‘I’m feeling really good. I feel like my ring fitness and my sharpness is all where it should be’
Pete Love has his first professional boxing match this month.
A former soldier from Grimsby is gearing up for his first fight as a professional boxer, after swapping rifles for the ring. Pete Love, of Grimsby, spent 12 years in the Armed Forces, serving with 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment, after going straight into the forces as a teenager fresh from school.
Keen to settle back home in Grimsby with his partner, he left the army and had been in search of a new vocation to give him some focus for the future. And he has been able to turn his lifelong passion for boxing into a career – having started when he was just nine years old.
After his dad brought him up watching Rocky, The Contender and Friday Night Fights he couldn’t wait to start training and ended up captaining the army boxing team, winning the Army Championships and competing all over the world – and it has steered him into turning professional with the backing of numerous sponsors.
With just over a week to go until his first professional light heavyweight bout, Pete told us how he is fighting fit and raring to go. He said: “I started boxing at the age of nine with my dad at Grimsby School of Boxing and then I pretty much boxed as a junior until the age of about 16 – and then I joined the Army. I left school in the June and by September I was in the army.
“I had an awesome career. I boxed all over the world with the army, which I still feel a bit big-headed to this day telling people. And I came out of the army a year ago last September. Most veterans tend to struggle a bit when they get out and for me I had a loss of focus.
“It was a joke, between me and one of my mates when I was a junior boxer, about becoming a professional boxer. We were in the army together and he got out a bit earlier than me. And now it’s a reality – that friend is now my coach.”
Pete, 29, who lives with his partner Olivia, 27, in Humberston, explained why he quit 2 Royal Anglian, nicknamed The Poachers. “Most soldiers from around here join that battalion, my dad served in that battalion too so that’s another reason why I wanted to join the army,” he said.
“I guess I was at a 12 year point where I’ve been away a lot with the army. I’ve not really experienced what you’d describe as a “normal” life. I wanted to settle down a little bit, be at home, be in one place and settle down with my partner and start a family.
Tickets are on sale now for the match
“With the state of the world, my unit was very, very busy. We were on NATO high readiness. So it was just a circle of exercise, training, deployment, spin the wheel and then back around again. Like many others in the battalion I was missing home, so I chose to get out.
“It’s been hard to settle, focus and work out what to do next. Workwise I’ve done delivery driving, valeting work – just manual work and nothing I’m really proud of. Just something to pay the bills. Now I have that focus again.”
On Saturday March 21, Peter will make his pro debut at Newark Showground in Nottinghamshire, as part of a night of boxing orchestrated by Carl Greaves Promotions.
Having proved his amateur record, it has taken several months to secure his licence, a process which included an interview with the British Boxing Board of Control. With the red tape out of the way, he has been busy keeping himself in peak fitness ready for the big night, as well as accruing sponsors including Fusion Boxing Centre, CrossFit Grimsby, Blend coffee bar, Dolor and Co, RB Pressure Washing Services, 3Q and Lynx Limos.
He said: “The last couple of months has been all about getting the medicals done, eye tests, and the brain scans, paperwork with the British Boxing Board of Control… and now we have the fight on March 21. My opponent Callum Ide has actually boxed Tommy Fury which is an interesting one!
“I’m feeling really good. I feel like my ring fitness, my sharpness is all where it should be. I’ve had some great sparring with opponents coming from Hull, Nottingham, places like that. I feel confident. I just feel kind of, you know, on top of the world, again. I’ve got that focus. Everything’s fallen into place and I’m just excited more than anything.”
Looking ahead, the sky’s the limit. He said: “I’m just trying to get busy as possible, get as many fights as I can. And hopefully try and get a world title. That’s the goal.”
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