New manager Adam happy to learn ropes with the journeymen

Adam Harper with his first pro signing Shane Smith

FORMER champ Adam Harper is carving a new career on the other side of the ropes after gaining his manager and match-maker licences.

And the former English light-middleweight champ doesn’t give a fig if he fails to sign a super-star. Tewkesbury’s most famous boxer is more than happy to work with “have gloves, will travel” journeymen.

They’re the brave band of blood brothers who take away day fights knowing victory is unlikely. The pay-day is everything. They’re the men destined to never hear the roar of an adoring public, only scattered ring walk boos.

That mentality was summed up perfectly by Shane Smith, the first man to turn pro with Harper. He told me: “I just want to earn some money.”

Harper, who also collected a Midlands title and competed for the Commonwealth belt in Australia, even announced: “I want to be the next Nobby Nobbs! Winners are in the blue corners, losers in the red. Mine are in the red ones.”

Back in the day, Nobbs’ band of boxers tasted defeat so regularly, his stable was dubbed “Losers Inc.”

Adam last fought in 2020 – a televised stoppage defeat to Anthony Fowler – and intended to walk away from the pro game completely, but, like so many others, simply couldn’t: the boxing bug bites deep.

Rather than make an ill-advised comeback, he decided to pass-on his skills to others.

“Boxing is the biggest drug in the world,” he said. “Apart from sugar, it’s the only addiction that’s been in my life. I want to be in the game, I love boxing.”

And he believes he’s already created a piece of fight history: “I’m pretty sure I’m Gloucestershire’s first Board of Control manager, but if I’m wrong, I’ll take it on the chin.”

The 36-year-old currently manages Smith, a Pershore welter-cum light-middle of travelling stock, and trains Worcester’s Michael Mooney. “Mad Man” Mooney, veteran of over 130 fights, is one of the game’s larger-than-life characters.

Michael Mooney...one of game's larger-than-life characters

More boxers are poised to sign on the dotted line.

“It’s a bit like the transfer window,” he said. “There were two or three lined-up, but they all fell through for one reason or another.”

For the manager of journeymen who fight on a near fortnightly basis, the schedule is hectic, the miles amassed in pursuit of paydays are many.

Harper was in Barnsley with 31-year-old Smith on August 31 and Newcastle seven days before that. On September 21 it’s Glasgow’s Thistle Hotel.

He was by 39-year-old Mooney’s side in Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear, on July 27, Beverley, Yorkshire, seven days earlier.

For the leader of such frequent fighters, a satnav is as important as a spit bucket. It’s Top Gear with blood and bruises.

“I know my place,” Harper said. “I have some of the best second-place fighters in the country. I’m new, building my experience and what I’m learning on the road is invaluable. The experience I’m picking up – not just in the ring, but the business side – is invaluable.

“There are really, really good managers who have monopolised the Midlands, but they had to start somewhere. I know my place.”

Harper does, however, harbour the same ambitions as those well-known managers. He wants to one day guide a prospect to the top, he’d love to sign an elite amateur.

But he insists that doesn’t define success. Titles talk, blood money matters.

Harper is serving his apprenticeship with Smith, who has a white collar background. Lesson one has already been learnt: say “no”, regardless of the cash incentive, when an opponent poses too many risks: say “no” despite a promoter’s persistence and pleas.

And Smith is being moulded into a capable journeyman. Apart from one stoppage – “my fault,” Harper admitted, “I agreed to six rounds and I shouldn’t have” - he’s taken rounds from home boxers and claimed one victory in his five fights to date.

Both are learning the ropes in tandem.

Back in the day...Harper gained Midlands and English titles

“Shane’s a travelling boy,” said Harper, “it’s their cultural sport. He’s been doing some sort of hand-to-hand fighting all his life.”

Mooney, very much his own man, is a different proposition. Stacked with experience, he knows all the old pro tricks, can look after himself in good company and is recognised as one of the ring’s great survivors.

Put a blindfold on Michael and he’d still go the distance.

There’s a baffling inconsistency about Harper’s new direction in the game. In his title chasing heyday, he had absolutely no desire to share a ring with journeymen to stay sharp, remove ring rust and keep active. He stated that loudly and publicly.

“I can’t get up for those fights,” he once told me. “I’d look poor, you’d write about me looking poor and, in any case, I think a good spar against a good lad is better than fighting someone who has won four of 80 contests.”

Now he’s become a torch-bearer for the breed. That is quite a U-turn.

“One hundred per cent my attitude has changed,” he said. “I now know amateur boxing is the greatest sport in the world, professional boxing is a business. It’s a money game, showbiz with blood.

“As a manager, you could have seven, eight, nine fighters and you’re lucky if one boxes for a British title.

“I know my place and if that means working with journeymen for the next 10 years, so be it.”