Matthew Marsh: Notes From Training Camp

Former British Super Bantamweight champion Matthew Marsh, who is to fight Kris Hughes for the vacant Commonwealth (British Empire) belt at the Rainton Meadows Arena, Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear on Friday 23rd July, has decided to stay in London for his pre-fight training camp.

With just over three weeks to go until the big fight, Marsh has been making the short trip from his home in West Ham to the Ultrachem TKO gym in Canning Town to be put through his paces by co-trainers, Johnny Eames and Derek Grainger.

Marsh, who normally would go to the TKO training camp in Tenerife, explained the reason he decided to stay in the UK, “We talked about it but decided to stay here as we were already sort of in camp. We were originally training for a non-title fight at the end of June. It was going so well we decided to stick at it here for the fight with Kris Hughes.

We already had regularly sparring set up with Ian (former European Bantamweight Champion Ian 'Dappa' Napa), Dean (Dean Byrne), George (George Jupp) and Ian Bailey and it's been really good. We've added a couple of southpaws now as Kris Hughes is a southpaw. So you can see I'm getting lots of good sparring in.

Training's going really, really well. I feel ready now, you know. I just want to get in there.”

Marsh's manager and co-trainer Johnny Eames then gave his views on how the official first week in camp has been going, “Matthew's touched on the reason we didn't go away to camp. We originally trained for a six round fight at the end of June. When this got changed to a title fight on the 23rd July we were already sort of three quarters into our training. All's going well, he's weight's fine. Sparring's been going great. Obviously now we have a different opponent and stance we have employed two really, really good southpaws to help us out with it.

Our sports scientist and conditioner have now come into play. It's all on target. While we prefer going away, this one there really is no need, everything we need to do can be done here. Matthew's coming into the gym twice a day, doing his boxing training at one time and his conditioning at another. Everything's the same as if we were abroad at training camp.

He's on target and hopefully he'll beat Kris Hughes on the night.”

Matthew Marsh versus Kris Hughes for the vacant Commonwealth title is at the Rainton Meadows Arena, Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear on Friday 23rd July 2010, Supporting headline fight Marsh vs Hughes at the Frank Maloney promoted event will be the British Bantamweight Title bout between Stuey Hall and Martin Power.

Also on the Sky Sports televised show will be Nigel Wright versus Dean Harrison for the English Light Welterweight title and Tony Jeffries versus International Masters Light Heavyweight champion Michael Banbula in a non-championship bout. Other support bouts to be announced.

Tickets for the event are available from www.frankmaloney.com

www.ultrachemtkogym.co.uk