If you take a stroll across the beach in the seaside town of Redcar, it is impossible to ignore the coke ovens and conveyor belts (amongst other industrial structures) that dominate the backdrop of an area famous for its steel production. But where the flame has all but gone out in the region's industry, there is still a steely desire and an ambition that burns bright within the soul of professional boxer and another of the town's products, Tom Hill.
The welterweight nicknamed 'One Bomb' is eager to take the next step in his burgeoning career and has landed an opportunity to showcase his boxing prowess on MTK Global's October 18th show against Lancashire's unbeaten prospect Jack Rafferty (12-0) on a card which also features Commonwealth and European flyweight champion Jay Harris.
The North East man-whose brother Joe also fights professionally-hopes to improve his current record of 9-1 and despite the fact he is likely to start as underdog, he insists he didn't need any coercing when it came to accepting the challenge, "I got the phone call from my manager on the Friday and I accepted it there and then, I didn't have to think about it, it's the opportunity I've been waiting for, people aren't getting on shows at the minute, there's no chances. These are the kinds of fights where you want to fight somebody decent rather than boxing, no disrespect to them, but journeymen. They are no good to me, you can create bad habits by boxing journeymen, someone who doesn't want to throw back is not going to cause you any problems are they? Whereas fighting someone decent, it can be a good win on your record and you're going to go places, aren't you? It's the quickest way to move up the ladder."
The fight promises to be a well matched affair, a feature of MTK's shows during the period of behind closed doors events, and Hill emphasised the need for the competitive match making trend to continue, citing MMA as an example of a successful template, He said, "It's been good to watch (competitive fights), everyone is so bothered about their '0' and I don't think it is something we should be too worried about, we should look more at MMA, losing doesn't mean anything, in boxing it ends you if you take a couple of losses. I don't think it means a great deal does it? styles make fights, you get beat by one man, then you go and beat the man that beat him, it's just the way it works."
The 25-year-old has one loss on his record, a defeat to Ellis Corrie and has since tried to avenge the solitary defeat by actively pursuing a rematch. Although it hasn't materialised, he refuses to allow it to define or negatively shape his career and in spite of having only a four week camp, he always searches for the positives, adding, "I'm over the moon with preparations to be honest, I've had around four weeks to prepare by the time it gets to fight night, so it is a shorter training camp than I'm used to but it's better to be under trained than over trained, when you over train, your body is no good, but it feels fresh at the minute so I'm happy."
Hill has also had to return to work recently after being furloughed in his job as a scaffolder, an ironic turn of events, given that he has had a prolonged period of time off work and now-when he is looking to commit to preparing for his huge opportunity-he has to juggle the two. It is a familiar tale for professional boxers up and down the country and even though his current regime sees him up early for training, then going to work before making the 40-plus minute journey to train once again afterwards, I can almost sense the metaphorical shrug of the shoulders and the untroubled demeanor as he refuses to lament the situation he finds himself in. "I went back to work just before I was given this opportunity, so it's not the best obviously being at work, but it can be done, you've got plenty of time in a day, I just train before I go to work and then when I get home I go to Peterlee and train up there, so it can be done."
The single-mindedness and commitment is indicative of a fighter who recognises when the time is right to seize his chance, but boxing is a team sport and praise should also be apportioned to David Binns and the team at EDC (East Durham College) Boxing, who no matter what is happening, always keep their fighters ready and available.
A win for Hill would be yet another scalp for an increasingly impressive army of fighters emerging from the North East boxing scene, with his fight coming just a day after Newcastle's Lewis Ritson-a sparring partner for Hill-fights Miguel Vazquez for the WBA Inter-Continental super lightweight title, with Hartlepool's Savannah Marshall also fighting for the WBO middleweight title against Scotland's Hannah Rankin on the same card. With the likes of Joe Maphosa, Joseph Laws, and Josh Kelly also flying the flag, the welterweight from Redcar believes the success within the area is helping to encourage and inspire one another, but is wiley enough to acknowledge that, as well as serving as motivation, the sparring could prove beneficial in the future. "There's some very good kids in the North East at the minute to be fair, I think there's a big future for North East boxing. We had Lewis Ritson down on Thursday, we've had sparring with Joe Laws and his team and we've also had sparring sessions with MTK Newcastle Gym, we have had sparring with everybody in the area. You can all help each other progress, but at the same point, your paths may cross also."
On the subject of sparring, I enquired as to whether he spars his older brother Joe (also a welterweight). It was met with a lingering pause, followed by a little chuckle, that told me that he was about to diplomatically explain the reasons behind why it doesn't happen regularly. "Erm, not a great deal." was the initial offering, but instead of waiting for intriguing tales of slugfests, normally confined to the secrecy of the gym, I eagerly interjected and asked if the sessions were too intense, (I knew he was too classy to divulge in great detail). Still laughing slightly, he continued, "We get a little bit involved, we like a bit of a fight too much so it's normally not the best idea, we have ended up rolling around on the floor a few times so unless I'm going to do MMA then it is the wrong type of sparring for me at the minute."
Being a welterweight who stands at 6ft 1, Tom Hill will definitely pose problems that Rafferty is unlikely to have encountered during his career to date, and although the physical advantages in terms of height and reach are obvious, it doesn't necessarily mean that he will fight a long fight, it will be more a case of judging when to box and when to trade, there are plenty of boxers past and present who have proved that long levers mean they can bang at close quarters. Talking tactics Hill told me, "I mean you use what you've got don't you? ideally I should be sticking to my boxing, but I feel comfortable on the inside so, it depends how I find it on the night, if I'm finding it easy at range I might stick to it, on the other hand I might kick into gear if I get hit with a shot and might want to fight on the inside, so who knows?"
"I'm not too concerned about what he is going to do, I've seen little bits of his fights on YouTube, but you can't read too much into it. I will just be concentrating on what I need to do."
Being so tall, you would imagine that making the welterweight limit of 147lbs would be difficult for 'One Bomb', but he appears to have no such worries, this despite the fact that he jokingly admitted that he "Could murder a Lemon-Top right now". For those who are unaware, Redcar is home of The Lemon-Top, Vanilla Ice Cream in a cone or tub with a scoop of Pacittos lemon sorbet ice on top. However, the briefly jovial feel of the conversation soon sharpened back into focus with Hill turning his attention to the task ahead and he unequivocally outlined his intentions and reiterated the reason behind his involvement in the sport. "To win titles, that's all I have ever wanted and it is still exactly the same now, I want to win titles domestically and move on to the bigger titles in the future but you have got to hit every goal along the way haven't you? so we are just focusing on the domestic titles at the moment and we will move on after that."
Comments