WILLY HUTCHINSON, one of Scotland’s most promising young boxers, will make his professional debut on Friday under the watchful eye of former WBA heavyweight champion of the world, David Haye.
Hutchison will take on Attila Tibor Nagy from Hungary at Indigo in the O2 Arena in London and considering his pedigree, much is expected of the 19 year-old from Carstairs, Lanark.
He is Scotland’s most successful amateur boxer having won European Junior gold in 2014 before following that up by becoming World Amateur champion last year, becoming the first Scot ever to win a world amateur title.
Hutchinson’s stellar accomplishments caught the eye of Haye who, after setting up his own management company Hayemaker Ringstar with world-renowned promoter, Richard Schaefer, signed the Scottish teenager earlier this summer. Hutchinson relocated to London and so is now training alongside Haye, as well as lauded Cuban trainer, Ismael Salas, who has worked with a number of world champions in the past. The experience of training day in, day out alongside someone of the calibre of Haye has, reveals Hutchinson, been quite an experience and has done great things for his boxing. “Iron sharpens iron, doesn’t it? When you’re with a world champion, you watch and you learn,” Hutchinson said. “Training alongside David has been really good- I’m eating clean, training hard and staying focused for Friday. I wanted to sign firstly because of David, because he’s knows what it’s all about to be a champion. He’s got the experience of being a boxer and he knows what a boxer goes through. And then Richard Schaefer is one of the greatest promoters there is so the combination of the two is fantastic – I don’t think there’s a better team to be involved with. They’re the biggest in the game and so the fact that they’ve chosen me to sign, it’s a great thing.”
Hutchinson has not fought since winning the world amateur title in Russia eleven months ago but rather than his competitive lay-off serving to increase his anxiety levels, it has given him the time to comfortably make the transition from the amateur game to the pro ranks. However, Hutchinson is confident that he is ready and so his preparation, coupled with a few pieces of choice advice from Haye, have left him confident that there will only be one result come Friday. “I’m really excited – I can’t wait to get in there,” said Hutchinson. “David’s said a few things to me about my debut – he told me not to get itchy knuckles, which is when you get in the ring and just start swinging. No, you get into the ring, you learn and then you go on to conquer. The advice means even more coming from David because he’s been through it all himself. So on Friday, I’ll be ready, I’ll stay focused and I’ll get the job done, it’s as simple as that – I’m very confident I’ll get the win.”
Hutchinson may still be finding his feet in the pro ranks but he is confident that his future is bright and the teenager has no limits to his ambition. “I want to become either the best Scotland has ever had or one of the best,” he said. “I want to be remembered not only in Scotland though, I want to be remembered throughout Britain and the world- I’m not here just to be ordinary, I’m here to be a great. I’m still only young though, so I’ll just take things fight by fight. I’m going to keep my head down and keep learning and if I do that, the world is my oyster.”
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