Following back-to-back losses at middleweight Tommy Langford moves up a division
Langford joins sparring partner Callum Smith at super-middleweight
After campaigning at middleweight for his entire 23-fight career, former British and Commonwealth champion Tommy Langford (20-3) now feels the time is right to move up to super-middleweight.
Recently signed to BCB Promotions, the 29-year-old plans to debut at 168lbs in February 2019 in his local area to Birmingham.
The Bideford-born Birmingham resident has enjoyed sparring with world no.1 super-middleweight Callum Smith (25-0) for many years and even holds a win over him in the amateurs.
The former England amateur captain said, “My next fight will be planned for February 2019 and I will likely be taking part in a standard six-rounder so I can test out my skills at the new weight.
“I’ll be using from now until then to build into the new weight properly. Some may just think that it’s simply a case of going up 8lbs in weight, which is not a lot, but there’s a lot of science involved to it and it’s really not that simple.
“There’s certain areas that I want to build muscle in, namely my legs and my core. I am a natural runner and have always found that I haven’t built any muscle on my legs due to putting in so many miles of roadwork to bring my weight down to 160lbs so I will have to alter my training.
“I’d actually be best suited to 164lbs, which is 11st 10lbs, as I can hit that weight quite comfortably and feel strong there. So, I’ll only really actually be going 4lbs over my natural weight limit.”
Langford’s last two fights with local rival Jason Welborn (23-6) resulted in back-to-back split decision defeats, suffering three knockdowns in the process.
“It’s getting the remaining 4lbs off that has caused me problems all this year in fights. I have never failed a check weight or weigh in but I’m always training at that weight then have to take the last bit off in fight week and it has become very weakening to me and that’s affecting my performances. It comes off me as pure muscle, which is why I am building into the new weight properly.”
Langford’s university degree in sports science and qualifications as a sports nutritionist has always provided the pugilist an advantage when it comes to training and dieting.
He explained further, “I will build that 4lbs as dry muscle. Glycogen is stored in muscle as 3-parts water and 1-part carb. If you build bigger muscles, it can store more carb and water as fuel, so you have to train your muscle to be bigger, so it can store more. You can strip that water out at weigh ins but if you haven’t built the muscle properly, you’ll be stripping your strength away with it. So that’s what I mean when I say dry muscle, the dehydrated tissue needs to be 4lbs worth, which will allow me to rehydrate to a greater size.”
Langford’s debut fight at super-middleweight will be in February next year in the West Midlands.
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Tommy Langford would like to thank his sponsors HÖRFA; BLK Sport; UK Display Stands; JS Wright & Co Ltd; Strategy Plus; Atlas Pain Relief; Ringside UK and Agent Tim Rickson