Premature birth to perfect timing
CLOSE TO DEATH AS A BABY, BENTON’S LAWS IS NOW PACKING A REAL PUNCH
BORN 14 weeks early, Joseph Laws weighed little more than a boxing glove and doctors feared he would die.
“I have been written off since day one but I was a born fighter – and everyone who writes me off is always wrong,” he said.
Next month, the person medics believed was too small to live will fight on the North East’s biggest boxing card in at least a decade.
Dubbed ‘The Benwell Bomber,’ unbeaten Laws is already a star on the tough streets he grew up on.
Now he is planning on making his October 13 fight at his coming-out party - and wants to be a champion.
The 24-year-old said: “The British title is every boxer’s dream and I would love to fight for that in Newcastle. After that – I just want to go all the way.”
The road to success had been littered with hurdles for the Geordie prizefighter.
He added: “When I was born I only weighed just over a pound. Because I was born so prematurely I was told I could have learning difficulties.
“I had to have speech therapy and private tutors when I was at school, on top of what I already had to do – but everything I have done I have passed.
“I passed all my GCSEs, my college course and my foundation degree. Even when I was an amateur boxer people were writing me off.”
Laws’ fists answered those critics. He made the ABA finals, boxed for England and even had trials for Team GB. As a pro, hard-hitting Laws has blasted past his first two opponents with ease.
With “people’s champion” Ricky Hatton as his inspiration, he learned to box at Grainger Park Boys Club next to his dad. However, he admits he was not a natural. Laws said: “I have about as much skill as a tin of baked beans!
“Naturally, I am rubbish – but I work hard, train right, eat clean and don’t drink, smoke or do drugs.”
Raised in Benwell, Laws said temptation has
always been present but those streets, and the people, are what have made him the fighter – and man – he is today.
Laws added: “Benwell is rough, don’t get me wrong, but it is where I was brought up and I would not change it for the world.
“I have to be at the gym every day because if I was not I would probably be running around being up to no good.
“I have always been different - all my pals would go out and be like, ‘here, have a drink’ and I would just tell them I was sticking to the water.
“The support from everyone in Benwell for me has been incredible.”
That was visible at a Civic Centre press conference for the upcoming Metro Radio Arena show.
When promoter Eddie Hearn introduced him, the crowd erupted.
The show, headlined by Geordie ace Lewis Ritson, is expected to sell out.
That will be in no small part down to Laws and his community.
He said: “I think I will have sold something like 800 or 900 tickets for it.
“When this happens down south, that is unbelievable – but those fighters are selling them to people with money and good jobs.
“These are £80 or £100 tickets and to people on Benwell that is a lot of money – so the support for a local lad is unreal.”