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| Stoke’s English lightweight champion, Scott Lawton took time out from his busy training schedule to talk about his campaign to relieve Norwich’s Jon Thaxton of the coveted “Lonsdale Belt’. 30 year old father of one, Lawton travels to Norwich on 16th March to challenge local man Thaxton who is making his first defence of the British lightweight title. |  Click for larger image © Karl Stubbs Impact Boxing |
“Everyone who knows me knows that I’ve always wanted to fight for the British title. I’ve wanted it ever since I started in the amateurs when I was 13.” Said Lawton, “So I suppose you could say that I’ve been preparing for this fight for 17 years now. I have never doubted that my chance would come but now its here it’s still a big thrill, especially since I’m the first man from Stoke to fight for the British title for a very long time.”
“On the whole my training has gone to plan; I did get a bit ahead of schedule earlier on but I had a cold which stopped my training for a few days so I’m now back on track. Overall I’m very pleased with the way things have gone in the gym.”
“People, including Jon Thaxton, have been saying that this is the biggest fight of my life and I can’t argue with them. People won’t be surprised therefore when I say that I’ve been training harder than ever before. For example: in the past I’ve always trained twice a day but for this fight I’ve trained three times every day and I am now fitter than I’ve ever been and as a consequence, with nearly two weeks to go, I am down to the championship weight limit already.”
“I’m doing a few things differently in training this time; some things because it’s a British title fight and some because my opponent is Jon Thaxton. Because Jon is renowned for his strength I need to be as strong as he is so I’ve been doing a lot of weights and a lot of work on my core strength. On top of that, most of my sparring has been with lads who are a lot heavier than me and because we’ve rotated sparring partners they have been a lot fresher than me too.”
“During this build-up I’ve had around fifteen different sparring partners all with different strengths so they have all been able to set me different challenges. You can never say that you’ve prepared for every eventuality but I am confident that I’ve got most of them covered.”
“Fighting in Norwich doesn’t worry me, I’m used to fighting on away shows and after all I went to Doncaster and beat Stefy Bull for the English title on his own turf. There will be no pressure on me this time; people should try boxing on their own shows when they are involved in promoting them, that’s real pressure.”
“I haven’t had too many tickets but I expect to have about 150 fans there with me and although there won’t be too many of them they will make a lot of noise. I’ve always had a great support and my fans really do give me a great lift.”
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Jon Thaxton; he said that he would make me his first defence and he has been good to his word. A lot is talked about his strength and his punching power and he has both in abundance but he’s also a very good boxer and a clever one too. I’ve worked on my strength, I’ve sparred Gary Reid who is also a heavy hitter hundreds of times in the past and I am a clever boxer as well so I am happy that I have a good chance. Having said that, I know that this will be the most difficult fight of my career to date but I am really looking forward to the challenge and can’t wait for next Friday to come around.”
“Along with my coaches I’ve been watching a lot of Jon Thaxton fights and, as good as he is, we have identified a few weaknesses in his game which I hope to take advantage of. I’m sure he’s identified my weaknesses too and I can only hope that I have more success in exploiting his than he does in exploiting mine.”
“I’ve been asked if I’ve got a strategy for beating Jon. What I’d like to do is to pin him in my corner while my trainer hits him over the head with the stool but seriously, once the bell goes for the first round all the best plans in the world can go straight out of the window. I don’t expect Jon to play to the same script as me so I’ve got plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D etc.”
“Jon has got a great record, especially since he’s made his comeback, and he’s been in with some very good opponents including Ricky Hatton and Eamonn Magee but on the night records count for nothing. There will only be the two of us in the ring and by the end of the 12 rounds the only record that will count will be the record we have against each other.”
“I do expect him to come forward from the first bell and for him to try to cut me off as much as possible but I’m used to sparring in a 10’ x 10’ ring in the gym so I’m not easy to pin down. The only prediction that I’ll make is that I will give it at least 110% and that the people of Stoke-on-Trent will be proud of me at the end of the contest.”
“At the end of the day it’s Scott Lawton versus Jon Thaxton for the British lightweight title and whoever is best prepared and boxes best on the night will emerge the winner.”
Tickets for the event, dubbed “Showdowns@The Showground’, can be obtained from Impact Boxing on 0845 156 7168 or Hennessy Sports on 01603 868606.
In other news today Doncaster’s Stefy Bull has secured himself a face-off against Amir Khan at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on 7th April.
Scott Lawton defeated Bull last June to lift the English lightweight title. Lawton said: “I’ve got a lot of time for Stefy, he’s a talented boxer and I wish him well. I, for one, will be cheering for Stefy to win.”
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