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so his mother is english and his father is jamaican. sorry to disappoint you like that...Comment
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He apparently has a son called Cassius born in 2008, which would make him 4 now and he's been married for 12 years.
Honest, eloquent and approachable, David puts his level-headedness down to a happy home life.
He’s been married to Natasha – who was a childhood friend – for eight years and they are proud parents to 19-month-old Cassius, a nod to David’s boxing idol Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay.
He says: “I’m not just fighting for myself anymore. I’m fighting for my family and to make sure they’re as comfortable as humanly possible. I’ve never struggled for motivation but since Cass came along I’ve got an extra little drive.”
He hopes Cassius will show similar sporting prowess to himself – but not necessarily in the ring.
“Boxing is a hard sport to get into and I’d only allow him to go for it if he was the best at it,” he says.
“It isn’t the type of sport to be in if you’re not very good!
“Whatever Cass is talented at I’ll support him. If he takes after me he’ll excel in one sport. Before I chose boxing I tried athletics, football and rugby and I was good at all of them. I chose boxing because I felt it was the toughest, the biggest challenge, physically and mentally.”
But David does worry about the kind of world his son is growing up in.
He says: “I’d hate to be a kid growing up now. It’s frightening. People want to stab and shoot each other. I can’t get my head round it. When I go back to Bermondsey, it’s changed. Where the big housing estates used to be there’s now luxury apartments. The youth club I used to go to has been shut down.
“I don’t know where kids go to now. When they finish school they’ve got five or six hours to kill. Where do they go? What do they do? Who do they hang out with? That’s when they get into trouble.
“The more the government can do to get them involved with sport or to give them some focus the better. I’m sure we’d see a reduction in knife and gun crime. There’s no way Cassius is going to be hanging around in the streets. It makes us worried for him.”
Natasha, a constant by David’s side throughout his career, is a vital part of his support network.
“She’s a massive part of the team,” he says.
“We’ve known each other since we were 15 so were friends for a long time before hooking up properly.
“I’d hate to be at this stage of my career and be single. Stability is really important to me – everything comes together perfectly at home and at work.”
His missus is hardened to the rough and tumble of the ring these days and doesn’t wince if David takes a blow.
In fact, she’s not even worried about him this weekend.
He says: “Natasha’s been there since the amateur days so she’s used to it. She knows the sport inside out and that I’m the best in the world so I’m going to be all right.
“I’ve never been a fighter to take much punishment, even the one fight I’ve lost I didn’t get much abuse. So I don’t think about getting hurt. Everyone in the family has got full confidence I’ll find a way to win. They don’t care about the size of him. They trust that I know what I’m doing.”Comment
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