9:53am Wednesday 23rd December 2009
By Tony Kelly
He may be aged 35, but York’s senior boxing professional Graham Fearn is looking ahead to another year in the sport with a coltish exuberance as he tells TONY KELLY.
CAN existence be agreeable if your sporting passion is muscle-bound up in the pain game? Can everything be rosy if your adversary is hell-bent on inflicting damage? Can there be any compensation for hauling your body through countless physical challenges?
For all the above, life is still sweet for Graham Fearn.
York’s choc-a-block boxer – he combines his knockout zeal with his full-time job as production worker on the Aero bar at Nestlé – retains a powerful appetite for the four-sided arena.
This city’s most advanced conscript to professional boxing – he did not replace his amateur status with a pro licence until the age of 33, a time when most pros are pondering how best to hang up their gloves – is sustained by a vigour and vim he first showed as a hard-hitting amateur of almost two decades ago.
The new year soon to dawn will bring about fresh contests, and Fearn, one of the fight game’s most dedicated trainers, is anticipating those with a relish one would expect to be confined to an upcoming prospect rather than a warrior who, by any comparison in the sport of punch and power, is somewhat long in the tooth.
Indeed, Fearn could open his 2010 campaign with a light-welterweight duel against Driffield scrapper Curtis Woodhouse, another who turned to the professional circuit late in life, though he had a distinguished pro football career with Sheffield United and Birmingham to first get out of his system.
Initial talks about a February 28 clash between the two, with the added incentive of a British Masters crown up for grabs, have already begun.
More than a few t’s will have to be crossed and i’s dotted before the probability turns into reality, but if the fight is confirmed then no-one will be more up for it than Fearn.
Said the warrior: “I’ve still got the hunger. I’ve still got the passion. I’ve still got the enthusiasm. I’ve still got the determination and ambition to do well.”
It’s a mission statement which has been fortified by his ringcraft experiences of the past year in which he fulfilled several long-held ambitions.
One was to fight at the legendary British boxing venue of York Hall in Bethnal Green.
Fearn achieved that in a clash with one of the North’s up and coming prospects, Jonny Rocco. The fight went to the Manchester-based youngster but only by a points verdict which buoyed Fearn’s confidence that he had acquitted himself well against such a rated opponent.
His next task was even tougher. Never one to shirk a challenge, Fearn agreed to take on Frankie Gavin, who was the first man in British amateur boxing history to win a world crown and is now taking the pro ranks by storm.
Tipped to become a future world champion, Gavin was at his most impressive against Fearn in front of a 6,000 sell-out crowd at the MEN Arena in Manchester on a bill televised live by Sky Sports.
Recalled Fearn: “That fight really put me in the spotlight, not just in York but across the country.
“Wherever I have been, and not just in York, everyone seems to have known I fought on that bill and against such a highly-rated boxer. It raised my profile a lot and was a big attraction to me.”
Gavin predictably won and Fearn acknowledged that his adversary was a burgeoning talent destined for top title triumph.
“When I was up against him I could hear his trainer Antony Farnell shouting out instructions, but before I could counter the tactics Gavin was so fast he had already carried them out. His speed, both in punching power and his footwork, was superb,” said the York ace.
“It was a proper gladiatorial contest and, though I lost, it was one that was a big attraction to me.”
That fight proved to be Fearn’s second reverse of the year and he wanted to finish 2009 on a note of conquest.
That was accomplished appropriately on the Dukes of York bill organised by Pocklington Rocket Harry Matthews, in what was the first professional boxing bill in York for more than a decade.
Fearn, who triumphed in his home city during his extensive amateur days, had yearned to fight as a pro in front of his own fans and he did not disappoint with an overwhelming points triumph over granite-tough journeyman Daniel Thorpe.
“To have fought at York Hall in Bethnal Green and then in my own home city in the same year was just such a dream come true,” Fearn said.
The calibre of those fights have steeled Fearn’s resolve that he will flourish in the coming year, as has his decision to move his full-time training from York to Hunslet under esteemed trainer Darren Rhodes.
As a pro in his own right, Rhodes boxed eliminators for both British light-middleweight and middleweight crowns, as well as for an Inter-Continental super-middleweight title.
Said Fearn: “That makes him more than qualified for the job.
“It’s always a bonus to have such a person, who has been and done it in boxing, to work with you.
“When you look down his record, he has boxed present European champion Matthew Macklin and is a former stable-mate of former world champion Robin Reid.
“He has something only experience in the ring brings and that’s why I gel so well with Darren. I have nothing but respect for him.”
Suitably buoyed it is little wonder that Fearn gazed ahead and declared: “I’m looking forward to 2010 with optimism and enthusiasm.”
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