By Shaun Brown
Boxing is a funny old game. One loss is not the death knell of a career, but it can provide a setback which can test one’s heart and patience for the sport.
Take Scotland’s Kris Carslaw, 15-1 (3), for example. The former kickboxer knew that a win over the marauding Matthew Hall last November would have presented him with an illustrious opportunity of challenging for the British light middleweight title. The pain of a narrow points loss was overshadowed by a fractured jaw suffered with just over 30-seconds left to go in the contest. It was an injury that Carslaw’s manager, Tommy Gilmour, called the worst he’d seen in boxing.
Those of a nervous disposition may want to look away from the next sentence.
“The bottom jawbone popped up through my teeth,” Carslaw told Boxingscene.com.
“I first broke my jaw in the first round of a fight in Ireland and I fought on for the rest of the scheduled four-rounds [a bout which he won]. The injury against Hall was a double fracture of my jaw and if the fight had gone another round I wouldn’t have been able to continue.”
The 27-year-old joiner not only had an injury to recover from but a career to partially rebuild. In a strange twist of events, that loss in what was a British title eliminator would eventually lead to a shot against current champion Brian Rose, 19-1-1 (5), tonight in Manchester live on Sky Sports HD.
After an eight round workout against Kieron Gray in March of this year, Carslaw was in training for another scheduled fight in Paisley but an unexpected phone call from his manager soon changed everything.
“After the Hall defeat I was thinking it would take me about a year to build back up again,” he said. “Tommy phoned me and told me he’d gotten the fight with Brian Rose. That was 5-6 weeks ago. Brian and his team get to pick who they want to fight of course. But maybe they think this is an easy fight for them, it won’t be. I’m ready for this and ready to give the fight of my life,” Carslaw insisted.
Gilmour added, “After Rose had the success in Blackpool [against Max Maxwell] I knew that his team were looking to fit in a voluntary defence and given my association with Frank Maloney, I quickly got on the phone. I told him all the credentials were there for Kris as an opponent and they liked my ideas and proposals.
“I’m expecting Kris to cause an upset in the same way that Rose did with [Prince] Aaron when he won the title. The Hall fight wasn’t one of Kris’s better performances and this is going to another level but he knows if he doesn’t win on Saturday then it’s a long, long way back for him. With the winner expected to fight Sam Webb after the summer it might be a year before he gets back to that level. There’s a lot riding on it. I spoke to him recently and he seemed majorly up for it, he’s had the right amount of time off work, he’s in the best shape he’s ever been, he’s healthy so it’s all there for him.”
The British light middleweight title has had a distant affair with Scottish fighters in years gone by. This century alone has seen only two challengers to that particular Lonsdale prize with Bellshill’s Joe Townsley being dispatched inside two rounds against the hurtful fists of Wayne Alexander in 2001.
Seven years later, Stirling’s Jamie Coyle lasted the distance against then champion Ryan Rhodes. A little chance of history presents itself for Carslaw on Saturday night and the 5/1 underdog is determined to travel back up the M6 motorway as Scotland’s first 154lb domestic champion of the modern era.
“For this fight I’ve done everything right in my preparation, I’m very confident and I’m going to give it my all. To win it would be a dream come true. It’s every British fighter’s dream to fight for a British title and win it. I’d be amongst the best boxers not only in Scotland but in Britain too.
The Paisley pugilist is also keen to learn from the mistakes he made in the Matthew Hall fight and produce a more polished and disciplined showing against Rose.
He said: “Against Hall I got sucked into his kind of fight. Every fight is different and before Hall, in my head, I was going to box him but I’ve gotten that experience now and I can take it into the Rose fight. This time I will stick to orders. I’m going to go into this fight with my gameplan and carry that out however long the fight lasts.”
Twitter @shaun_brown
