Big show the setting for Harvey Horn debut
The worst time to suffer a dip in form is right before your most important contests. Everything you have worked towards can be snatched from your grasp due to a temporary malaise.
Harvey Horn knows this situation only too well. Having been eliminated early from a couple of tournaments, Bethnal Green light-flyweight Horn saw Galal Yafai – whom he had beaten en route to an Elite national title in 2014 – picked ahead of him for a qualifier for the 2016 Olympics.
European silver medallist Horn, who has significant experience in the five-round WSB format, channelled his disappointment and expects to move fast when his professional career begins on the big December 9 Frank Warren show in London featuring James DeGale and Lee Selby defending their IBF titles.
"In two years I'm aiming to have at least one title behind me," Horn, now 22 and a super-fly, declares. "I've been boxing at the highest level for the past three years so the domestic titles shouldn't be a problem for me; not that I'm overlooking them, I'm just aware of my level.
"My domestic rivals are Joe Maphosa, Sunny Edwards and Jay Harris [who meets Matt Chanda for the vacant British super-fly belt on Monday]. I've seen quite a bit on Edwards and Maphosa, they was on the GB Development squad when I was on Podium and they've both got good qualities. Joe is quick with a good engine and Sunny is very slippery. I've only watched Jay Harris win the Commonwealth [flyweight title] from [Thomas] Essomba – an opponent I beat in the ABAs at 18 – and I thought he was also a good boxer but nothing I couldn't beat after a few fights."
Confidence is clearly in ample supply, a product both of his unpaid pedigree and the hard work Horn has been putting in with trainer Mark Tibbs, ahead of the transition. Horn, who began boxing aged 10 at Gator ABC before donning Repton green five years later, is another decorated but perhaps underhyped amateur standout to join the Warren/BT Sport revolution.
"I chose Warren because he has a great TV platform with BoxNation and BT Sport," he confirms. "Also he has a couple of good flyweights and super-flys that will be good domestic fights for me in the next few years.
"My pro style is going to be my same amateur slick style but more on the front foot, going to make myself as exciting as possible without getting into wars."
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