Welcome to Nathan ‘The Wire’ Wheatley’s weekly column – Through the Wire – exclusive to BBN
For the first instalment, the 9-0 middleweight from Warrington provides readers with a brief introduction to him and his journey so far:
Firstly, I’d like to thank British Boxing News for allowing me to write this weekly column to let fans, friends and family know what I’m up to. I’m really excited and honoured to be able to have this outlet every week and I had best kick it off by explaining a bit more about me.
I’m currently nine fights unbeaten and getting ready for my next fight on July 27 at Bolton’s Macron Stadium on the undercard of former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price’s (22-5) return from defeat.
I was in high school when I first started boxing, I would have been about Year 8 in school, so 13 or 14, when I first went to an amateur gym – Hook and Jab in Warrington, otherwise known as Bridgefoot ABC.
There was a lad a couple of years above me who was an amateur boxer and everyone made such a fuss of him that I thought to myself, ‘I want some of that!’
I had about 40-50 fights in the amateurs and won just over half of those. I reached the finals of the schoolboys when it was under 10 fights and lost to Terry Needham, who has now been a pro since 2010.
Martin Murray was my main influence in turning professional. I looked up to him, and it was Martin who took me up to his gym and introduced me to Oliver Harrison, who I first turned over with in 2014.
I was getting brilliant sparring with Martin and Rocky Fielding, but I only had two fights with Oliver, beating Dee Mitchell (9-65-2) and Aaron Robinson (0-8) on points in 2014 and 2015, then moved on to Kieran Farrell and racked up another five points wins, all between April 2016 to March 2017.
I did well under Kieran, and he landed me a shot at the Central Area middleweight title, which was great for me, but I got injured so couldn’t go through with it.
He kept me busy and got me the right opportunities, but then I got injured and I had to take a year out to recover.
I used to go to Matthew Hatton’s gym to spar his lads and got to know him, and I’m really pleased to be working with him now.
I’ve had two fights under Matt, the first was in March this year – almost exactly a year on from my last fight – and in May just gone – both four-round points wins to take me 9-0.
My next outing in Bolton will be my third appearance this year, all within the space of just 17 weeks, so I couldn’t be happier with how things are going.
It’ll be my first six-rounder, so I’m stepping up the sparring to incorporate more rounds and increasing the fitness side of things in preparation for this fight.
This next fight could take my win tally to double figures and edge me closer to a Central Area title shot, so I’m really working hard in the gym with Matt to make sure I keep winning and continue moving forwards. Can't wait for the next one!
To follow Nathan ‘The Wire’ Wheatley on Twitter, click here @0401_nathan
Nathan would like to thank his sponsors Eat Clean Cuisine and Agent Tim Rickson