WHILE most of the country may be sitting in their warm offices or at home cursing the staggering costs of central heating, Jack Massey, who was born and raised in Peak District, is battling with scaffolding on a frozen building. Helping his brother get the job done by doing some heavy lifting, he defied the minus 5 degrees Celsius, before Christmas, and pinched the very same hands that at night usually wrapped in bandages and skin.
Massey will turn 30 in April, and just a few months after that milestone, his partner will give birth to their first child. Money is tight and needs to be; Although he is one of the country’s top cruisers, he must look elsewhere for his payday. It was the life of a warrior fighting for a war. This paradox is something Massey, 20-1 (11), has struggled with all too often in recent times, as he continues to be ignored by the biggest names in the country of the tournament. On the rare occasions when the door was reluctantly opened for him, the authorities slammed it in his face.
Back in 2019, he fought Richard Riakporhe for a vacant British belt at York Hall. It was a fight that many, although not the most important to the umpires in the ring, thought Massey had won. Despite being eliminated once, he outperformed Riakporhe for a long time and forced him to hug and hold in the later stages of their competition. His opponent has exited with the Lonsdale Belt and is now on the hunt for a chance to win the world title. In contrast, Massey was left with nothing but frustration and a year-long wait for the phone to ring again.
Since then, he’s won a belt, but almost no one has noticed. The IBO bauble wasn’t the most glittering thing on boxing’s colorful Christmas tree, but in an impressive performance, he overtook rival Bilal Laggoune in three one-way rounds. This should have provided Massey with a much-needed background, but a gritty rematch with the ever-popular Riakporhe or Chris Billam-Smith continues to be elusive. The takedown of the journeyman Vaclav Pejsar in Bolton marked his only ring appearance in 2022. Even more disappointingly, his IBO title was stripped through no fault of his. that. Too much for it to be a launchpad for bigger and better things.
“I couldn’t defend it, so they stripped it in November. I guess the sanctioning agencies have to do what they have to do if the promoters can’t fight,” Massey said. boxing news. “But, yes, it was a pretty bad year in terms of boxing.”
That was until those cold fingers wrapped around the vibrating cell phone as he battled the elements on the aforementioned construction site. “That’s my manager [Kevin Maree] calling me,” Massey recalls. “Kevin told me we had an offer to play against Joseph Parker. I never expected that in a million years! But finding fights is tough and I haven’t been out since April. We didn’t get any offers in cruiser class, so I had to move on. I never turn down a fight. But, you know, this war changed everything. It turned a crappy year into a good year. Let’s have it!
Jack Massey attacks Martyn Grainger on July 18, 2015 in Manchester, England (Dave Thompson/Getty Images)
Massey will meet Parker, a game on the left as of any recent memory, on the Chris Eubank Jnr-Liam Smith extra card at Manchester Arena on Saturday night. While no one can compare the former WBO belt holder Parker to Apollo Creed, this truly feels like a real Rocky Balboa moment for the smiling and composed Massey. Who knows how Parker and his team came up with Massey’s name as a rival, something that surprised the media as well as fans when it was announced, but you have to wonder if they eliminate some opponents like Creed did in the first Sylvester Stallone masterpiece. Who knows, maybe somewhere from a leather office chair, Parker exclaimed excitedly: “This is what I was looking for… take me away, Jack Massey!”
Reality owes less to Hollywood and more cold pragmatism. Parker went through a fight last time with towering Joe Joyce before heavy-handed “Juggernaut” ended his night decisively in the 11th inning. And lately no wins against heavyweights. truly top since giving up the title to Anthony Joshua, it’s easy to see why a boxer of Massey’s caliber is appealing to him. Meanwhile, the man nicknamed “One-Smack” has his own equally pragmatic interpretation: “I think they want someone who can sell tickets in Manchester. I’m obviously a local and I usually sell tickets pretty well,” he said. “But, yeah, obviously they wanted to beat Parker after the Joyce game. He really has nowhere to go if he loses the next game.”
In terms of height, both of them could see with their eyes, but on the scale, there was an impassable chasm. For the fight with Joyce, the New Zealand boxer weighed 50 lbs more than Massey’s familiar cruiser weight limit. But Massey is giving up the temptation to cash in on what will be the biggest battle and purse of his career. “I will not do the usual weight loss. I often had to get over a rock to get off the cruiser,” he explained. “I want to avoid going too heavy lest it make me sluggish and run out of gas. I would be best at just over 15 stones (200 lbs). Obviously, he’s the bigger man and so I wouldn’t want to fight him. I will need to get in and out; just let my blows go and stay away from his blows.
To prepare for his opponent’s expanding dimensions, 29-year-old Massey and the team called on Dave Allen, who has always been famous, to help him get through his paces.
Jack revealed: “We mixed up the fights. “We had heavyweights in the first five innings and cruisers in the last five. It was really the best of both worlds because Parker has pretty quick hands for a heavyweight, so we were able to get the heavyweight to lean on me and pull me up, then the cruisers picked up speed and pulled me into the deep water at a faster rate.”
However, they would still be many observers who would consider the difference in size and shape between both men and come to the conclusion that Massey had no chance. He accepts that view, but is also comfortable with the fact that such views put pressure on the opponent’s muscular shoulders. “He’s going to be under all the pressure,” he explained before revealing, “We’ve fought in the past, I know it’s very different from a fight, but I’ve struggled with him.” . I know it’s a tough question, but whatever happens, I’m on that giant platform. I just have to fight well, put my name on it, then go back to cruiser class and do some of those big fights. But honestly, I wouldn’t have entered the war if I didn’t think I could win.”
And what if he shocked the boxing public and the bookies? “Well, there are some big names out there. I’m going to beat a heavyweight in the top 10. You never know if I might be asked to fight Anthony Joshua in a comeback fight or something. More crazy things happened!
