British Boxing News caught up with British middleweight champion Tommy Langford to to discuss his last fight, next fight and how he plans to get back to world level again
Birmingham's Langford moved up to 19-1 with a landslide points win over tough Nicaraguan Miguel Aguila (11-37-1) in his last fight at the First Direct Arena on October 21.
He marked his 20th professional contest with a third-round knockdown resulting in 60-53 points score over the Central American on the undercard of Josh Warrington’s successful IBF final eliminator.
Langford’s 30-year-old opponent was unbeaten in his first 10 fights and once challenged Stephane Jamoye for WBC Youth Inter-Continental title.
It was his 10th visit to the UK, having fought against Stephen Foster, Scott Cardle, Chris Jenkins, and Phillip Sutcliffe Jr previously.
The 28-year-old reflected on his 20th pro bout, “He is what he is, I mean, if you look at his record, I know he has been stopped before but not many times and when he has it was by genuine punchers.
“He was good at his job, he comes away to drag the rounds out and survive. It doesn’t make for a spectacle for the fans but it’s a six-round contest and not a championship fight so there’s a difference.
“He started to blow early on under the pressure, every time he fought back, he was fighting to hang in there. I dropped him with the body shots in the third-round and after that he just held on.
“It was hard to find the openings after that, very hard to land two or three consecutive punches on the button and, when you’re not a one-punch KO artist, you have to land more than a few in succession. Every time I caught him with one, he sprung backwards.
“I would still like to have got rid of him but, in hindsight, I punch with authority and they take enough not to hang around for more.
“It’s a good thing I got six rounds in because I’m a 12-round fighter. When I stop people, it’s through constant pressure and accumulative punching, and that always happens later in fights and not early on.
“So, it was good for me to get six-rounds in. The fight last week done its job, basically, it got me out. I needed the fight, needed to get out. It’s the whole routine of being around fight night, doing the weight, wearing the little gloves, being in the ring and back familiar with it all; I really needed it for myself and for my mental state.”
The former WBO Inter-Continental titlist, now ranked #11 with the WBO, is next due to defend his Lonsdale belt against the mandated Jack Arnfield (24-2) before the end of January 2018.
Arnfield’s manager Steve Wood won the purse bids for the championship contest so it will likely be staged in either Blackpool or Manchester before the end of January, as ordered by the Board.
“I’m waiting on a date and venue from Steve Wood. It’s looking like January next year but I’m just really looking forward to defending my British belt.
“He won purse bids so if he wants to do it in January and think it will sell then fair enough. I’ve just got to do my job and win, it doesn’t matter to me whether I do it next week, next month or next year; the result will be the same for me.
“It makes no odds to me having to travel to him. I beat everyone all over the country when I was an amateur, so I’ll do it again as a pro.
“I don’t mind missing Christmases, I’m just looking forward to defending my British title.”
It’s been six months since the 'Baggies Bomber', a nickname bestowed upon him by his West Brom FC following, stepped up to world level against Avtandil Khurtsidze (33-2-2) for the interim WBO world middleweight title. Langford was ranked at #2 with World Boxing Organisation and is his one and only conqueror was #1.
The winner was due a shot at WBO king Billy Joe Saunders next but after being arrested on RICO charges in America, the Georgian forfeited his right.
The Bideford-born boxer, trained by Tom Chaney in Birmingham, has always admitted to making a naïve mistake against the hard-hitting ‘Mini Mike Tyson’ and plans to get back to the world stage as soon as he can.
He explained how he plans to do that, “Just by keep winning fights. The route back to world level is just by winning and to just concern myself solely with my performances and that’s all I gotta’ do.
“Nothing is set in stone in boxing, the only thing I can see in front of me is this British title fight. After that, if it’s a shot at something big or another British title defence then I’ll do whatever comes first.”
Like Langford, stablemate Billy Joe Saunders is also travelling to his mandatory opponent’s back yard by heading over to Canada to defend his WBO middleweight world title to David Lemieux on December 16th.
Langford always expected Saunders to travel for his next fight once the Canadian was issued as the mandatory title defence, “Not really surprised about the fight being made in Canada. I think HBO put a lot of money behind Lemieux because he’s exciting and sells out big venues over there in Montreal, so it didn’t surprise me at all that he’s going to Canada to defend his belt.
“Thinking out loud, I expect it would have cost a lot to bring Lemieux over to here, but I wasn’t taken aback by it, I always thought he would go to him with Lemieux being his mandatory.
“I’ve always said Billy Joe has got the skills to be able to beat him, but I always say that we have to see the best Billy Joe.
“It’s the boxer versus the puncher. I know Lemieux has got power but BJS can take a dig and he’s never been hurt. Lemieux beat the same Argentinian opponent on points that I beat on points – Christian Fabian Rios – both over 10-rounds, so he can’t bowl everyone over.
“He’s chinned people like Curtis Stevens, which everyone talks about because that was a heavy knockdown, but he doesn’t move, he stands still to be hit, and Billy Joe won’t do that, he’ll use his feet and boxing brain.
“I think Billy Joe wins and the only chance Lemieux has is to stop him, but I don’t think he’ll catch him to be able to do that. I can’t see him dropping him or getting close enough to hurt him.
“We have seen under par performances from Saunders before, but he still gets over the line. It’s an interesting one and I’m looking forward to watching it, but I’d like to see Billy Joe win and hope that he keeps the WBO belt to bring it back to Britain, so we still have a middleweight world champion.”
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Tommy Langford would like to thank his sponsors TX ODDS, UK Display Stands, JS Wright & Co Ltd, All Car Leasing, Bartercard UK, Strategy Plus, Atlas Pain Relief, Ringside UK and Agent Tim Rickson