A MASSIVE NIGHT FOR WELSH BOXING: KIERAN GETHING INTERVIEW

Kieran Gething, 12-2-2 (2), is a proud Welsh super-welterweight and he’s bringing a crucial, career defining title fight to his hometown and birthplace, Abergavenny, on July 1st. Gething faces undefeated fellow Welshman Sion Yaxley, 12-0-0 (2), at the Market Hall and the pair are not strangers to one another in the build up to the clash in the small town. 

As well as fighting, since last year, Kieran has been running Abergavenny Boxing Club and has also entered the world of promoting his own shows. Whilst this sounds like a lot of responsibility while training for a fight, this is all part of a bigger plan for Kieran; he relishes the opportunity to help others which can be regarded as bigger than the fight itself. Kieran has huge plans for his community and Wales as a whole.

“It’s a plan to make boxing more popular, I want to try and put shows on in north and south Wales, bringing the country together through boxing.”

Refreshing vision and deep sincerity for the future of Welsh boxing was clear from Kieran. Running the boxing club and being involved in the immediate community has already been paying off for Kieran and his deep passion shows, “it’s lovely training at Abergavenny boxing club, I love training the kids and being around the positive atmosphere. It’s definitely helped the local schools where I’ve done bits of work, we’ve got a lot of kids interested.”

The title fight with Yaxley really is, in Gething’s words,  “a massive fight in Abergavenny,” from kids looking up to role models or local residents supporting their own, it must be pretty special to have a fight in a small town of just over 13,000 people. But away from training youngsters, Kieran is locked in and has his sights on the undefeated Sion and claiming the Celtic and IBO Continental Super-Welterweight Titles, which will be a challenging night.

His opponent, Sion ‘Yax’ Yaxley was a decorated amateur,winning two titles as an amateur and other medals abroad. Being around the Welsh circuit, Kieran knows Sion fairly well and is fully respectful towards him, “he’s a really nice guy, a good, neat boxer. There’s no beef. I’ll need a good game plan to get it done.”

Interestingly, the pair have had a spar against each other in the past which could bring mind games into play on fight night. “The spar went well; he was a lot younger than me. We done six rounds, but he got out after four. Little things like that will play on his mind and give me more confidence. But it’s a different world now, but hopefully I do the same thing!” said Kieran.

On fight-night fans can expect a solid night of action on a bill stacked with over thirteen fights. “The fans can expect a great atmosphere, lots of good fights and fighters on the bill. You can expect my fight to go quite far down the road, I don’t think anyone’s expecting an early knockout. It could be a really good grinding performance I think.”

Not only is Kieran a fighter, trainer, husband and father, he’s also an author. What can’t this man do? At age 25, nearly five years ago, Kieran wanted to document his experiences as a young fighter and even kept a daily journal. His book called ‘Insight’ which is available on amazon scratched an itch internally for Kieran, “I wanted to write it because I felt a creative energy there. I wanted to see how my view of boxing changed over five years and when you put it in print like that it’s a nice thing to do. It’s almost like a time capsule.”

Poignantly, Kieran told me about a quote which resonates with him, “a man changes who he is every five years”. I agree, looking back over the years in written print must be quite a journey and I’ll definitely be getting the book to read after hearing about it.

I wanted to enquire about why Kieran navigated himself into the world of promoting, but I wasn’t surprised either with his answer, unfortunately. Small hall fighters face great difficulty in gaining opportunities to advance further in the industry, Kieran detailed, “part of the reason I went into promoting was because I wasn’t getting opportunities I felt I deserved on other people’s shows. That’s the top and bottom of it. I was Welsh champion and defended it but wasn’t getting the opportunities”.

Despite admitting he might be hanging up the gloves in the not too distant future, if Kieran wins the IBO Title against Sion it could put him in line for a bigger opportunity,

“To be honest, this is probably my last year in boxing, but with the IBO ranking I have a plan to climb and a route to climb the rankings if I get the opportunities. I’m looking for a step up straight after this one."

If the bigger opportunities don't come, Kieran will definitely be leaving his options open via his ventures outside of the ring and in the future you'll be seeing a lot more shows put on by Shadow Box Promotions, boosting boxing throughout Wales.

Team Southpaw Jab wish Kieran Gething the best of luck in his fight with Sion Yaxley on Jue 1st and hope he sees lots of the Abergavenny community down to support him in a successful night.

FOLLOW KIERAN GETHING ON TWITTER
For tickets contact Kieran on 07564355306 or at GethingSports@outlook.com