‘Wife’s punches convinced me to become a bareknuckle hero’

RYAN Barrett says a few punches from his missus helped convince him he could fight back from major surgery to become a bareknuckle boxing hero, writes Matt Bozeat.

The 35-year-old from Coalville is going into battle for the British bareknuckle boxing championship next month.

Barrett is challenging Antony Holmes for the cruiserweight belt on Saturday, March 27, his reward for a win last November.

Matty Hodgson was unbeaten until he ran into Barrett. The fight was all over inside a round and Barrett has since revealed he was wearing a colostomy bag when he fought.

The former Marine had his lower bowel removed in 2016, a couple of weeks after his last amateur boxing match.

“Everyone was saying I would never fight again but I always believed I would,” said Barrett.

“I was in hospital after the operation when I started looking into bareknuckle boxing and decided to try it. I researched everything and knew I had to build up my core and train my abs.

“I couldn’t risk getting a hernia from a body punch. That would have been the end.

“I started off with my missus (Lucy Cresswell) hitting me in the body in the back garden. She put me on the floor!

“Once I got used to taking punches with gloves, she started hitting me with bare knuckles until I was ready to test it out at the gym.

“I thought, ‘If I can take a body shot off Neil Linford I can take a body shot off anyone’ and I found out that I could.

“I fight with the colostomy bag tucked into my groin protector and I know my opponents are going to see my body as a weakness.

“Hodgson went for my body and that’s when I caught him with the check left hook.”

That punch dropped Hodgson after only 11 seconds and Barrett later walked him onto a right-hand thunderbolt that ended the fight.

Barrett said: “Matty is known for being durable, but I caught him and put him over and I think if I catch anyone in this, they are going over.

“Because I had a good amateur schooling I know when and how to throw my punches and I’m a big man for the weight.

“I was fighting opponents who were 6ft 7in and 6ft 9in and weighing 17 stones in the amateurs and now I’m fighting lads who are 5ft 9in and 15 stones.”

Holmes is around 5ft 9in and Barrett added: “I don’t want to get carried away with being a knockout puncher or a tough guy. I just want to win.”