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Nick Parkinson
Jay Harris, who works in an Amazon warehouse, insists he is ready to deliver in his first world title fight despite combining boxing with a part-time job.
Harris has taken time off from his two-day-a-week job, which earns him around £210 ($275), at Amazon’s Swansea warehouse in Wales to travel to Texas and challenge Mexico’s Julio Cesar Martinez for the WBC world flyweight title on Saturday.
The 29-year-old’s double life is far removed from the eye-watering purses commanded by boxing’s elite of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Anthony Joshua and Vasiliy Lomachenko.
After winning Commonwealth and European titles Harris (17-0, 9 KOs) has needed to work to get this opportunity in Ford Center at The Star — the Dallas Cowboys’ training facility in Frisco, Texas.
“I do two nights a week and luckily Amazon has given me time off to travel for this fight, so I can fully prepare for it,” Harris told ESPN.
“It was a busy time before Christmas as you might expect, plenty of overtime going around. I try and do 50 hours a week over Christmas if they have any overtime.
“I’m tipping lorries there, and I have to do it because I don’t earn enough money to quit my job. I don’t have a major sponsor or earn big enough money through boxing.
“I do night shifts to fit around my boxing. Saturday mornings, after a night shift, are really tiring, but I’ve been doing it a couple years like this and it’s working well.”
But Harris has sometimes questioned whether it has been worth the sacrifices and he almost quit professional boxing three years ago after he won his first major title.
“I’ve done it the hard way, gone from earning £250 (approximately $325) or less for my first fight, boxed in small halls, won Commonwealth and European titles, so I deserve my shot,” Harris said.
“I used to get crap money because I had to pay for my own medical fees and expenses out of my purse as well, but it’s all worth it now.
“I told lots of people after I won the Commonwealth title that I might quit. Everything just went stale, I couldn’t get fights and I was on the verge of quitting. I was earning more money in my job than I was through boxing, so I just thought it was time to wrap it up, I had taken it as far as I could.
“But I had a chat with my team, my family, and they told me to stick at it. Gary Lockett is my manager, and he helped me a lot when I was on the verge of quitting. He told me I had been doing it too long to give up now.
“Gary fought one of the best pound for pound fighters at the time in Kelly Pavlik (for the world middleweight title in 2008), and he told me things can change suddenly. He was right.
“It has really helped me having regular fights and when you start to win titles you need to stay at that level, getting decent fights.”
Martinez (15-1, 12 KOs), 26, of Mexico, makes a first defense after stopping Cristofer Rosales for the vacant belt on Dec. 20.
The 25-year-old has an impressive knockout ratio since losing his professional debut five years ago, and he overwhelmed Harris’ fellow Briton Charlie Edwards for the WBC belt in August. The fight was initially ruled a third-round knockout win for Martinez, but minutes later the outcome was changed to a no-contest after a replay review as Martinez landed a punch while Edwards was down.
“He definitely had the better of Edwards and he can certainly dig a bit, but he made mistakes against Edwards, too,” Harris, who is trained by dad Peter, said.
“We heard that Charlie was a bit weight drained for the fight, and maybe that played a part in it. Charlie has stepped up a weight now, too.
“Apart from his last three fights, the people who he has fought were not that good.”