THE positives for Gary Cornish and his camp were two-fold: a victory and an instant realisation that there is still a lot more work to be put in. The Inverness heavyweight took to the ring in Paisley on Saturday night, his first fight since leaving his home town for Glasgow, pairing up with esteemed coach Billy Nelson and signing on with the MTK Scotland management team.
His points decision victory over Kamil Sokolowski following a scrappy, stodgy six-round bout stretches his record to 24-1 and keeps him on the right road ahead of his British title showdown with Sam Sexton at some point before June. Purse bids for that fight are due in by March 7, after which a firm date and venue will be confirmed, with Cornish also pencilled in to fight an as yet unnamed opponent in Glasgow on March 24.
There almost seemed a sense of relief about Cornish as he signed autographs and posed for pictures with a throng of young fans in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s bout at the Lagoon Leisure Centre, an acknowledgement that, while it was important to rack up a victory in his first fight since making those radical lifestyle changes, there will need to be improvements in the weeks ahead.
“I’m definitely a work in progress,” admitted the 29 year-old. “I’ve only been working with Billy for five-and-a-half weeks and this was our first fight together as team. So there’s loads for us to work on. We knew that from the start. But we saw some of the good stuff in round one, I was working off the jab quite nicely. But this is only the start of things for us.
“There was a lot of pressure on me on Saturday. Obviously I’ve signed with a new team, signed up with a new coach, moved away from Inverness and gone full-time. And the pressure of the British title fight is always at the back of your mind as well. Kamil is a tricky customer, too, so to get a win with all that going on felt good.
“I was a bit ring rusty having not been in a fight for eight months. But what we’re going to be working on in the gym is bringing in sparring partners every week. Billy said he’s going to bring big boys in and I’m going to get hurt. And that’s what I want. I don’t want to be boxing people that I’m just going to take their heads off. I want to get in there and work so when the big fights come I’m going to be ready.
“I don’t necessarily have to fight again before the British one as long as I get in loads of sparring as sometimes that is harder than the fights. If I get that I’ll be ready for Sexton. But I’ll leave it to my trainer and manager to decide what’s best. We’ll now see what happens with purse bids and take it from there.”
Promoter Sam Kynoch admitted it was always going to take time for Cornish to get up to the levels eventually expected of him.
"It was good to kick off with a win, which was great in that respect,” he said. “Performance-wise it wasn't his best but that's to be expected with a change of camp. It's a change for the long-term going full-time and you have to get used to that. We had an opponent change in fight week, but these are things you need to be able to handle as a professional boxer. But I'm happy overall. He needs another fight to iron some things out and March 24 gives him time to sort it.”
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