Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LOVE STRUCK
Meet the first couple to fight on the same pro bill ... and yes, they settle their arguments in the ring!
NATHAN McINTOSH has an unusual bit of advice for warring couples.
He finds that, when he has a row with his missus, a good punch-up with her helps to clear the air.
Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, McIntosh and Nina Bradley are a couple who also happen to be a couple of professional boxers – and today, they will fight on the same show, at Newark Showground.
“We do everything together,” said McIntosh, who has won 12 of his 14 fights.
“We live together, train together, everything, and sometimes we get under each other’s skin. We do have our ups and downs, but after we have a spar in the gym, we have a laugh, hug each other and it’s all forgotten and we are loveydovey again.
“Sparring is a good way to sort out your problems.
“We spar lots of rounds and Nina has given me plenty of black eyes.
“If I start thinking, ‘She’s just a girl’ and switch off for a second, I get hit by a big left hook or an uppercut.
“Nina can hit harder than a lot of the lads I’ve sparred with. She has an all-ornothing style. She can take it and give it back.”
McIntosh and Bradley, both 29, (above) have been together for three years after bumping into each other at a gym in Nottingham. McIntosh says, before they met, he had grown tired of the bent-nose business and was thinking about quitting.
“I wasn’t in a good place before I met Nina,” said the welterweight contender known as “The Matrix” for his flashy, punchswerving style.
“I was ready to hang the gloves up and get a 9-5 job, but I met Nina in the gym and she said she was preparing for an amateur championship.
“I helped train her, pushed her on and that gave me the drive to carry on boxing.”
Bradley won that amateur tournament and boxed for England before turning professional earlier this year with Carl Greaves, who also manages her other half. “The lads in the gym used to joke and say, ‘Sign her up, Carl!’” said Bradley.
“Now he has! I wasn’t really suited to amateur boxing. The Great Britain coaches look for technical boxers – and I’m a come-forward, walk-youdown power-puncher.”
Bradley made a winning start to her professional career in May – and admits the last few days have been difficult as she prepares for her second fight, against Timea Belik, from Hungary.
“Fight week is tough,” said the super-lightweight.
“We are both trying to make weight, thinking about our fights and it’s tense around the house.
“But we push each other through it.
“Boxing is a lonely sport and having Nathan around is a big help.”
McIntosh says boxing on the same show as his missus today will be “a good experience, a weird experience”.
He meets Arvydas Trizno today and said: “I’m usually in fight mode when I get to the venue.
“But I have to come out of that to support Nina – then give her a hug and go back into fight mode again!”