Reality TV star Jack Fincham aims to turn professional
Jack Fincham told iFL TV at September 20’s Ultimate Boxxer event that he was planning on turning professional soon.
The former stationery salesman, who won Love Island in 2018 coupled up with Dani Dyer, first praised the Ultimate Boxxer format when asked by iFL TV’s Oscar Bevis, “I tell you why I love the concept right, because there’s no protecting your record, boxing journeymen, padding the record; it’s geezers that haven’t lost, it’s explosive over three rounds, that wanna’ come and take your head off, there's no one there to fill the gaps, they all want that money, it’s pure adrenaline, energy, everyone’s there to win.”
The super-welterweights tournament, the fifth Ultimate Boxxer event to date, was won by former Olympian and tournament favourite Steven Donnelly after stopping Maidstone’s ‘Gypsy Warrior’ Lenny Fuller in the second round of the final.
Fincham continued to heap praise upon the event, “It’s a party, the difference is it’s a night out as well, people that ain’t necessarily into boxing will come and watch Ultimate Boxxer ‘cos you’re gonna’ see knockdowns, you’re gonna’ see knockouts, people wouldn’t necessarily sit there and watch a 12-round fight, but would definitely come to this to have a few drinks with their mates, there’s music, it’s a really good night actually, and they can see a bit of action.”
Fincham first started competing in boxing back when he was 14-years-old and had 26 amateur fights for Eltham ABC. He had plans then to turn pro when he was old enough, but admits to discovering girls and going out instead.
“I went back to boxing not that long ago and then started filming a tv show, so couldn’t commit as much as I wanted to,” he explained about his own boxing career.
“With boxing, you can’t play boxing, you can’t do it half-heartedly, you’ve gotta’ be there every day in that gym, working; now I’ve sort of managed to work my life around the boxing, I’ve gone back to it properly, and I do wanna’ turn over, I do wanna’ turn pro. I meant to do it at the age of 18 but circumstances change and I didn’t do it. I had gone back to boxing, I had another senior fight at the age of 24, I lost that actually, he was a very good kid actually, I was at the wrong weight; but now I’ve just got that fire in my stomach again, I wanna’ be healthy, I wanna’ be fit, I wanna’ feel good about myself, and boxing, it’s like a medicine, you just feel good about yourself in every shape and form.”
Asked about the YouTubers, KSI and Logan Paul, Jack laughed, “I would smash the pair of them!”
He then admitted that, despite the ludicrousness of the match-up, the rematch between the popular gamers would be good for the sport, “What I think is really important is that boxing does move with the times, different audiences will think ‘Oh I will tune into that’, so you got all these YouTubers that would watch Logan Paul and KSI that wouldn’t necessarily go and buy a Pacquiao fight on Pay-Per-View, but then you got the likes of Billy Joe Saunders boxing on it and hopefully they’ll then go and follow his career as well.
“So for boxing it is really, really good and I love the way that boxing is moving and you’ve got to move with the times and this is def where it’s going and I think its brilliant.”
He concluded the interview talking about his good friend Archie Sharp from Welling, “Archie, we’ve boxed together since we were kids and I’ve watched him win every amateur title there is and when I watched him go and win that WBO European title, I was just so proud of him.
“Anything that’s been put in front of him, he can deal with; he’s a switch-hitter, he can adapt to different kind of fighters, as he done when he boxed Leon Woodstock, I was there, he rolled his sleeves up and had a fight with the kid. Everyone thinks that Archie just dances around but he don’t, if he wants to stand and have a fight, then he can.
“Archie, 100 per cent, will be a world champion, anything that’s thrown in front of him, he can deal with it.”
Watch the interview in full here: