James McClean sparring with Tommy Langford this week in Birmingham
THERE was a special guest at Hall Green Boxing Club on Tuesday afternoon as Tommy Langford held an open training session ahead of his WBO Interim World Middleweight Championship fight.
Derry’s James McClean, who plies his footballing craft with West Brom, made the trip across Birmingham to train with Langford and work on the pads.
And after the Derry man gave his thoughts on the experience, Tommy took the opportunity to give a training update and thank the Baggies fans attending the fight.
The ‘Baggies Bomber’ takes on Avtandil Khurtsidze in Leicester on Saturday.
Afterwards, Creggan’s James said: “I have a great love of boxing and it was good getting into the ring with the ‘Baggies Bomber’.
“Hopefully he will be world champion very soon and it was a great experience for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
And it was James’s first time in the ring with a professional boxer.
“I have been in the ring quite a bit sparring a lot but never in the ring with a pro.
“I was a good experience and may in a year or two I can boast that I was in a ring once with a world champion.”
James was under no illusion about the work boxers have put in before a fight. He had a five minute work out on the pads during his training session.
“You got to give massive respect to boxers to do that for 12 rounds it is something else. It is complete fitness altogether.
“It is very hard and when that bell goes you are in there all on you own. So I have a massive, massive respect for boxers.”
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