Tompkins: my next fights is for the kids

Todd Tompkins…looks for his fourth straight win in February

RUSHDEN, a Northamptonshire town famed for shoe and boot-making, has discovered a scrapping sole brother in Todd Tompkins.

A community built on leather and laces has found an unlikely boxing ace in Tompkins.

The 28-year-old, trained at Birmingham’s Eastside gym, is hailed as a local hero. His community gym, Titan Fitness, is wildly popular, he has converted an old builder’s truck and hung punchbags inside to deliver mobile boxing workshops at schools. He gives anti-knife crime lectures and carries out endless charity work.

Ticket sales from the southpaw super-middleweights next scrap, at Coventry’s Sports Connexion on February 22, will go towards providing Rushden kids with free boxing lessons and kitting them out.

Tompkins, who registered three straight wins in 2024, believes in giving something back to his hometown.

And he’d love to one day reward supporters by headlining a pro show in Rushden. “That’s a dream for me,” he said. “And if it happened, I’d sell 500 to 600 tickets, easy.”

For Tompkins, who stressed his future lies at middleweight, a professional baptism of fire came early.

At a time when most fledgling pros are cutting their teeth against unambitious journeyman, Todd faced fellow hungry, unbeaten apprentice Jay Castledine, a steely Sheffield lad who came to win. It was a risk, a big ask, that came when fighters don’t take risks.

The result was a cracking, pulsating contest, with Tompkins digging deep and taking the decision.

“It was exactly what I needed,” he said. “I had to bite down on my gumshield and give it everything I had. It made me realises I can be dragged into the trenches and find that extra 10 per cent. I can find that extra 10 per cent and keep fighting.

“It opens your eyes and builds you up in your head. It’s a scrap, sink or swim and I swam.”

Tompkins, who had only 10 amateur bouts for Kettering ABC, refreshingly refuses to make bold predictions about future British titles and, heaven’s forbid, world honours.

Living the dream is enough. Seeing his gym’s membership swell after each contest is reward enough. He’ll settle for being treated like sporting royalty in Rushden.

“It’s been a very positive year,” likeable Tompkins said. “Everything is going fantastically in the gym, the fanbase is growing and growing. What I’m doing is inspiring people to get up in a morning and go on a run. I see it, 100 per cent. After every fight, I have more people coming into the gym.

“All I ever wanted to do was have one pro fight, that was all I wanted. To think I’m taking part in my fourth is a bit overwhelming.

“I need to keep boxing, I want to keep boxing – losses don’t matter to me. I want to box until I can’t box any more, I’m here for the long run. I need it in my life, I want it in my life.

“Whatever opportunities come, I’ll take them. I feel positive and like having a ruck.”

There is, Tompkins admits, an awful lot still to learn.

“You never stop learning,” he said. “I’m a sponge, taking everything in. I’m learning in a gym packed with top fighters and it’s a privilege to learn alongside fighters such as Sam Eggington and Shakan Pitters with what they’ve done.

“It’s still a learning game, it’s a game where it could all be over in your next fight, where you don’t count your chickens until they’ve hatched. I’m not getting carried away, I’ll keep doing my bit, keep providing entertainment, keep inspiring people.”

For a brief moment in time, Rushden made sporting headlines through football team Rushden and Diamonds, which entered the football league in 2001 and crashed out of it in 2006.

It may have now found a boxing gem in Todd Tompkins.

And whatever happens on February 22, the town’s kids will be winners.