Galal: “Pressure? I’m doing what I love”

Yafai…too much skill for rugged Calleros

IF there’s a knock against the PR machine surrounding Olympic gold medallist Galal Yafai it’s the fact they’ve failed to show the man behind the mask of professional boxing.

The public has been hit with an avalanche of impressive fight statistics, but have yet to be really given insight into the 30-year-old’s personality.

And that’s important. Ring superstars attract people who would normally not watch a boxing match. They tuned into Frank Bruno bouts because they’d watched the big man guffaw and stumble in TV scenarios away from the ring and decided: “He seems a nice man, I’d like to see how he gets on.”

That – at the very highest level – is what gains a mass audience. That’s what earns a boxer lucrative endorsements.

Let me tell the general public what they don’t know about Galal Yafai, one of three famous boxing brothers. He’s a thoroughly likeable, grounded individual with a big personality. There’s no ego for journalists to overcome.

The man is doing Birmingham boxing proud.

Today, Sunday, Galal rang me after notching his fourth straight pro win the night before, on the Anthony Joshua, 02 Arena undercard.

Mexico’s former world title challenger Moises Calleros was stopped in the fourth of a scheduled 10 rounder.

The general press opinion was 33-year-old Calleros – now 36-11-1 – should’ve been allowed more time.

Yet he’d been dropped and was heading for a loss. Calleros hadn’t shown anything to suggest he’d got the tools to derail Yafai.

He came with ambition, drove forward in the second, but Yafai, showing fine footwork, rode the storm and began punishing his opponent with precise counters.

And I’m not sure the Mexican, in his heart, wanted it any more.

That’s the moral dilemma surrounding professional boxing. Is a man paid to take his lumps when the cause is lost?

Those within the game will say yes.

“He was an experienced, tough Mexican, as they all are,” said Yafai.

Yafai entered the pro ranks with more pressure than most. He made his professional debut in a scheduled 10 rounder with the WBC international title on the line. He prevailed by fifth round stoppage.

He is weighed down by grand expectations, but appears to revel in the steaming pressure cooker of professional boxing.

“Pressure?” he asked. “It’s my job. I’ve had pressure for years. It’s my job, it’s my hobby. I’m being paid to do something I love. There are people under a lot more pressure than I am.”

The pressure has been cranked-up by promoter Matchroom’s public desire to “fast track” Yafai to stardom.

Last time out, in November, Galal gained his first negative publicity after labouring to a 10 round, split decision win over Gohan Rodriguez Garcia, who had lost only one of 14 going into the contest.

That’s the measure of the expectation surrounding Galal.

“People are entitled to their opinions,” he said. “I entered the fight with a foot injury and if I’d had that foot injury in the Olympics, I wouldn’t have won them.”

Galal Yafai is a rare talent. After four fights, he remains a work in progress. The best is yet to come.

It’s time the public realised that – and learned to enjoy watching a fighter evolve to world title status.