WONDERLAND
In the second instalment of a monthly series, Ian Probert continues to follow cruiserweight James Branch as he makes the transition from amateur to professional boxing. This time, as the prospect enjoys his winning debut, we discover the only pressures ar
IT’S WEIRD BECAUSE THE GLOVES ARE SMALLER AND THE HANDS ARE REALLY TAPED UP. THEY’RE LIKE TWO ROCKS”
WITH three days to go until he makes his professional debut James Branch is decidedly unconcerned about the prospect of stripping down to his shorts and showing everyone what he’s made of. “I dunno,” he shrugs, when I ask the young cruiserweight if he knows who he’s fighting. “I don’t care really.”
We’re in London’s five-star Landmark hotel, the venue for the final press conference before the commencement of June 23’s proceedings. Already the young man’s presence is not quite as anonymous as it was when we met a few weeks earlier. As reporters mill around sipping tea and chewing the cud, James is approached by television presenter and writer Steve Bunce. Later he gives his second video interview with IFL TV’S Kugan Cassius. But I’m still genuinely concerned about his indifference to his upcoming challenge.
“If it was me I’d be looking up his fights on Youtube and finding out as much as I can about him,” I say.
“You don’t understand,” he replies. “I’ve been here so many times before as an amateur. I don’t need to know the name of my opponent.”
At the O2 Arena the following Saturday James’ insouciance proves to be entirely warranted. A four-round stroll with an indifferent opponent named Kevin Williams gives everyone what they want: James is able to start up his motor and put a ‘W’ on his resumé without ever leaving first gear; promoter Frank Warren is no doubt happy to see the cotton wool removed from his latest investment; and James’ small group of supporters get to exercise their vocal chords with a rousing chorus of ‘Walking in a Branchey wonderland.’
“I heard the singing before I came out,” says James. “It didn’t even seem real. You hear that song on the telly. I still remember the exact moment – I was down in the tunnel waiting to walk into the ring and I could hear them chanting. It hit me: ‘Wow! These people are singing for me!’”
A loss of course would have been unthinkable. Calamitous. There is not a single person in the arena who does not understand this. Branch is well aware that he is following a tradition long established in boxing. For the next year or so it’s the phoney war for him. The men he will be sharing a ring with are simply there for padding and experience. The harder battles are some way down the line.
“I didn’t have a mark on me,” James tells me a week or so later when he returns from a Greek holiday and I ask him how the experience differed from his amateur days.
“It feels the same,” he says. “It’s weird because the gloves are smaller. They were 10oz gloves. And the hands are really wrapped. They’re all taped up. They’re like two rocks before they even go in the gloves. And the gloves are so small. I was struggling to get my hands in the gloves. They were nice. They were lovely and comfortable. It was all very surreal.
“After the fight I said to my opponent: ‘You’re all right’. He said to me: ‘Well done’. He was a nice man. He seemed a very respectful man so it was good. And his trainer told me that I’m going to cause a lot of problems for other fighters.”
In the build-up to the fight James also had his first experience of singing for his supper. Like all novice fighters he is expected to demonstrate his box-office appeal by selling tickets to the fight.
“The more tickets you sell the better it looks for you as a fighter,” he says. “Boxing’s a business and a promoter wants a fighter who can sell tickets because that’s more money for them.” How many tickets is he expected to sell? “You choose how many tickets you want. I think on average boxers get given just under a hundred. Selling tickets is hard because it’s people’s money that they’ve worked hard for. Not everyone is blessed to have a lot of money. It’s difficult.
“I sell tickets on Twitter…instagram… Facebook… All forms of social media. My friends… My family… And then they sell them to their mates. It pays to have lots of friends. I think I sold just under 200.” Does this mean that if you don’t sell tickets you won’t get paid? “No I would still get paid,” explains the boxer. “If you sell tickets you get a percentage. As your profile gets bigger people will start coming up to you to buy tickets. I don’t think you ever stop being given tickets to sell but it becomes less of a priority the bigger you are.” The young fighter’s debut, however, came not completely without mishap. For a boxer turning pro it is often essential that they find sponsors in order to supplement their income. On the sparkling pair of gold shorts that James had custom made to announce his arrival in the paid ranks there was one important omission. Somehow he had forgotten to include the name of one of his major benefactors. “Basically Ringside Boxing have sponsored me,” he says. “It’s a funny one because I was wearing their gloves but I just didn’t have their logo on the shorts. It was a bit of a miscommunication because a couple of days before the fight it just passed me by. “I’m gonna ring them up and apologise. I’ve known the owner for two years. It was a genuine accident.” James is due to make his second appearance in the ring on September 15 at the O2. Once more the name of the opponent is largely irrelevant to him because James is too busy reliving an experience he has waited a lifetime for. And already it has brought with it a small taste of fame. “Since the fight I’ve had quite a lot of attention,” he says. “I was even in Rhodes airport and had a couple of people come up to me. Someone even Tweeted ‘I’ve just seen James Branch’. “We’re getting there.”