Jake Melvin is a 21 year old professional boxer from Stourbridge who has hit the ground running with 3 straight wins. The 5 foot 11 welterweight trained at Hall Green ABC and then Kingstanding second city ABC for his last year as an amateur where he won 12 out of 16 contests.
Jake now trains as a pro at DP boxing club Worcester under the tutelage of his Dad and former Midlands area and Irish champ Malcom Melvin.
My first question to the young fighter was who is your favourite fighter and why. Jake I formed me “I have a few fighters I look up to, but if I was to pick one it would be Micky Ward. I’d say because he’s a warrior and I loved watching his fights with his style and famous liver shot”.
My next question to Jake was, what was your favourite fight? He told me “My all time favourite fight I’ve watched is the first Gatti vs Ward fight, but my favourite fight I’ve watched live was Froch vs Groves 2 I’d say”.
I then asked him when he started the noble art, he told me “I’ve been boxing since I was 9 or 10, I stopped competing at 15, but kept ticking over by still training just nothing serious. Then got fully back into it and had my first pro fight at 20 years of age”.
My next question is who inspired you to pick up tge noble art? He told me “I’d definitely say my dad inspired me to take up boxing, growing up watching him train people in boxing gyms always being around it, it then made me love it and made me want to box myself, and knowing my dad was a very good fighter himself it all just made me fall in love with the sport”.
My final question to Melvin was, what has been you hardest fight so far? He said “my first fight was hard because of the ring rust, however I’d say my last fight was the hardest due to being knocked down and having a 10-8 round against me, it made me have to stick to my boxing and make sure i won the remaining rounds”.
Dexter’s Thoughts
Jake is from a good stock of fighters with his dad Malcolm Melvin winning the Midlands area and Irish titles when he was a pro and also fought for the British at Welterweight and super lightweight and the WBF world and Commonwealth titles at super lightweight, so he has big shoes to fill. Jake has won all three of his fights and I was privileged to see his last one at the Eastside rooms Birmingham. Melvin boxed well and handled a test of fire when he was dropped at the end of the second. He recovered well and won the next two rounds of a four round contest to win it. He showed resilience against a fighter who came to win and still put on a excellent display of boxing.
With his father in his corner and what I have seen of him he could well surpass his father and win bigger titles in his career. I think this young fighter has a fantastic future ahead of him.