\n Pauls moved to the city as an 18 year old after receiving a high-performance athlete scholarship offer from Solent University.\n<\/p>\n
\n Of the five universities he applied to, Solent was the only one to offer him a place, so the Cornwall-native jumped at the opportunity.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The only reason I was here was for the boxing, to be honest. I understood that boxing was better in the cities, so I chased the dream up here,” Pauls recalled.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brad Pauls at the opening training session at Westquay shopping centre. (Image: Queensberry\/Leigh Dawney)\n<\/p>\n
\n “The facilities at Solent were incredible, and the decision paid off almost instantly.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Within my first two seasons, I’d had 12 straight wins, half by knockout, and won a national title and reached the semi-final of the ABAs.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I went straight into a gym with Lewie Edmondson, and I was sparring some of the best lads in the country. It really brought that extra level out of me.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Southampton is where things got put together for me and set me up for the next stage of my career. As a Cornish lad, I found living here so interesting.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Pauls returns to Southampton for the first time as a professional on the same card as Edmondson, who faces Lyndon Arthur in the co-main event at St Mary’s tonight.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 33 year old will be defending his IBF international middleweight title for the first time against Bradley Goldsmith.\n<\/p>\n
\n Brad Pauls defends his IBF international middleweight title against Bradley Goldsmith at St Mary’s. (Image: Queensberry\/Leigh Dawney)\n<\/p>\n
\n He will be supported by many of the same friends and family who would make the 200-mile journey from Newquay when he was fighting at venues like Oceana nightclub.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thursday’s press conference was a chance for Pauls to catch up with Edmondson, with whom he shared many an Oceana card as an amateur.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of those was a Gold Ring ABC show against top fighters from the Royal Navy. Pauls still remembers that evening like it was yesterday.\n<\/p>\n
\n “That Oceana show was one of the last times I fought here. Lewie was last on, and I was on just before him. I remember walking back, and he was waiting to get on,” Pauls added.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There were over 1,000 people there in Oceana, and I’d brought about 70 of them up from Newquay. I still remember it now.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Lewie won on points, and I picked up the stoppage win in the third round. They are really fond memories.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I boxed a lot of times in Southampton on the gym shows, and I boxed all around this area. I always knew there was a lot of talent around here.\n<\/p>\n
\n “You had someone like Lew, who was already a national champion. Ryan Garner, too. I was boxing every other week.\n<\/p>\n
\n “You have to chase the opportunities, and Southampton was that place for me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pauls moved to the city as an 18 year old after receiving a high-performance athlete scholarship offer from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-650436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}