y Shaun Brown
A story about a Scottish heavyweight boxer has almost become one of myth and legend. Since 1946 no fighter north of Hadrian’s Wall has even fought in a British title eliminator let alone anything more worldly. So when one comes along it’s always worth investigating the potential and story of such an individual.
Gary Cornish 8-0 (3) hails from Inverness, a town with less than 70,000 residents and which is more famous for football than fighting. Standing at an intimidating 6’ 7” and weighing at 255lbs for his last victory shows that the Scot certainly ticks all boxes marked physical.
But as is the case with a modern day heavyweight, Cornish places current emphasis on footwork, agility, conditioning and movement. His education took him to Manchester on Saturday, where he won a four rounder against former cruiserweight Tayar Mehmed, who had already faced other British heavyweights in Dillian Whyte and Danny Hughes. The 25-year old’s eighth professional contest was part of the undercard to Brian Rose’s latest British light middleweight title defence against Cornish’s fellow countryman Kris Carslaw.
The choice to turn professional was supported by two reasons. After posting a brief amateur career of nine fights, nine wins with five knockouts, opponents were hard to come by. And after a sparring session with Dereck Chisora in Fort William, the enigmatic Brit’s trainer Don Charles encouraged Cornish to remove the headguard, vest and make the big leap.
“I thought I did quite well against Chisora,” Cornish told boxingscene.com.
“And since turning professional I’ve been learning new things with every fight. I’ve been in with experienced guys which is the best thing for my career.”
Although excited about his future, manager Tommy Gilmour is prepared to be patient and wait for his young charge to develop before thinking about joining the next generation of European heavyweights.
“David Price talked about not being in the same league as the Klitschkos and the same is for Gary at the moment with guys like Price,” confessed Gilmour.
“He’s not ready for the British title yet. He’s a big athletic type but not big and ponderous as many people think heavyweight boxers are. He’s fleet of foot and not with a big belly over his shorts. His speed and athleticism are his greatest assets.”
Cornish added “None of the young boys can keep up with me when it comes to doing hill sprints!”
With Scottish boxing predominantly showcased in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Cornish is keen for more shows to be put on in his home town of Inverness as was the case last month when he stopped Laszlo Peczeli in the second round of their bout.
“I’d definitely love to lead the way for more boxing to take place in Inverness. The last couple of shows that have been up here have been successful and has seen people who don’t like boxing actually talking about it.”
And as for his domestic contemporaries such as David Price, the ‘Highlander’ is quite content to keep his head down and ply his trade before being labelled a genuine contender.
“I was down in Liverpool for Price’s last fight (against Sam Sexton) and it was good to sample that big fight experience. Price is definitely one of the few people that could give the Klitschkos a test; he uses his jab extremely well much like I do.”
“With Gary it’s a long-term plan,” Gilmour explained
“We’re not ready for the British title but in two years time with all the experience he’s had, and will continue to get I think he’ll be ready. The good thing about Gary is that he wants to do it, he loves to train and he loves to learn.
“I was delighted for him in his last fight that he corrected the mistakes he’d made in the previous one. And if in every fight he improves by learning from mistakes each time then we can think about unleashing him. At the moment he’s a piece of moulding clay and we’re not going to throw him in at the deep end.”
Twitter @shaun_brown
