Ellett needs to put demons of defeat to rest
Brighton boxer ‘Lightning Bolt’ Lloyd Ellett recently moved up to 20-1 on April 1st and looks poised to challenge for major titles later this year.
However, the disciplined 29-year-old prospect will not allow himself to move on in his career until he avenges the only blemish on his respectable record against his solitary conqueror – Ryan Toms.
“I want to rematch with Ryan Toms next,” said the Lightning Bolt. “I feel like I’ve got to get that done before I can push on.”
His only loss came in October last year at the hands of two-time Southern Area champion, Toms (14-13-2) at the Brighton Metropole, a result which still haunts him six months on.
He continued to say, “You could argue that I don’t deserve a title shot ahead of him because he beat me so I need to set the record straight, and also once I get that sorted then I’m unbeaten again and got enough experience to go on.”
Toms southpaw stance caused the home fighter several problems during the scheduled eight-round bout, culminating with a flush left hook in the sixth round that had him floored, much to the surprise of the biased crowd.
Despite the bravest of efforts that found Ellett repeatedly climbing off the canvas, referee Lee Cook eventually halted proceedings with just 12 seconds to go on the clock, ending his four-year unbeaten run.
Ellett swiftly bounced back to defeat Faheem Khan for the second time last December in London on a Hellraiser Promotions event; next came Slovakian victim, Andrej Moravek back in Brighton in February this year; followed up promptly with a win over Polish opponent, Adam Grabiec in April in his 21st professional contest at the Tolworth Recreation Centre in Surrey.
The 29-year-old Sussex fighter is slated to fight next on June 17th at the Brighton Metropole and has been given a boost by recently switching camps from Alan Smith’s iBox Gym to manager Scott Welch’s Brighton base in order to march forward in his career as he approaches half-a-decade as a prizefighter.
He commented, “Training is going awesome, the whole set up I’ve been really enjoying and it’s good to be back in my old gym where I’ve always trained and back with my old teammates. “I’ve always been dedicated but the set-up is much better and allows me to train more – three times a day.”
Welch, a former British and Commonwealth champion, has managed Ellett since the start of his pro career and their relationship in the sport extends back to his early amateur days.
Ellett is joined by many others in the Brighton and Hove boxing Club, also under the expert tutelage of former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion – Scott Welch.
“I’ll be sparring the guys in my gym in the build-up to the July fight so that’s Southern Area middleweight champion Nicky Jenman, Marcus Eaton, Derick Remfrew – he’s a big middleweight making his debut on the show – and also Chris Eubank Jr.; and there’s a lot of good amateurs in the gym, too.
“We’ll also be doing a bit of travelling around, whether its London gyms or elsewhere, we’ll definitely be doing some travelling to find some top sparring.”
The super-welterweight has campaigned at 154lbs his entire career but has recently considered dropping down a division as he increasingly weighs in lighter with each bout.
“Last fight was the lightest I’ve ever been in any of my fights,” he explained. “I haven’t weighed at 10st 10lbs for years so I can definitely make welterweight and I’ll have a lot of advantages at that weight.”
Ellett concluded, “Thank you to the fans for the support and to my sponsors KSD, Shore Group and Pingala. There’s only nine weeks to go so will have the tickets soon and you can get them from me on my website or on Twitter.”
Teammate Nicky Jenman will headline the summer show on the South East coastline in a maiden defence of his newly-attained Southern Area middleweight belt. Also appearing will be exciting unbeaten heavyweight Nick Webb, who currently has five first round finishes to his name.
To follow Lloyd Ellett on Twitter click here @lighningbolt07
Team Lightning would like to thank sponsors KSD Salt Services and The Shore Group and Pingala Media and PR Manager Tim Rickson
HÖRFA are proud sponsors of British Boxing News