By Tris Dixon
LIVERPOOL middleweight prospect Anthony Fowler wants to be busy before the year is out and hopes to both box in America and take on 10-0 fellow hopeful Scott Fitzgerald.
“I’d like that fight this year,’ said ‘The Machine,’ who faces 8-0 Craig O’Brien in London this weekend. “It might not be my next fight after this but if he’s fighting on the [September 8 Amir] Khan bill, I’m hoping to box in America in October so it might be by the end of the year.
“I know Scott well. We boxed in the amateurs and we sparred for years on Team GB. It’s one of those things. It’s not personal. I like Scott as a person, he’s a good lad but he’s a name that will progress my career.”
Rio Olympian Fowler is 6-0 (5) and wants to get on the US bill topped by his Dave Coldwell stablemate Gavin McDonnell, who meets Daniel Roman on October 20 for the WBA super-bantamweight title in Los Angeles.
That is far from set in stone. Fowler will petition promoter Eddie Hearn to make it happen.
“I’m trying to [get on the show],” he said. “I’m begging Eddie. If it was up to me I’d fight for nothing. I just want to fight that much.”
He is confident that he is moving in the right direction, however. In recent weeks he has sparred Liam Smith, Joshua Buatsi and Jason Quigley.
“I’m very confident when I say I’ve improved a lot,” he added. “This training camp has gone so well. I’ve been sparring elite level lads and doing well and I’ve been improving all the time. I’ve always improved each fight but for this there’s been a good jump. I believe that. I’m sparring eight rounds easy now. I used to do three rounds and I was knackered but now I do eight rounds and I can do more now. I’m very fit and strong.”
There is confidence in the camp, too. Despite Jamie McDonnell’s loss to the incredible Naoya Inoue, twin brother Gavin has a title shot coming up, Tony Bellew is lining up a cruiserweight blockbuster, possibly for November, against Oleksandr Usyk, and Jordan Gill is looking for silverware.
“I look up to Tony, obviously Jamie just lost but Gavin is fighting for a world title, Jordan’s going for the Commonwealth,” he said of the old adage success breeding success. “Our gym… There’s such an atmosphere. “You’ve got to work hard in our gym or you won’t survive.”
