IN professional boxing, an efficient administrator can be as important as a good trainer. For every fight that is made and every belt competed for, there are dozens more that end up re-arranged at short notice or fall through entirely.
It is the frustrating, mostly unseen side of the sport that can see hopes and dreams evaporate with the flick of a pen or the beep of a text message. Boxers can toil for hours in the gym to be ready for their big moment only for events outwith their control to dash their aspirations.
“If you’re not directly involved in boxing you probably don’t know how it works,” explains Jordan McCorry, a seven-year veteran of the professional game. “People just think you can ask to fight someone and it happens.
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“But there are so many other factors; it needs to go through the board [British Boxing Board of Control] and get sanctioned by this person or that person. You can be waiting for ages and nothing really seems to be happening and that’s frustrating.
“You try not to think too much about that side of things but sometimes, to get in the right mindset, you need something to focus on. A date, a title, or the name of your opponent. It’s quite hard to train if you don’t have the motivation of a target to aim for.”
McCorry has been through all that but, barring any last-minute hitches, will finally get his moment on Saturday when he steps into the ring in Leicester to challenge unbeaten Sam Bowen for his British super-featherweight title. The fight will be broadcast on BT Sports and McCorry, from Cambuslang, knows he needs to make the most of the opportunity.
“It’s been a long time coming,” adds the 28 year-old with the 17-4-1 record. “I was supposed to have fought for it last year but it never happened. So it’s good to finally get a chance to fight for the British title.
“I only heard about the chance to replace the previous challenger a few weeks ago but you just have to take these opportunities when they arise. If you don’t take a fight like this you’ll never know what you can achieve. It will be the biggest fight of my career so far.
“Winning the British title was always one of my long-term goals. You need to get to a certain level and then fight in eliminators but twice I’ve had opponents pull out at that stage. But now I’m getting my shot.
“There’s a lot of pressure with it being for a British title and on television – you don’t want to let anyone down. But it’s also a stage to catapult your career forward with everyone watching. If I can win this then it hopefully opens up a lot more doors for me in the future.”
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With his pedigree and 14-0 undefeated record, Bowen has struggled to find an opponent willing to step in to the ring with him. McCorry, though, has no fears.
“Don’t get me wrong – he’s a good boxer and big and strong for the weight [9st3]. But everyone is beatable. Unless you’re Floyd Mayweather but that’s a whole different level. Bowen won the British title but hasn’t really fought anyone that great since. So it might just be a lot of hype. We’ll find out on the night.”
McCorry could have taken a different path entirely. A former pro youth prospect with Motherwell, he had to decide between football and boxing and plumped for the latter. It has meant combining training with his day job as a groundworker but he has no regrets.
“I started boxing when I was about 15,” he recalls. “My mum sent me to try to toughen me up a bit to help my football career as I was pro youth at the time.
“I got to a certain stage when the two sports were intertwining and I couldn’t do both. I preferred boxing so I decided to go with that and I’m happy that I did.
“You can score a hat-trick at football but it’s still not as good as when you win a fight and they call out your name. There’s no better feeling than that.”
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