Mudway: “It’s a sink or swim sport - I’ll prove I can swim!”

Max Mudway outlines future plans to this reporter

AN absolute pleasure to meet a boxer they’re all talking about, Max Mudway, at Birmingham’s Eastside gym on Sunday morning.

As exclusively revealed on this site, Mudway, unbeaten in seven, takes a step-up on Tommy Owens’ June 10 show at Planet Ice, Solihull.

The light-middle, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, faces Basi Razaq in an English title eliminator.

Watching the 27-year-old spar with Sam Eggington, I’d say he’s ready for bigger things. I would’ve paid to witness the behind-closed-doors session.

And Mudway certainly looks the part. He has the chiselled features of a prizefighter.

“It’s a sink or swim sport,” he told me, “and I’m going to show I can swim.

“I’m looking to push on. For me, it’s about fighting the top lads.”

Max is positively straining at the leash.

Max Mudway….matched in an English title eliminator

The former carpenter  - “I hated that job,” he laughed - has, in the early stages of his career, proved a revelation. As an amateur, he won around 24 of 27 contests, captured a handful of titles and reached a national semi-final.

Yet the man who carries the nickname “Maximus” turned over without fanfare and with little expectation on his shoulders.

“I never had a massive plan to turn pro,” he said. “I had a two year break from my amateur career, took a white collar fight for a bit of money and it gave me the buzz back.

“When I first turned pro, I wanted to rush, rush, rush. But as you go through the process, you realise the process works for you. You realise it’s more to do with what you do outside the ring than inside the ring – the training, the weight-cutting, the driving for sparring…”

One thing is for sure: we’ll know a lot more about Max Mudway after the battle with Bradford’s Basi Razaq.