Windle - the champ hungry for success

Matt Windle…looking to defend light-fly title in November

FOR Matt Windle, the hunger games have begun again.

In truth, they never stop for Birmingham’s Commonwealth light-flyweight champ. There are no cheat days, no lapses from the strict dietary regime.

Squeezing his frame into the 7st 10lb division is no picnic – and picnics are definitely off limits for Windle.

The 32-year-old, a professional poet by day, has been given notice of a title defence in November, though an opponent has yet to be named.

He cannot cut corners. He cannot allow camp to be all about shedding weight. The hunger must, therefore, stay with him.

“The rest days are the worst,” Matt said. “In the gym, you’re occupied, at home you dance to the tune of your stomach. Everything is tiny portions, you constantly feel hungry.”

But Windle, who took the Commonwealth belt by stopping South African Siphelele Myeza last October, has no doubt he is competing in the right division.

That was hammered home in his last contest. Matt stepped up to flyweight and was outpointed by Connor Butller for the Commonwealth and European titles.

Those extra four pounds made a big difference. His punches didn’t carry the same authority, Windle insisted.

Each time I meet Matt, I’m staggered by the fact he resides in boxing’s basement division. He is not a man of jump-jockey proportions and, I imagine, would look trim and healthy two stone above his fighting weight.

At an age when most boxers put on pounds, Matt has lost them.

The highly articulate champ informs me his Body Mass Index reveals he is healthy at the weight. It’s a close-run thing, but he ticks the box.

Windle has learned to suffer for his art.

“I have to put myself through the mill,” he told me. “When I can’t do it anymore – when I’m 40 and it’s over – I’ll probably long to make 7st 10lbs again, I’d give anything to make it.

“I think there are too many boxers today who are focused on looking good on the scales. My old trainer always said a fighter at the right weight should look hungry. He meant that literally.”

In the weeks before a title fight, Windle looks very hungry.

“It’s not as if I’m bigger than the people I’m fighting at light-fly,” he argued. “I may be a little broader, but we’re the same size.”

Every fighter makes sacrifices, Windle makes more than most – and the spartan regime has paid dividends.

After two controversial losses in Midlands title shots, Windle took his game to another level. He registered a superb win over Neil McCubbin, fought valiantly against Tommy Franks for the British 8st title, then grabbed Commonwealth glory.

It’s a Cinderella story. A man who entered the professional ranks without fanfare or grand expectations has challenged for Midlands, British, Commonwealth and European belts. A world title shot is no longer a pipedream.

Frankly, that is not a sentence I ever expected to include in Matt Windle articles.

There is, however, a downside to being Britain’s Lord of the light-flys. Domestically, it’s a lonely place.

No one has fought for the British light-flyweight title since Billy Hughes beat Alf Thornhill in 1927 and the division was buried by our own Board of Control long ago. It is also defunct in Europe.

The decision is understandable. Quite simply, we didn’t have anyone at the weight: it is the domain of world class operators from the Far East.

Windle passionately believes the Board are looking at the issue from entirely the wrong angle. We don’t have any light-flyweights because there isn’t a British title for them to compete for, he argues.

“When there are eight people or more in a division, the Board will recognise it with a British title,” he said.

“My argument is you won’t go to something that isn’t there. If there was a British flyweight title, I’m sure a number of flyweights would try to lose four pounds to compete for it.

“Let’s be honest, if given a choice between fighting Jay Harris for the flyweight title or me for the light-flyweight, who do you think most are going to pick?”

Windle added: “It’s not going to happen during my career, but if one day a British boxers fights for a British and European title there’ll be a smile on my face. I’ll think, I played a small part in that.”

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