Eddie Hearn and Leo Atang sat across one another in Costa Coffee and plotted the future of the young heavyweight contender.<\/p>\n
While the setting might not have been the stuff of fairy tales, they shared the same dream and now Atang is 6-0 (5 KOs) still only 19 and he\u2019s not been a pro for a year.<\/p>\n
A good amateur, he will inevitably be talked about in the same breath as the other young guns in the division, such as Moses Itauma, but Atang is his own man and on his own path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the main reason I\u2019ve gone [pro] early, because it\u2019s going to give me that chance to have these learning fights now,\u201d Atang told BoxingScene. \u201cSo then, when I get to them bigger fights and I\u2019m still at a fairly young age, I\u2019ve almost already got that seasoned pro experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atang decided to turn over because he was too young to fulfil his ambitions on Team GB. He would have had to wait another year but he\u2019d already been speaking to now-managers Sunny Edwards and Anto Fitzpatrick and then had to sit down with the promoters.<\/p>\n
He already knew that he was going to be trained by Ashley Martin, his amateur coach, and he\u2019d had a bad hand before so he brought in Tommy McCormack to look after them. Add in his Uncle Dave and the team was soon rounded out, he just needed Hearn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first actually met him straight after the Worlds [amateur championships] when I was 17. Just for a chat, not to sign or anything like that, just to see if he could support me as an amateur going forward and then, obviously, fingers crossed, turn pro with him and stuff.\u201d
Of course, Atang has seen the professional path Hearn has guided Anthony Joshua along, and that would not have hurt Hearn\u2019s ambitions to sign the youngster.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what he\u2019s saying isn\u2019t just lies because he\u2019s done it before,\u201d Atang added. \u201cThat almost like he\u2019s got that proof, that backing there, which makes him believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua was older when he turned over. He was also an Olympic gold medallist who made quick strides as a pro. Atang is not in the same hurry.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing early, turning pro early has definitely made me think I\u2019m going to take it slow, not rush anything, get up the ladder, eventually, win the title by title instead of just rushing,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019ve got a lot to learn and a lot of growing to do as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his size, he doesn\u2019t feel like his \u201cman strength\u201d has come yet \u2013 \u201cI think it comes later in your life, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d \u2013 and he felt good actually getting six rounds under his belt last time against veteran journeyman Viktar Chvarkou, having previously blasted everyone out within three rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt ticked a lot of boxes. It was like a good learning experience,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of positives to take from it, but also a lot of things I can learn from it as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 18 minutes of footage I can watch back and we\u2019ve been working on the gym so I can go out next [time] and do it a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atang doesn\u2019t just want to be patient inside the ring and with his career progression, but he wants to soak up everything along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds cheesy, but just to enjoy it, it goes fast,\u201d he said of the best advice he\u2019s been given to date. \u201cYou know who told me? It was AJ who told me that. I mean, a lot of people have said it, but that was the one which kind of stuck with me when I first met him and he said that. And I was like, \u2018Oh wow, that\u2019s cliche of course.\u2019 But he was saying it\u2019s going to go fast, you\u2019ve got to enjoy it. It is true though. In a blink of an eye, nearly a year\u2019s gone already in my pro career and I don\u2019t know where the time\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Does he have a direct line to AJ for advice?<\/p>\n
\u201cNah, I\u2019d probably do his head in,\u201d he smiled.<\/p>\n
But Atang is the latest in a long list of 21st century English heavyweights to emerge and he knows there is a pressure that comes with the lineage that started with Lennox Lewis, carried on through David Haye and then to the likes\u00a0 of AJ, Tyson Fury, Daniel Dubois, Fabio Wardely and, so everyone believes, Itauma.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does give you pressure because you want to live up to what they have done and stuff,\u201d Atang admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put pressure on myself because I know where I want to be. I know the potential, if everything goes right, where I can get to. So I want to do everything right to get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s where the pressure comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already that first meeting with Hearn in Costa feels like a long time ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit of a last-minute thing,\u201d Atang recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally just got back [from a tournament]. He was at a show. And then we met at a Costa around the corner. It wasn\u2019t like to sign or anything. It was talking about if I was to go pro, what it would be. But also, he wasn’t pushing it to go pro either. He was saying, \u2018If you want to stay amateur, by all means, get the experience and then see if we can support you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Atang faces Fouad Shaili on Saturday night in Sheffield. The 40-year-old is 5-4-2 (3 KOs) and Atang wants a stoppage after going the distance last time.<\/p>\n
One wouldn\u2019t recommend going for a coffee once the bell rings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit of a last-minute thing,\u201d Atang recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally just got back [from a tournament]. He was at a show. And then we met at a Costa around the corner. It wasn\u2019t like to sign or anything. It was like, talking about if I was to go pro, what it would be. But also, like, he wasn’t pushing it to go pro either. He was saying, \u2018If you want to stay amateur, by all means, get the experience and that and then see if we can support you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Atang faces Fouad Shaili on Saturday night in Sheffield. The 40-year-old is 5-4-2 (3 KOs) and Atang wants a stoppage after going the distance last time.<\/p>\n
One wouldn\u2019t recommend going for a coffee once the bell rings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn and Leo Atang sat across one another in Costa Coffee and plotted the future of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[8075,64,63,802,1920,6653,249885,85],"class_list":["post-719634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-anthony-joshua","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-leo-atang","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}