A FAMILY AFFAIR
In the third instalment of a regular series, Ian Probert continues to follow the development of cruiserweight prospect James Branch. Here we meet his father, once a promising young professional himself, to get a bittersweet understanding of Branch’s route
WHEN I WAS 21 STEVE BUNCE USED TO SAY I WAS THE SIX-FOOT-THREE BOLO-PUNCHING PHENOMENON”
JAMES BRANCH has come to see James Branch train. I look on as he ambles through the café area towards the gym. A tall, good looking man with short hair swept to one side. He’s here to see the punches that he was wishes he was still able to throw.
Like his son, James Branch Snr was once a boxer. Almost 30 years ago the ex-fighter was a hotly-tipped prospect who made his winning debut as a light-heavyweight on the Naseem Hamed-manuel Medina undercard in Dublin. But then it all went wrong. In the following fight he could only draw and he would lose his next two before deciding to call it day. But you can see in his eyes that those hopes and aspirations from long ago are not completely forgotten.
“I had almost 90 [amateur] fights and I only lost four,” James Snr tells me later. “So big things were expected of me.
“I turned professional in 1996 with Frank Warren but when I left the Repton Amateur Club I was like a fish out of water. The Repton had been my home all my life. I bled green and gold. I went for a period of six years without being beat.
“Somehow it never materialised. I was expected to win all my fights but it just didn’t happen. After I’d been beaten twice I was only a shell of myself. My confidence was gone and basically I fell out of love with the sport. It killed me inside. From five years of age it had been what I’d been working for. I was in mourning.”
But then another James came along and regret turned into expectation in an unexpected way: “I was 20 when I had James. When I used to change his nappy I used to mess around doing combinations with him,” says James Snr, who now earns a living as a carpenter. “Twitching his little hands so he was double-jabbing. Boxing was still a part of my life so he was always playing with my trophies. My wife Lindsay used to put my fights on and he used to watch me box. There was never a time he wasn’t involved with boxing.”
When James Branch Jnr was eight he followed in his father’s footsteps and joined Repton. From the off, the latent talent in the youngster was obvious to his father. And it wasn’t too long before history began to repeat itself: “His first amateur fight was in Denmark. Funnily enough I went there 15 years earlier and won a gold medal and best boxer of the tournament. James had two fights there and he also won a gold medal and best boxer. How’s that for fate? He emulated exactly what I did.”
The pride that 43-year-old James Snr has for his son is almost palpable. It makes my next question difficult to ask: Does the thought ever strike you, I say, that what happened to you in the pros might happen to him?
“No because he’s got a lot of heads around him,” insists Senior. “When we were in the O2 arena for his debut I was thinking ‘this is deja vu’ because the sort of treatment he got there was what I got in Dublin. James had his own dressing room with his name on the door and I just couldn’t help thinking: ‘This ain’t gonna happen all over again.’”
What would it take for you to tell your son to stop boxing?
“Obviously his health and well-being is a priority for me. Martin Bowers is training him now but I still have an input. We used to spar regularly. The last time was a couple of years ago. He’s a strong kid. He’s as strong as me.” But how far do you honestly think he can go? “I’m his father, right? And I’d say he’s gonna be better than me. James as an amateur could have gone to the pinnacle because it’s only through injury that he didn’t go to the Olympics. I badly wanted him to do it so because I didn’t do it. In the pros you need a bit of luck but I believe he can go all the way. If he takes his time and does things right there’s no reason why he can’t do it. He’s super talented. When someone starts attacking him that’s when you’ll see the best of him.”
But there will inevitably come a time when you will have to sit there and watch somebody hurt your son in the ring. How will you handle that?
“He’s had some tough fights at amateur. When he boxed in the ABAS the ref told me that he’d never seen a kid with two such bad cut eyes. I was thinking that maybe we should pull him out but he managed to get through it. But I knew he was something special. I knew he was fearless and he had it in him. I knew he was a winner.
Do you see James as in some way being a continuation of your own career?
“This is the way I see it: it’s unfinished business. What happened to me happened. I was a failure, When I was 21 years of age Steve Bunce used to say that I was the six-foot-three bolo-punching phenomenon.”
At that moment the latest bolo-punching phenomenon comes and joins. The younger James is all smiles and obviously pleased that his father is getting some long-awaited attention of his own. We head outdoors and I take a few pictures of the happy couple. But the look in the eyes of the older Branch never changes. When he watches his son it’s almost as if he’s looking at himself.
“We train two times a week,” says James Snr, “and I always say to James when we’re training: ‘I’m gonna make a comeback!’ I’m always shadow boxing, even now. I can walk down the road and I slip a punch because it’s in you. On the train I’d be half asleep and go to throw a jab. Once it’s in you, you can’t get it out of you.”