Don’t let your talent go to waste, Lewis

Lewis Coley…has his first fight for almost 14 months

CAN it really be three-and-a-half years since Lewis Coley appeared in my feature on the region’s hottest prospects, penned for the Sunday Mercury?

Tommy Collins and Owen Cooper were also on that list. Tommy is unbeaten, has gathered an army of supporters, and is within touching distance of a title.

Cooper has captured the Midlands welterweight title, signed a major promotional deal, appeared on  televised bills and is tipped for very big things.

For Coley, now 22, the waters of professional boxing have been choppy. His has been a career blighted by injury and inactivity.

Lewis is a young man with talent to burn, yet he desperately needs to place a torch under his career – or all those immense skills will deteriorate.

He will be left, in years to come, pondering what could’ve been.

Coley, a product of Paddy Farrell’s fine 2nd City gym in Kingstanding, has title winning talent. It is time that talent was realised, not wasted.

Back when I compiled my list of prospects, Coley was a featherweight aiming to compete for belts at super-bantam.

He’s now listed by on-line fight record site, “boxrec” as a welter. He will not reach the heights he is capable of at 10-and-a-half stone.

On Saturday, on Tommy Owens’ Holiday Inn show close to Birmingham Airport, Lewis returns to the ring. He will face busy journeyman Liam Richards who has fought all and sundry from lightweight to welter.

It’s a bout that won’t tell us a lot about Coley’s capabilities – I expect a landslide points victory. But at least it again ignites the local lad’s career.

He hasn’t fought since February, 2022, when he demolished Craig Sumner in the first round with a body shot.

That was bout number four in a career stretching back to October, 2019: statistics that are nowhere near good enough.

Manager Jon Pegg said: “I think Lewis was hit hard by Covid. With no fights, he just wondered, ‘what’s the point?’

“But his brother has just turned pro, his old gym mate Niall Farrell has just turned pro and he’s back with Paddy. Hopefully, that’ll give him the motivation that was missing.”

Every fan hopes that.

In the future, I want to write about what Lewis achieved in the ring, not about what he could’ve achieved.