping the other boys I'm trying to see how other problems get solved I'm really trying to expand the encyclopedia of boxing in my head with everything for the managing with the training with the promotion with the punditry the commentary I'm doing all of this concurrently like I said before but just because I know that every sort of layer of better understanding I'm getting better as a fighter You made the headlines last week you were fainting a troll which is how did that come about James do you know what it's a mad one because like obviously we deal with him all the time most things like you don't even take him seriously I might reply to a few but like I said before it's just content they're the content creators I'm a tennis player because nothing will ever get past me because I don't actually care enough I'm not even trying to keep my name relevant it's not even really about that but if they're going to be just chatting shit to me I want the final say I'm going to put my little full stop on it and now everyone's laughing because you're on my timeline anyway you know what I mean like you're a fake accountant I've got 50,000 people half of them probably like me so now it's like I was never I always had friends but you know there was that public kid at school that could run any joke say anything and they would all be up in arms and you'd be looking at her thinking he's not even funny I've just made like a proper joke I do it everything got a couple of ha ha but he just said some dumb shit but I kind of get that on Twitter now I'm kind of like the fuck with the kid if I say something on my timeline so it's just that really it's just like shits and giggles but that troll so I imagine yeah James for three months every single day 10 probably tweets a day at least five someone messaging you like long ones kind of half broken English they're going to come they're going to spy Darren Till as well I said that's what you should let Joe come out just calling out his people right didn't take it seriously a couple of times I do with these people just to stop them tweeting I go ah come to the gym tomorrow there's a sparring session send a postcode and they never turn up obviously yeah the first time he said oh no I need some training that's what he said okay and I just ignored him for about three weeks then he started hounding me again yeah and I'm like look I'm sparring Friday calm down I'll pay for your your accommodation I'll pay for your train ticket I'll take you out for food after and you know I mean just to try and get off my bat more than anything I mean yeah and if he was hell bent that he was coming then fair enough come to my box with you I'm not like I don't care people come to my box with you all the time um anyway so Friday come he didn't come he said he was ill um Saturday I'll wake up my day off I've got my kids wake up and at one point in the morning I'm seeing a picture from this account yeah Lincoln uh train station on the platform I have been from London to Sheffield countless times I was based here I went Union Sheffield as you can imagine GB whatever millions of times yeah I have never ever past gone collect the 200 pound that Lincoln ever I've never seen it so when I seen that I like 11 30 I just ignored it if he not he's just popping off making that he's on the way to Sheffield about an hour and a half late I've just settled down with my kids and I see a selfie with this kid and he's in my gym car park from London he's traveled all the way and he stood in my gym car park here and at this point he's putting on there and I've not seen it for like half an hour so he stood there like 11 for half an hour not getting no reply so I've ghosted in his eyes yeah I've really just been driving back my kids from picking them up from their mom you know what I mean yeah and I seen these then I thought now this kid's having me on yeah I was like I replied and I was like I've got my kids in the environment so Lincoln and I thought fuck it I just put into the group chat I'll go down to the gym right now meet me there boys, few boys went there just obviously one could open up and then they could have the kids and that and he was there and to be fair to him he wasn't unpleasant it was a bit it was a bit mad but obviously anyone that travels for hours uninvited and then starts putting on what he was saying so this is what he was saying he was going £50 so one of his lovers got Sonny as his address if he doesn't turn up to the gym so my head's kind of gone James don't get me wrong and it could be the person it is but it could be like 10 people it could be like whatever you actually don't know I don't care because humans don't fear me yeah of course but humans by nature don't fear me they don't scare me like so I've got the thing kids in the car I went down I said he was alright but yeah when he said that about my address and he said that if I'm not there between 11 and 12 whatever he said he's going to walk the whole of Sheffield screaming Sonny Edwards as a coward yeah what am I actually supposed to do at this point am I just supposed to ignore it am I just meant to block him someone has physically shown that they are willing to travel 4 hours from London to Sheffield to see me I might as well deal with this now he's talking about my address and that but I don't know what level of this could get to so I went down there and I was agitated and I wanted him to feel that I was agitated I pulled into the car park jumped out of the car you and Jim know and I didn't know what to do it was I'm going to know and I'm going to know I didn't want it I didn't need it I didn't want to have guard I was going to take all mine off to Matt Jimmy he said no no you keep yours and I was like I had my head guard off he couldn't fight touched him a couple of times and I wanted him to take one shot and quit when I realised he wasn't going to do that I thought I let me tire him out let me scare him into being tired let me faint and make out I'm about to do loads of things and make his breathing just not be able to recover and then what happened was he did keep trying to keep throwing big shots so when I made him miss with that last few I hit him with that left hook I wanted a big shot with a slap look how I started he's starting it I think I went this this this and I started over here and I stopped and I just went that's what it was but it probably had a bit more velocity but it was like a little and that's when he decided to fuck us and then he went do you know what it is though why I think that's gone positively is because everyone that's in the public eye especially like fighters, athletes football managers anything they have to deal with the constant opinion the bombardment of opinion and when you're in like as a UFC fighter or your boxer the opinion isn't oh well you can't kick a ball properly or you're fucking unfit or whatever it's oh yeah you're a bomb you'll get knocked out you ain't got no chin like sorry my 17 years of boxing now and you're going to be just calling me that like for some people it's affecting them for me it's not because I think I think Wiley said it best is what Twitter is a playground for the idiots I mean and genuinely I believe that like the biggest idiots are the loudest ones in the room but it's a great resource and a great tool to spread and to get information out there quickly it's the best social media I think for that but yeah so I've just got to put up with this all the time with just people bombarding me turning up to my gym like I'm a normal human being I'm a normal human being the same way and yeah maybe I shouldn't have hit him at all I didn't hurt him I didn't hurt him everyone knows I didn't hurt him I didn't even put him down I made sure I didn't put him down I just kind of really wanted to oblige his wish like he really more than anything wanted to get in with me fine that's not that hard to organize you know what I mean but I kind of just wanted to highlight the difference but mind I am a 5 foot 3 and 3 quarters depending on who you're asking non-punching flyweight boxer right so as you've done the grand scheme of things I'm probably one of the the least intimidating or physically threatening or capable boxers that this country has okay I'm very good but like that and that was at 20% 30% and okay yeah he didn't seem like much up to much okay yes I'm granted there's definitely 101,000 on London right now that can probably fight more than he could I'm not suggesting but what I'm saying is do you know once I've spent 17 years doing this range watching you're about to fire shot seeing that you go and now I know a shot probably coming from 17 years of that James of fighting of being in a ring of competing outside of that running so my fitness is good training press ups all of that yeah but people genuinely walk this up leaving their physical prowess to a great deal because they even watch boxing hit a couple of bags maybe had a straight number for and laid someone out they will genuinely like look at a box that maybe lost a couple of times and think oh I'd have it of him like and the level of delusion like is ridiculous and okay I had the same level of delusion playing poker one of the boys shout out was that Brandon Williams house to shout out Brandon Williams one of the boys thought they could beat with his strong foot Brandon shoot out with his weak foot this kid can barely kick a ball with any foot barely throw a ball into a net yeah he's not a footballer but he's convinced that I'll bet you're left foot how many times you keep your left foot he's a professional footballer that's been doing this and yes he can keep the ball with his left foot and his right foot you know what I mean but that level of delusion but that level of delusion would get him on to a football pitch and then everyone laughs at him when he faces every penalty and whatnot but the level of delusion that you show whether you're physically challenging or I don't know AJ getting heckled or cat-called out of the university window like okay it's not right for any human and boxers probably should understand discipline to know their physical prowess and know the dangers that come with it yes but you're still dealing with humans that have breaking points and breaking points so if you're picking a boxer to be the person that you're you know antagonising or jujitsu I don't know how the thing is or MMA fight or any other sort of discipline where you train yourself every day to be a fighting machine if you're outside of that demographic of people like I wouldn't even believe in my fighting skills at all if there's people out here that are dedicating their whole life to it like yeah maybe I'm a bit tough maybe I can fight a shot but I wouldn't try to fight no one there's people out here that can literally put you to sleep there's people that can wrap you up like they're switch your lights off if you're in a night club thinking you're big big big big bollocks like I think it's mad like I genuinely think it's mad I don't like fights I don't like physical confrontation the boxing gym or anything I believe that jewels should be allowed even this day and age I think if two men want to have a straightener or two people want to have a straightener we live in an equal world two women want to have a straightener of each other I wouldn't like the cross ones but I believe in jewels fair play something like that spars what I don't believe in is advantages sneaking up on someone hitting them over the head in the bottom of the night club all the scummy shit I feel like maybe if there was some sort of way that when people have real disagreements all right let's go to the town hall and have a spot what could you imagine? shake hands because after you had a fight with someone no matter what there's some respect like and because I have existed from nine years old in most of my social groups for a long period of time it was at school it was at boxing anytime I had the boxing one like you can usually kind of settle it you know what I mean in a roundabout way like especially if they're near enough usually people would fall out with boxing anyway like you can settle it so it's hard for a boxer to not be able to do anything about anything Anthony Joshua getting shouted at glass chin for a window it's hard for him that he can't do nothing because they're human in him like you see if I came in disrespected you James and just said like I don't know so I'm mad shit that you didn't even know that I would even have access to triggering you with you don't want to slap me in the face you don't want to hit me you don't want to fucking strangle me you're talking to you cheeky little prick but why is it because someone's a boxer that they have to lose that yeah we should lose it we should we should not get drawn out we should not risk our careers but we are still human and like people think that but it's mad it's mad like how it juxtaposes for when they want to say it because all of a sudden yeah I've always been that anyone could beat me up I get beaten up in on the street by anyone that's a regular sized human I can't punch I can't do this but then you probably have them same people that I was watching that video going I can't believe a professional boxer has even got in the ring with someone that's never had fighting experience hold on which one is it am I everyone can anyone walk down the street and put me in a headlock and put me in a bin or am I fucking dangerous to everyone which one is it with you lot because we're all humans or now when it suits you oh my hands are dangerous weapons when it suits you but it's not when you're commenting on my fights and saying I couldn't put a fucking the same man to sleep do you know what I mean which one is it and because you can't win and every time you get to anything I think especially as like a public like when there's opinion there will always be both sides of the opinion no matter what you do James I could cure cancer tomorrow and I guarantee someone will be like why didn't you do it yesterday my auntie died but that's just the way it is that's the way of the world everybody's got an opinion it's like people fucking walking on water those seats because they can't swim it's just the way it is your mum and that must be proud of you know everything you've accomplished and where you've came from to what you're doing now like one of the best boxers in Britain at the moment like it's unbelievable what you're doing in 18 and 0 and just I believe you're going to strive more for greatness but with your mindset that's why these interviews are powerful because people get a better understanding of you because there's more layers to you than people who see on Twitter people who might not watch boxing but they'll still follow you on online because of the back and forth you have like people get a better understanding you know what he's fucking very grounded you're spot on like for 26 years old your mindset's you're bang on it man I can see that I'm everything to do with energies and frequencies and if you're a lot of people but I can see that you've got something special your mum and that must be proud of everything you've accomplished if it was up to my mum we would never have had a pair of boxing gloves on our hands so I would love obviously she's not been well for a period of time the mum I've got now isn't the mum I grew up with in that sense but yeah she'd be proud of me achieving everything I wanted to achieve and she is proud but you know it's incomparable me I remember the first time she met Bobby my youngest son it was the same journey my world title came down I put them both there what do you think she's looking at like it's worlds apart like boxing to her that IBF belt could be an international it could be a British title it could be a fucking masters boxing to her I'll be real never did never meant anything if anything she didn't want us to do it I used to fight say Liverpool come back with the belt the trophy I was a winner medal, certificate, everything oh mum watch it don't watch it get her on I've won sitting there crying couldn't watch her kids fight didn't like it hated it so yeah I would love to say that my boxing made my mum proud I think me being a dad me being a good one would make her a lot prouder I think me being happy me somehow paving out a way where I've not had to call no one boss my whole life I don't come from money I don't have mysterious benefactors when I came back from Spain for a year I lived in a old care home that was waiting to get pulled down, shared with about 7 or 8 slightly odd different individuals had my own 2 little rooms £190 a month had to pay for my own internet shared kitchen that was my first year second year as a pro professional boxer living up in Sheffield 30-40 minutes away from the gym I was getting bosses I struggled like genuinely I could guarantee I'm going to try and find it just for every reason just make me think of it I'm going to try and find a little video that will show you how I lived in about 10-15 seconds and you tell me the fighters that would have left the fucking luxury apartment in Marbeiro yeah and moved into this fucking old care home that had insects coming out of everywhere fucking single glazed windows fucking them little silver things like a madness but I lived there for a year just to set up and be where I needed to be for my boxing at 21 years old I was going to a place I couldn't even bring girls unless I had known them for more than 3 years I couldn't bring a new girl there I had to know me, I had a tapestry hanging up on the finger to block that place actually because of where I put my belt and me being stupid that actually faded off my belt, my ABA belt it faded the top half and the bottom half and I gave it to Grant and it's just like somehow that's symbolic to me I don't know what it means but it's like the transition it's like the grayish red to the bright red at the bottom give it to him, it's in this office now that place there I couldn't tell you the people that would live there I would not be able to tell you fighters that would live there and I lived there calm, 190 pound a month my bills all in where do you go for the future brother, what's the plans? the world moon stars above it I think it's all over my reach I think my potential my achievements that I can reach are all laid out right in front of me I think all I've got to do is perform I think I've managed to captivate an audience to a slight position where even with losses, bad performances I think I'll still have a name but that's not in my thinking I think genuinely, genuinely I beat Martinez, I think I make the fight with Ban Rodriguez, whether it's after or next that's a massive fight and then I go to Japan and try and fight Nakatani on New Year's he's number one but I don't know how, if I'm honest he's not for no one, he's for a couple of decent no world champions I beat the number one who'd been number one for well over a year was made number two Martinez was number one Nakatani was number three, I've then defended it twice and at some point I got dropped to three and at some point Martinez I think when he lost to Roman Gonzalez then got dropped to number two so it's all a bit over the place at the moment and it's all number one, number two, number three I don't really think you can be pulling us apart I'm the only one I think that's beat a world champion for anybody that's watching that's maybe struggling right now in life what advice would you have for them? that's not as tough as it seems it's the toughest thing in the world but it's never as tough as it seems I think at any given time something can be the best or worst and because you only have one mindset at the time it's very easy to get so engulfed and encapsulated into one event, one series of unfortunate ones like it's so easy to let one new thing happen take over your life and I think it's very important to to remind yourself that how long you've spent becoming the person you are can't be rid of by just one thing, two things three things we are just lost souls trying to find it through this walk of life yeah, don't be too hard on yourself I think it's just people get caught up the reason why it sounds so specific is because there's things and conversations going on right now there's something in the air James something in the last week, two weeks I don't know if it's just me a lot of mad things have been going on in people's lives like quite just uncharacter things I think it's been a bit of a mad one recently why that is I don't know, maybe it's just me and what the conversation I've been having but yeah, I think if you make mistakes in the season of the hot weather climate change just do better and be better don't beat yourself up coming on a day brother, I'm telling you a story I thoroughly enjoyed that world class fight I look forward to seeing what you do in the future I hope you can shine even more God bless you brother