British champion and key worker, Brad Foster leads boxing’s burst back into the limelight

It’s perfect that the sport’s return is being led by a remarkable man whose career has flourished without fanfare

Brad Foster celebrates stopping Ashley Lane (Getty)

A long way from boxing’s millions, the excesses, the insults, the endless expectations and failures there are men in the British business like Brad Foster.

Foster never had an amateur fight, he turned professional in total and utter obscurity when he was just a few days over the legal fighting age of 18. He should be gone now, exposed for his lack of ring intelligence, left on the cruel sidelines in a sport that turns ambition, promise and dreams to dust far too often. He would not be first fighter with real talent to vanish.

It never worked out that way and this Friday when professional boxing in Britain ends its exile and returns with a live show from BT’s studio in East London, Foster will be defending his British title for the fourth time. It is a remarkable journey even by the standards of boxing.

And, how about this, he still works a night-shift at his local Tesco and his last shift was just a few days ago, his usual from 2am to 8am. “It helps me to relax, I work like my friends have to work – I need to do something other than boxing,” said Foster. Yes, that made him a key worker during the crisis days.

Foster is now 22, he won the British super-bantamweight title in just his 11th fight when he was 21; he was a decent underdog that night when he travelled to Barnsley and beat local man Josh Wale. He then made three defences, completing a quartet of British title fights in just eleven months, which is something that only a handful of men have ever managed at any weight in the British boxing game.

Brad Foster defeats Lucien Reid (Getty)

He was nine when he started to fight on one of the kick-boxing circuits, travelling all over the country when he was younger and then overseas as he got older and better and heavier. He fought 59 registered fights, lost just two, won nine versions of a world title at four different weights. As many as 50 of his fights were full-contact, both legs, both hands. “I always like to use my hands,” Foster insisted.

This is not a fantasy set of statistics, these are real titles, fights and prizes. There is nothing to suggest he was ever a raw novice in the boxing game and he does not look like a converted kick-boxer. Foster has always used boxers for sparring partners, studied the game and was not quite a fighting virgin when he made his debut as a boxer in 2015 at the Town Hall in Dudley.

Foster is now unbeaten in 14, with 12 wins and two draws. In the summer of 2017 he was fiddled about by Brett Fidoe, one of the best survivors in the sport, over six tricky rounds; last September he drew in his second British title defence to local idol Lucien Reid at York Hall. “I was bad that night and he could have got the decision,” admitted Foster. Reid was a quality amateur, had real pedigree and was unbeaten as a professional.

Then, on the same night that Tyson Fury was dismantling the last defences and excuses of Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas, Foster was back in the York Hall ring in a rematch against Reid – Foster had a good night and Reid was pulled out by his corner after six rounds. It was an impressive win. This Friday it is Jimmy Beech in the opposite corner; Beech is unbeaten in 12, lives in Bloxwich just a few miles away from Foster’s home in Lichfield, which is a city with zero boxing history – there is not even a gym with a real sparring ring, but there is a perfectly convenient Tesco. Foster is not bothered about going on the road to get sparring, he is not a precious man, he just likes to fight..

On Friday night the referee will have on a mask, there will be a red-zone for fighters and others from inside the boxing bubble. There will only be essential people at the fight – Foster’s manager has been told he will have to watch on television. The ring will be cleaned after each fight and the referees will have to shower between fights. Foster was tested last week and will be tested again when he travels to London on Tuesday to take up short residency and isolation in the show’s designated hotel. It will be the first professional boxing in Britain since 14 March; there are 16 other shows planned by the end of August.

In so many ways it is perfect that the sport returns with a boxer like Foster, a normal man, decent and considered a key worker during the last sixteen weeks when boxing went quiet. And being the British champion just feels like a bonus.