MY main sport when I was a kid was football, not boxing. My uncle is a huge football fan – he’s a massive Liverpool supporter – and that had a big impact on me. To this day, I’m a Liverpool supporter.
When I was in primary school, it was football that I was really into and I was a decent wee player – I was a striker but I was a complete poacher. One year, I broke our primary school highest scorer record – I scored 23 goals in one season and you don’t score that number of goals by being a good football player, you score that often by being a good poacher.
My dad was much more concerned about my brother and I getting a good education than being into sport but he was a massive boxing fan, so that’s where my interest first came from. I remember when I was a kid, he’d get up at two or three in the morning to watch the big fights in America in the 1980s. I’d be allowed to stay up late and watch Barry McGuigan’s fights.
I was completely fascinated by boxing and once I started watching it, I began to think that football was pretty lame in comparison. It was just two guys, one on one under the lights, and it completely captured me.
From that moment I wanted to be a boxer. When I told my dad that, though, he told me there was no boxing clubs in Edinburgh because he really didn’t want me to do it. He was just trying to protect me because he didn’t want me getting into any trouble or falling into any crime like he and some of his family had and he thought boxing would be bad news for me.
Unfortunately, my dad went to prison, but for me, that meant that he couldn’t stop me boxing anymore. I knew a lad who went to a boxing gym in our area and so I asked if I could go with him. We went to the Sparta Boxing Club in Edinburgh which is where Ken Buchanan used to box. Straight away I was completely addicted.
When I was moving through the boxing ranks, I still kept an eye on other sports and, as far back as I remember, I was a tennis fan. My mum was a big tennis fan and I’d watch Wimbledon with her when I was a little kid. Venus Williams is my favourite player so I hope she wins today.
I love watching Andy Murray as well because I’ve been friends with him for years. He’s a huge boxing fan and I first met him when he came to watch one of my fights at Meadowbank Stadium. He came with his dad and brother and Frank Warren brought them all backstage after the fight to say hello. Both him and Jamie were still really young but they were lovely wee guys. All Andy wanted to talk about was boxing – he asked me loads of questions about my training, my diet and loads of other things.
He’s invited me down to Wimbledon to watch him a lot since then – I remember the first time I went I couldn’t believe how different it is in real life compared to watching it on the television. It’s a great experience though.
When I can, I go to Anfield to watch Liverpool play and when I go I always take one of my three sons. They’re all really sporty– my eldest, Alex, was a footballer but now he fancies getting into boxing. He doesn’t want to become world champion or anything but he’s a talented wee boxer. My middle son, Liston, is a footballer and was at Hearts before moving to another club recently. And my youngest, Machlan, is just obsessed with boxing. He’s wanted to be a world champion since he was a tiny kid and, even at 10 years old, he’s so professional already – I have to encourage him to have an ice cream or some chocolate because he’s so strict with his diet.
I didn’t want any of my boys to box because it’s such a demanding life and you have to sacrifice so much growing up, so I didn’t want that for my kids and neither did my wife, Debbie. But boxing can capture you and ever since Machlan was two or three years old, he wanted to be a boxer, so I just support him as best I can now.
I’m still heavily involved in boxing – with my work with Sky and other television channels, I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved in pretty much every big fight night in Scotland since I retired. It’s great that we have so much talent coming through and watching guys like Josh Taylor is really special because I know him so well and I’ve been so involved with him since he was a teenager.
I’m also starting up my own boxing academy in Edinburgh – we’re looking to help people in the community get fit but the long-term goal is to bring through young, amateur boxers and turn them into good professionals. I’m working with a great team so we’re hoping we can get a great set-up there.
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