Jack McKinlay reveals how he remains motivated despite having no fight date in the diary

Motivated McKinlay still training hard despite having no fight date in diary

Unbeaten welterweight talent Jack McKinlay (2-0, 0KOs), 30 from Anfield, refuses to slow down in training just because he has nothing to aim for. The former ABA champion is still training hard and working on new things in the gym despite having no idea when his next fight could be.

After his last fight on February 28 at the Grand Central Hall in Liverpool against ‘The Congo Leopard’ Michael Likalu (0-2), Jack suffered a hand injury, which lockdown provided the time off to heal.

He gave an update on the injury, “It feels alright now, I’m back punching again. I just put a wrist support on my hand for a month then done some strengthening exercises, but it lasted about four or five months in total.”

Despite there being no sign of a fight on the horizon any time soon, the 30-year-old is still applying himself fully to training with coach Paul Stevenson at the thriving Everton Red Triangle Gym, “I’ve stayed in the gym; the first lockdown, there were only had a couple of lads in, fighting on that BT Sport bill, and I just stayed in there. I’m training three days a week in the gym and running on other days.”

The BT Sport bill Jack referred to was when his teammates Nick Ball, Brad Strand and Andrew Cain all performed on TV for the first time, on July 31, after signing contracts with promoter Frank Warren earlier this year. The talented trio all secured another victory on their perfect records.

Jack continued to reveal what effect lockdown and the unexpected hiatus from fighting has done for him, “The differences have been that you can work on technical things. I’ve been doing a lot of strength work, only a little bit of sparring, and working on the technical side of things as well. I’m feeling really strong at the moment.

“I’ve never found it hard to get motivated, I just enjoy training. I wouldn’t mind getting a fight soon though, it’s frustrating and doing my head in now! It is disappointing, but it might have happened anyway because of my hand injury, so might only have got one more fight in this year anyway. Just got to hold on and stay fit, stay in shape, you can’t fall off the wagon because of it all.”

The Everton Red Triangle head coach, Paul Stevenson, has helped Jack and his other stable of fighters to stay focused, Jack confirmed, “Yeah, to be honest, sometimes getting up in the morning you might feel like you can’t be bothered, but you get in the gym with Paul and it all changes.

“We sit down in the gym and watch old boxing fights, so your mind is always on it, there’s always boxing in the back of your mind. It helps to keep you focused.”

McKinlay is clearly coping with the uncertainty and postponement of his boxing career like a consummate professional so far and plans to continue to stay strong for the foreseeable, “I can’t plan for next year, the government are just changing things by the minute, so I don’t think no one knows what’s happening or how long is going to last, so I find it hard to make plans at the minute.

“It doesn’t sound very interesting at the moment does it, but what can you do? It’s a bit frustrating that there’s all this talent in the gym going to waste, well not going to waste, but we’re seeing other fighters getting opportunities on TV and it should be us in there, but just got to be patient, and wait our turn.”

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