Chatham boxer faces first title fight after injury return

KentOnline / KMTV

Unbeaten young boxer Robert Caswell had his first chance at a title scuppered when he suffered a sparring injury just days before the fight was due to take place last October.

Transcript

00:00 Robert Caswell's momentum is electric. Bursting onto the scene it's been win after win for

00:07 the 22-year-old boxer from Chatham. From his 40-36 decision debut win at Maidstone Leisure

00:16 Centre to his first knockout at York Hall, he follows in the footsteps of some of the

00:21 UK's greatest. Caswell's career has quickly pointed towards the prospect of a title fight

00:28 and he was soon paired up with fellow unbeaten young prospect Michael Webber-Kane, with the

00:33 winner poised to take the vacant Southern Area super featherweight belt. Robert spoke

00:39 to us when the pairing was first announced.

00:41 "The Southern Area title is good, it's a big fight for me but I want to become British

00:46 champion so I know I need to get through this level to get where I want to be at. So this

00:50 is just the first step on the ladder to where I want to be. So hopefully all goes well,

00:55 which it will, October 14th I'll win the Southern Area title and then on to bigger and better

01:00 things."

01:01 But just a month later the fight was called off after Caswell suffered a perforated eardrum,

01:07 putting Robert's chance at his first belt into jeopardy. He told Kent Online he was

01:13 absolutely gutted, it was one of his best training camps so far and that everything

01:18 had gone so well.

01:20 Despite suggestion from the opposition camp he'd been trying to dodge the fight, Caswell

01:25 says he's determined to get his hand on the belt and has stopped at nothing to see his

01:29 recovery through.

01:31 Now firmly back on his feet and the fight rearranged for the 24th of February, York

01:36 Hall is set to host another enthralling night of British boxing as this rivalry grows evermore.

01:44 And Rob joins me in the studio now, thank you very much for coming back onto the sofa

01:47 to talk about the rearranged fight. First of all, talk to me about the training camp

01:53 because it must have been quite a blow when you found out just a couple of days before

01:58 that that injury led to the cancellation of the fight.

02:01 Yeah, definitely. Everything went to plan and all the training was pretty much done,

02:06 I just had my last spar to do. I literally had a couple more training sessions left,

02:11 last spar, the tenth round and it was the final round of sparring. I got hit with a

02:15 shot that I've been hit with worse, let's just say that, and I felt my eardrum burst

02:20 straight away and I knew I've perforated my eardrum straight away. It was a gutter

02:26 really and then it was just about recovering and getting the fight straight back on as

02:30 soon as we can.

02:31 No, of course. Since that was rearranged, have you had to take a step back when you're

02:38 in training or has it just been all guns blazing to make sure you're there?

02:41 So the first, I think it was five, six weeks, I had to wait for the eardrum to heal, which

02:45 was annoying. I could still train, that's the annoying thing about it. I was injured

02:49 but I could still train and do everything apart from spar. So I kept fit, kept in shape

02:55 and then after five, six weeks when I got all clear that my eardrum was fully healed,

02:59 I could go back sparring. I knew February 24th was rescheduled so I had that in the

03:05 back of my mind straight away. It was just more of a waiting game really.

03:08 Of course. We see this quite often in boxing, don't we? I'm thinking of the most recent

03:13 one, Fury's fight with Usyk, cancelled so close to when it was going to happen. How

03:18 do you strike that balance between looking after yourself but also being as fit as possible?

03:22 Yeah, it's hard because you've got to do the sparring to get ready for the fight so

03:26 you are putting yourself in danger if that makes sense. So you could get cut, you could

03:31 perforate your eardrum, you could break a hand, it's just part and parcel of boxing

03:35 and unfortunately it's very common.

03:39 Fight week now, how are you feeling ahead of York Hall this Saturday?

03:41 Yeah, I'm buzzing, I can't wait. It feels like it's been a long time in the making

03:45 really so I can't wait to get in there on Saturday and win the first title of many.

03:50 What does this week look like for you then? I assume you've finished sparring now?

03:53 Yeah, all finished sparring really. It's just a bit of a taper week so you're just

03:57 doing little bits of pads, keeping sharp and just getting the final bit of weight off ahead

04:01 of the way on Friday and then refuel, rehydrate and get ready for Saturday.

04:06 I suppose one of the fairly frustrating things for you having to wait is this man, Michael

04:11 Webber-Cain has been there lurking in your mind or in the distance for you without having

04:16 that kind of change. Do you look at much of what he's done in the past when you're preparing

04:20 for your fight?

04:21 You watch little bits of his fights and see what he does good and what he does bad, what

04:26 habits he has but you sort of leave that to your coach. He'll have a look and say, 'Look,

04:31 this is what we need to do, this is what he doesn't do great at' and stuff like that.

04:35 So I'm quite laid back, I just let things happen, let the coach see what he thinks and

04:41 then go from there really.

04:42 Because there's a slight rivalry between you two isn't there? We've seen previous

04:47 fights between you, you were fighting on similar nights weren't you, and lots of noise between

04:52 the fans. Do you buy into any of that at all?

04:54 Not really because once we were in there it was just me and him at the end of the day

04:57 so there's been a bit of back and forth, people saying my injury wasn't real and stuff

05:02 like that but people have got to think at the end of the day, why would I reschedule

05:06 a fight, pull out of a fight and then reschedule it straight away. So yeah, I just don't really

05:11 listen to none of that and sadly not we get to settle it.

05:14 Of course, well best of luck for that. Let's talk about your career more widely, it's

05:17 been brilliant so far, eight wins, eight matches, eight wins, really looking good isn't it?

05:24 Yeah, definitely, eight fights, two stoppages and I feel like I've been getting better

05:30 each fight so the next step was a title fight, a step up in opposition and that's what it

05:36 is, against an 11-0 unbeaten fighter for the Southern Era title so yeah I couldn't ask

05:40 for much more.

05:41 And we can see some of the clips of you fighting now, do you tend to watch yourself back much

05:45 when you're in training?

05:46 Not when I'm in training, after a fight I watch it quite a lot, yeah, but I'm quite

05:52 a tough critic, I'm not really happy with myself.

05:55 Well okay, we won't show it on the screen for much longer then, that's fine. One of

05:58 the groups that is supporting you the most is Chatham Town, obviously you're from the

06:02 area, what's that been like with the support from the club?

06:05 Yeah, it's good, they're doing really good in the league, I think they're in the playoff

06:09 position so yeah it's good, I'm on the way up, the football club are on the way up and

06:14 hopefully we can bring boxing to Chatham Town, to the football club in the near future so

06:21 that is the plan.

06:22 Yeah of course, we've seen similar things, we were talking just before about Sam Noakes,

06:26 obviously him winning his title just a few weeks ago, when he was training, similar to

06:29 you, he was wearing his Town's team, Maidstone United with their success, we've seen quite

06:34 a few names pop up from the area at the moment, Moses Atalma, another one from Chatham, have

06:40 you found that as you've been rising the ranks yourself, that there is quite a few coming

06:43 out of Kent?

06:44 Yeah, we all know each other, we all grew up together, so me, Moses, his brother Carol,

06:48 we was all from a little club in St Mary's in Chatham, we all grew up together and it's

06:53 good to see that we've all carried on and we're all professionals now and we're all

06:57 doing good things, so they're on the big TV shows where hopefully if I win this I'll get

07:02 more opportunities on TV and get to that level, so yeah I'm not far off being where they are.

07:08 And what is the ultimate goal for you then?

07:11 British Champion is the plan, I've always wanted to be British Champion since I started

07:15 boxing, since I was a kid, it's a belt that looks great and everyone wants one so yeah

07:21 British Champion, so if I can win Saturday, which I will, and then yeah, English, British,

07:26 that's the goal.

07:27 I like it, I like it, confident, brilliant.

07:29 Thank you so much for joining us Rob, best of luck for this weekend.

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