Fightdens Hot Prospect Jamie Long
Jamie Long is being tipped to be the next big unlicensed/white collar Heavyweight to come out of Fightden. Long from Yardley is only 20 years old and is 6 foot 3 fighting out of an orthodox stance. Long's record in unlicensed is an impressive one with 5 wins 1 draw and no defeats, he trained at Hall Green ABC for two year but never had a fight. He now trains at Fightden where he has been training for the last year and has fought on several of the Fightden shows and also fought away in Leeds and other city’s under the tutelage of the Fightden team.
I asked James who his favourite fighter was and why, he informed me ,”I would have to say Roy Jones Jr because of his fantastic footwork and shot power from all angles”. My next question was What is the best fight you have saw? Long replied “Got to be Eubank Snr v Joe Calzaghe what a great fight”.I then asked the young up and coming Heavyweight who has been boxing on and off for 6 years, what inspired me to take up boxing? He told me “I was always a hot head growing up and would take my anger on the people closest to me, at the time I was into my football and loved playing it but I was overweight. I had always been in and out of boxing gyms but then found my love for boxing at Hall Green ABC”. Long smiled as he recalled “my mom went to a psychic, normally I don't believe in all of that paranormal stuff but the psychic said my granddad told her that I need to forget football and focus on boxing and that's when I knew I needed to stick at it”.
My final question to Jamie was what has been your hardest fight and why? Long said it would have to be my most recent fight against a tough guy called Danny Yates, he was a very strong bloke who has been boxing for the majority of his life. I knocked him down in the first round and then managed to keep to my boxing and land clean shots for the last two rounds and win on unanimous decision.
Dexter’s Thoughts
I first meet Jamie at Fightden just over a year ago, he was a chubby lad about 17-18 stone and very much out of condition. He has trained hard to get down to a trim 15 something stone and I have watched this young man’s boxing skills and confidences improve tenfold over his year at Fightden. When he first came to Fightden my initial thoughts where when sparring him that he had the basics down but had no stamina due to how over weight he was. Now he has dropped the weight and his stamina has increased he has become a formidable opponent in sparring and seems to have captured some of my boxing elements showing some nice slipping and movement with a great eye for shot selection.
In my opinion he is going to be a great boxer and it is only a matter of time before the titles start coming in. He is by far not the finished article but he is young and hungry and if he continues to progress the why he is going I could even see a pro career taking off in a few years if he choices to go down that path.
What I do know as I hang up my gloves is that Jamie will make some noise and win some titles in the heavyweight or even cruiserweight unlicensed scene. Can he beat the 5 titles I have won we will have to wait and see, but I will be passing on my skills and knowledge to Fightdens hot prospect and will be happy if he does.