During his teenage years, Shakan Pitters believed he was on target for a career as a Premier League footballer, now he believes he is on the verge of the big time in boxing.

Despite having a father who was a professional boxer and two brothers who boxed, Pitters had a sporting career mapped out using his feet rather than his fists. A striker with West Bromwich Albion, he was with the club through two promotions to the Premier League and one relegation.

But like many with dreams of the top, the football dream was ended when he was released. He first stepped in a boxing ring aged 22 and tonight, nine years later, he boxes Chad Sugden for the vacant British light-heavyweight title at a television studio in Redditch, Worcestershire.

“Boxing is definitely more brutal,” Pitters said. “In football, you have got a team to carry you. You might be having a lazy day and you can blend in with the team a little bit. But in boxing, you have always got to be on point. You lose, it’s your fault, anything that goes wrong, it is on you, it is not on anyone else. You have no one else to blame. 

“That’s why I will always give my best, I will always put my body through it in training. So when the fight comes I will rather have an easy job ahead of myself and I will not fail for lack of stamina or fitness.”

Pitters’s father, Colin, boxed the likes of Steve Foster and Neville Brown in his career, but he never got to box for a British title. Pitters hopes tonight will only be a step on the ladder to bigger things.

“When I was little, I used to see my dad on TV,” Pitters said. “He was doing it for the money for the family, like a bit of a hobby. I am doing it not just for an income but to chance the lives of me and my family. I take it really seriously. That’s my mindset.

“When we were kids, we would be forced to go to the boxing gym. Then my older two brothers started amateur boxing and I used to come and watch them. My brother got to the national finals and boxed for England, he was good. But then he went in the army and didn’t have the same love for it.

“My dad wasn’t letting me box back then. But now it is a fresh career and I started at 22 I knew I was going to get the most I can at it. When I set my mind to doing something, I get everything I can out of it.”

This fight had originally been scheduled for March, before the coronavirus lockdown stopped the world.

“I had a great camp in Dubai, I came back and a week before the fight they pulled the plug on us,” he said. “It was frustrating, but you have to look at the bigger picture. Many people have lost their lives, in the boxing community too. Look at people like Anthony Yarde’s family. I have to be thankful that I have great health and my family is fine.

“One thing I don’t do is self-pity. I was in the house and annoyed a bit, but I didn’t know what to do with myself. This is my full-time profession. Normally, when you don’t have a fight, the gym is still open, you go down there to tick over or to see people. I took up new things. I started doing a lot more cooking and experimenting, I bought a bike, going on bike rides with my boys and then I was doing quiz nights with family and friends.”

Victory tonight would push Pitters into a good group of British light-heavyweights with an eye on world honours, including Joshua Buatsi and Yarde.

“I know if I win my name will get mentioned with theirs, but we all have our own path,” Pitters said. “They both seem like likeable guys. I wish them well.  

“Buatsi has helped me a lot for this fight, we have sparred many rounds. We get on well and he has been a big help. He is a really great guy, good-hearted.”

The prospect of facing Sudgen behind closed doors doesn’t faze him, though.

“As long as I have a ringmate, I don’t care,” he said. “It could be in Chad’s back garden I am just going to be fighting my fight. If he is there for the taking, I will take him out, but I’m prepared to go 24 rounds.” 

Pitters v Sugden is live on Channel 5 from 10pm on Saturday

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.