{"id":78086,"date":"2025-08-18T06:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/78086\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T06:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T06:33:10","slug":"joey-essex-confident-and-excited-ahead-of-his-boxing-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/78086\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey Essex ‘confident and excited’ ahead of his boxing debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sonia Watson & Laura Devlin<\/p>\n

BBC News, Essex<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Joey Essex said he should have been an athlete<\/p>\n

Reality TV star Joey Essex says he is “confident and excited” and keen to show another side of him as he prepares for his boxing debut.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old, who shot to fame on The Only Way is Essex<\/a>, is the latest celebrity to take on crossover boxing, made famous by YouTubers \u2013 and novice fighters \u2013 KSI and Logan Paul.<\/p>\n

Essex has been in training with his uncle and professional coach Tony Sims ahead of his first fight with Portuguese influencer Numeiro on 30 August. <\/p>\n

“You’re going to see me get in the ring with someone up for a fight, and so am I \u2013 I’m ready to show the world what I’m about,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joey Essex became known for the word ‘reem’ \u2013 meaning ‘good’ \u2013 which has since entered the Cambridge Dictionary<\/p>\n

Essex, who grew up in Chigwell, said he had always been interested in the sport and looked up to his uncle and his dad, a former boxer.<\/p>\n

“It was only a matter of time before I stepped into the ring,” he said.<\/p>\n

“With my TV work, there’s never been a gap where it’s fitted, but I feel ready and confident.”<\/p>\n

After Towie, Essex became a well-known face on the reality TV circuit, including sports and endurance-based shows Splash! (diving), The Jump (winter sports) \u2013 which he won \u2013 and Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins (quasi-military training).<\/p>\n

He also showed a more serious side by exploring his grief in a BBC Three documentary after his mum’s suicide.<\/p>\n

“With all these shows, I always put 100% in \u2013 I put myself through pain and discipline,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This [boxing] is just another level of grit and discipline.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people know me as being silly and joking around, [but in the gym] I like to keep it serious.”<\/p>\n

\"ActionAction Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Conor Benn (left) is among those trained by Tony Sims (second left), pictured with his father, Nigel Benn, and promoter Eddie Hearn (right)<\/p>\n

Training with his uncle meant he could not “moan or fuss”, and he said he was treated the same way as all the other boxers at the gym in Essex.<\/p>\n

Sims, who has almost three decades of experience, is used to training world title fighters, including Antony Joshua and Ricky Burns.<\/p>\n

He said his nephew was a hard worker and would be “more than capable of going four rounds” when he meets Numeiro in Manchester.<\/p>\n

“I’m really enjoying it. You get to a point where you look forward to sparring, to getting punched in the face,” Essex said.<\/p>\n

“The closer we get to the fight, the more confident and excited I am getting.<\/p>\n

“I believe in myself as a person. I feel I should have been an athlete, and this is my time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sonia Watson & Laura Devlin BBC News, Essex BBC Joey Essex said he should have been an athlete…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-78086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}