Amateur Focus: Josh Leather

Reigning 60kg ABA champion Josh Leather is playing a waiting game.

Almost six months on from his triumph in the senior ABA finals at York Hall, the 20-year-old Wellington ABC star is hoping that the phone will ring and he'll get the opportunity join up with the GB squad.

If, however, Rob McCracken and his team never call on the North East puncher's services, then he'll begin to look at his options in the pro game.

"My plan is to give it another year in the amateurs so I can try and get on GB, but if that doesn't happen then I'll turn pro," Leather told HattonBoxing.

"After I won the ABAs I boxed for England against a lad from Scotland and the development squad rang me up to go on assessment, but I've not heard anything since.

"When the next international comes up I should hopefully get called up.

"My plan is to make it to the Commonwealth Games in two years, but to do that I need to be ranked at number one.

"I was ranked number two in the Boxing News with Sam Maxwell ahead of me, but if I can get a fight with him and beat him then I'll be number one.

"There's only one lad stopping me getting on the podium squad and that's Maxwell. He beat me when I was 18 [in the 2011 ABA semi-finals] but I've improved since then."

While the Great Britain team may not have come calling, professional promoters certainly have.

In fact Leather had to start beating off their advances almost as soon as he stepped out of the ring after his senior ABA title success.

He explained: "About five minutes after the ABA final was over Dean Powell came up to me and asked if I wanted to turn pro with Frank Warren.

"He said to give it some time and let him know what my thoughts were.

"I gave it about a month and I had a word with my coaches, Frankie Cunningham and John Dryden, and they said to stay amateur for another year to see what happens with the GB team."

Leather, who once defeated Hatton Promotion's own Scott Jenkins, started boxing when he was just nine years of age.

Along with his twin brother Callum, Josh went to a boxing club close to his home because he'd been told about it by friends at school and he's been in love with the sweet science ever since.

"Me and Callum were sparring on the first night and we loved it because we both liked to have a fight at the time," he recalled.

"All my mates used to go as well but over time they stopped and got into things like drugs, but me and my brother stuck at it and we're still always in the gym now."

For some boxers a training session can get them away from the watchful eye of their parents, but not for Leather as his father Alan is also one of Wellington ABC's coaches.

And that paternal bond has been one of the key factors in the young Guisborough stylist winning four national titles overall as a junior and senior.

Currently Josh has to balance his training around a full-time job. One day, though, he hopes that boxing will provide him with all the work and wealth he needs.

And like all young and upcoming fighters he dreams of picking up a plethora of titles on his way to reaching the sport's summit.

One suspects he might just get there.