Windle’s real life Cinderella story
Matt Windle…closing in on a world title shot.
SOMETIMES reality emerges, at freight train speed, from the fog of hopes, dreams and fantasies to strike with shuddering impact.
The Cinderella story surrounding Matt Windle carries the kind of seismic power that smashes down the boundaries between fact and fiction.
Windle, through self-belief that is near armour plated, last year overcame disappointments at Midlands title level to claim the long dormant Commonwealth light-flyweight title. That’s 7st 10lbs, a weight most of us last visited at junior school.
In Leeds last October, Matt halted unbeaten South African Siphelele Myeza in the 11th round to claim a belt that had not been contested for over a century.
It’s a real-life Rocky Balboa story made in Birmingham – and, like the movie franchise, there are a number of sequels lined-up.
In April, Birmingham’s Windle will defend the belt. That will be the first time a Commonwealth light-flyweight champ has put his title on the line for 121 years.
After that, an inter-continental fight beckons – and victory would place Windle within touching distance of a world title shot.
That is the near unbelievable reality that has been forged and hardened by Windle from the raw, unstable and molten ingredients of willpower, courage and dogged determination.
He is an enigma, a journalist’s dream yet to be unearthed by the London fight press.
The man has defied odds and re-written tried and tested boxing scripts.
*A former Birmingham poet laureate, he’s the only fighter to hold down a day job as a professional poet.
*He has risen to the top despite twice failing – albeit controversially – to lift the Midlands flyweight crown.
*At 32, he’s boiled down to light-flyweight – that defies physical and biological logic. Even boxers put on weight as the years advance. Those who competed in the minimum weight categories in their early 20s either moved up to featherweight or quit.
Windle – the most articulate pro on the circuit - has done it in reverse. After boxing, a career in the lucrative slimming industry beckons.
Pictures of Matt on the scales for his title winning fight drew social media messages of concern. The comments were understandable: he looked gaunt and unhealthy, yet, come fight night, had the strength and stamina to carry knockout power down the stretch.
Windle had the last laugh and is still sporting a broad smile.
“The comments, they put some powerful things on there,” he said this week. “But I re-hydrated and still carried power into the 11th round. That wouldn’t have happened if I was dead at the weight.
“It frightens some people how I’m getting lighter as I get older, that’s because I’m not cutting corners in the gym.
“It’s not fun to make (the weight). I’m a 32-year-old man, I enjoy my food. I can abstain from everything else, but food is my weakness.
“Something my old trainer told me has stuck with me – fighters should look physically hungry when they get on the scales. Nowadays, you see too many fighters getting on the scales looking comfortable.
“And I’m a light-flyweight, that’s the right fighting weight. I’m not physically bigger than others in the division. When I fought Tommy Frank (for the British flyweight title, lost points), he was so much bigger than me.
“Spencer (trainer Spencer McCracken) is terrific at knowing exactly where I should be with the weight.”
At times, it appears the boxer – tough as boot leather, durable as a Dunlop tyre – struggles to comprehend the success.
“It’s when I watch Commonwealth title fights on TV,” he laughed. “I think, ‘I’ve got one of those belts in my wardrobe.”
Windle, who has won seven of 12 (one draw) is, as champion, in the driver’s seat. He and his team are now plotting a course to the very top.
“We’re looking at a defence in April,” he said. “That will be another bit of history – the first defence in 121 years.
“We’re looking at a winnable defence. At this level, there’s no such thing as an easy defence. They’re all tough fights and we’re looking for a credible opponent.”
Simple geography maybe yet another hurdle slung in Windle’s career path. The light-flyweight division has, in Britain, been in hibernation for a number of years.
Matt has revived it, but that still means searching for opponents in the lands of the little fighting men – Japan, Korea, South Africa, South America, the Philippines…
British promoters face prohibitive air fare fees to clinch big, meaningful title fights for Windle.
The Birmingham star insists he’s ready.
He added: “I’ve had hard fights and shown I’m not out of my class. I’ve had my hard fights, now it’s about getting an opponent who’s beatable, but credible.”