\n A war for the ages was expected, promised, and was certainly delivered by Ryan Rozicki and myself.\n<\/p>\n
\n I think it’s fair to say he will be the toughest man I will ever face.\n<\/p>\n
\n He came out all guns blazing, as we thought he would, including the use of his head, which we knew would be a factor that needed to be addressed.\n<\/p>\n
\n The referee dealt with it well and deducted a point in the second round, which definitely deterred Ryan from continuing to foul (most of the time).\n<\/p>\n
\n (Image: NQ)\n<\/p>\n
\n I said during filming with Sky Sports’ \u2018The Gloves are Off\u2019 that Ryan himself wouldn\u2019t have any quit in him, but I would have to do enough work to convince his corner to stop the fight, and eventually, that is exactly what happened at the end of round 7.\n<\/p>\n
\n The question I have been asked the most since the fight is, “What were you thinking when you hit him in the 6th round with all those unanswered blows?”\n<\/p>\n
\n The answer is, “If I just keep punching, surely the ref will have to jump in at some point!”\n<\/p>\n
\n Of course, the ref did not jump in because Ryan showed him something by throwing a couple of punches back at me.\n<\/p>\n
\n (Image: NQ)\n<\/p>\n
\n Post-fight, I was told Ryan had been taken straight to hospital, which was why, when getting my hand raised by the referee, my celebrations were quite muted.\n<\/p>\n
\n I was really concerned because I know how often and hard I hit the man; I saw him with oxygen in the corner.\n<\/p>\n
\n Backstage, as I was getting my small cut looked at, I broke down to Mia.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is a brutal sport, and all of us boxers are aware that we sign up for that, but long-term damage to my opponent is my worst nightmare.\n<\/p>\n
\n I have people close to me in boxing that have been in that situation, and it\u2019s the thing I want to happen.\n<\/p>\n
\n (Image: NQ)\n<\/p>\n
\n I was extremely happy to hear at the hospital that night, from members of Ryan’s team, that he was indeed okay.\n<\/p>\n
\n I then spoke to him at the hotel the morning after the battle.\n<\/p>\n
\n We had a good chat, took some photos, and wished each other well for the future.\n<\/p>\n
\n I have since been on a nice family\/training holiday to Majorca, and although I am yet to know what is next, I am excited.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was a long time out of the ring, but being back at the BIC in front of that atmosphere made me realise why I continue to do this ridiculous sport.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thank you to everyone who was there, tuned in, wished me well, and congratulated me since.\n<\/p>\n
\n Your support is immensely appreciated.\n<\/p>\n
\n BIG love,\n<\/p>\n
\n CBS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A war for the ages was expected, promised, and was certainly delivered by Ryan Rozicki and myself. I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-673932","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\/673932","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=673932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}