JACKPOT
LOVE ISLAND winner Jack Fincham revealed he is working towards becoming a professional boxer.
The reality TV star, 28, is a passionate boxing fan having had 26 amateur bouts for Eltham ABC after picking up the gloves at 14.
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Fincham had plans to turn professional as an 18-year-old but previously admitted to being tempted away from the sport because of “girls and going out”.
However, he told iFL TV he has now worked his life around boxing, and wants to turn pro to “feel good” about himself after regaining the “fire” to be a fighter.
Fincham said: “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.
“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 want to 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.
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“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.”
Since leaving the popular Love Island villa as a winner of the show last year, Fincham has worked around boxing popping up ringside to help promote events.
He is a close friend of WBO European super-featherweight champion Archie Sharp, an ex-amateur team-mate.
Boxing has welcomed transitioning athletes such as footballer Curtis Woodhouse, and cricketer Freddie Flintoff.
But in a drastic move, YouTuber’s KSI and Logan Paul have now turned pro, after drawing in an exhibition bout last year, and will rematch on November 7.
Fincham insists he would “smash the pair of them” but praised the fight as “brilliant” with a new audience looking in on the sport.
He continued: “What I think is really important is that boxing does move with the times, different audiences will think ‘Oh I will tune into that’.
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“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 it's brilliant.”
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