'Babyface' Jack Bateson has practically cleaned up as junior
amateur but one national title has alluded him so far.
The 17-year-old from Leeds has a trophy cabinet to make Ryan
Giggs jealous. However, a CYP medal is not amongst those currently
gleaming inside his parent's living room.
This Friday night, though, he gets the opportunity to correct
that when he takes on West Ham's Sam Cox in the 48kg Class B CYP
finals at Elland Road in his home city.
"I've won four national titles so far but I've not won the CYPs
yet," he told Hatton Boxing. "I won three schoolboy titles and I
won a junior ABA title this year so a CYP medal is the only one
that's missing.
"Last year I think I could have had a good chance in it but I
was too light to go in any of the tournaments and ended up missing
out on a season."
Sam Cox is something of an unknown quantity to Bateson. The
Londoner made history earlier this year by becoming the world's
youngest referee, but Jack says he knows nothing else about
him.
"I've never boxed him before and I've never seen any of his
fights," Bateson admitted, "But I know that West Ham is one of the
best amateur boxing clubs in the country so it's going to be a
tough bout.
"He's got to the final so he must be half-decent and that's what
I've prepared myself for."
The incentives for solid performances this season are immense.
Already the young Yorkshireman has enjoyed testing his mettle
against the cream of Britain's amateur talent at the GB base in
Sheffield and he knows that positive competition results could lead
to him training their more often.
"I'm currently on assessment for the GB squad so I need to keep
doing the best I can," he revealed.
"I've done my first trial and I should be going back in a couple
of weeks. If they like what they see then hopefully I'll be on the
development squad.
"Charlie Edwards is at my weight on podium so sparring with him
regularly will be good and we can really help each other out."
And things could happen quickly for Bateson if he can get into
the funded Great Britain set-up.
The aforementioned Edwards could be tempted to go pro if he
either fails at April's Olympic qualifiers in Istanbul or has a
stellar games in London during the summer. Either way, the result
could be a rapid rise to podium status for Bateson.
"At lot could happen overnight, but I'll just take things one
step at a time.
"Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 and the Rio Olympics in 2016
are my main aims now. I definitely want to make it to them and then
possibly look at going into a pro career. I want to do things as a
senior amateur to get my name out there."
Jack was virtually born into boxing with his dad, Mark, being a
long time trainer, manager and promoter. However, the youthful
puncher says the sweet science wasn't his first love as child.
"I've been brought up around boxing all my life because of my
dad. My brother boxed but I used to always say I wasn't interested
in it and played football everyday," he recalled.
"Then at the age of nine I went into the gym and gave it a go. I
had my first fight at 11 and won my first 13 before boxing for
England and losing by a point. Since then I've just kept at and
I've never looked back.
"I've had 43 fights, won 39 and only lost four. Two of those
losses I've avenged as well."
Outside of training at Burmantofts ABC, Bateson's life is
dominated by boxing as he spends his days learning about different
sides of the sport at Bradford College.
"I'm doing what's known as an Ace course, which is a boxing and
sports studies course. I do my training but I also do video
analysis of my performances and learn the ins and outs of boxing
technically," he explained.
"We learn about what judges see and all the things I wouldn't
even have thought about two years ago.
"Since I've been there I've had my best year to date. I'm
training with a coach called Kevin Smith, who used to be the
trainer at the Golden Gloves Amateur Boxing Club in Liverpool, and
he was also the England and Scotland coach so all there is to know
and is teaching me a lot."
He'll look to put more of that know-how into practice when he
enters the ring on Friday.
By Andrew Wake
23/11/2011 00:01:36