McLevy: I want to be British No.1

Chris Hanlon • Published 20 Jan 2010 13:00 0 Comments

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Clydebank boxer Jamie McLevy, 24, is stepping up his training regime in preparation for what he admits will be the biggest fight of his life.

He will be fighting live in front of the Sky Sports cameras at the the Bellahouston Leisure Centre on Friday January 29.

The main fight of the night is the Commonwealth Lightweight Championship between Aberdeeen's Lee McAllister and Samuel Amoako of Ghana, but the undercard features no less than four Bankie boxers.

Jamie takes on Kevin McCauley of Stourbridge at light-middleweight in his sixth fight since turning professional after a highly successful career as an amateur.

Jamie will go into the fight brimmimg with confidence after recently winning the St Andrew's Sporting Club boxer of the year, chosen by legendary boxing promoter Tommy Gilmour for the best performing Scottish fighter over the last year.

And there can be no debate that Jamie's pro career has got off to an almost flawless start, winning all five of his fights, two by knockout, and already reaching a ranking of 40th in Britain.

Jamie said: "It was a real honour to win Tommy Gilmour's award, especially as I have only been fighting pro for one season."

Jamie last week stepped up his preparation by beginning sparring sessions with fellow Bankie Gary McArthur, who takes on Ryan Barrett of Thamesmead in the same night.

Jamie said: "The training gets more intense the closer the fight comes.

"I am a training to be a fitness instructor so I train hard almost all the time anyway.

"But with a fight coming up I will go for a six to eight-mile run every morning. Then we do speed and pad work in the evenings and then step it up to sparring.

"The sparring with Gary went well. We did five rounds of good speed work.

"There is a friendly rivalry between myself and Gary as we have known each other since we were wee boys, and Gary beat me when we fought as amateurs.

"With sparring though, we are not really trying to catch each other with big punches because we obviously don't want to injure each other before a big fight.

"We just catch each other and work on our speed and stamina."

Not that Jamie could stand accused of lacking strength and stamina at any time.

As part of his course Jamie undertook an Army endurance test - and beat the Army's own record.

The test was holding a five-kilo medicine ball in front of your chest for as long as possible and Jamie managed four minutes and 46 seconds, a figure untouched by even the military men themselves.

The army tried to recruit Jamie on the spot, but he said he was far happier continuing his career as a boxer.

Jamie says he is excited but not daunted by what he admits is the biggest fight of his life on the horizon.

He said: "It is a massive fight, the biggest of my career and I have never boxed in front of the cameras before, but I don't think it brings any extra pressure.

"I won't even notice the cameras, I will be too busy trying to avoid punches and landing shots myself."

Jamie admitted that he didn't even know the name of his opponent yet, because they are often subject to late changes, but said he would find out more closer to the fight.

And Jamie has ambitions to get to the very top of the boxing game.

He said: "I want to win big titles, be British and European champion.

"Obviously, that will all depend on my performances.

"I am already ranked 40th in the UK after just five fights, but I need to get in the top ten to get a pop at the British title."

Fighting for British and European titles is no far-fetched dream for Jamie, he has already done it at amateur level.

He has made the step up from amateur to pro look easy after enjoying a highly successful career in which he was British amateur champion five times.

In fact, Jamie feels he actually robbed of a victory over the amateur world champion.

He said: "I fought the world champion, a German in the final of the European championships and ended up losing by just one point - but I certainly felt that I had done enough to win the fight."

This article appeared in Clydebank Post 20 Jan 10

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