{"id":782424,"date":"2026-09-25T18:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T18:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782424\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T18:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T18:26:13","slug":"luke-mccormack-credits-ben-davison-for-preparing-him-ahead-of-british-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782424\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke McCormack credits Ben Davison for preparing him ahead of British title shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite having amassed just five professional wins, Luke McCormack will face Kay Prospere for the vacant British super-lightweight title this Saturday.<\/p>\n

At first glance, it seems like an audacious attempt to accelerate his progression but, when you consider the Olympian\u2019s wealth of amateur experience, a shot at the Lonsdale Belt does not appear quite so ludicrous.<\/p>\n

Indeed, he would prefer to have been more active over the past two-and-a-half years but, even before making his pro debut, McCormack was building the foundation of a promising career with head coach Ben Davison.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking with Boxing News, the 31-year-old insisted that such training has prepared him for this opportunity on the undercard of Liam Davies vs Nathaniel Collins in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m well ahead of my record, because I\u2019ve been down in Essex training with the pros for four or five years now. I just haven\u2019t had [enough] opportunities to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ending his distinguished amateur career<\/a> following a defeat to Andy Cruz \u2013 the best operator he has ever faced \u2013 McCormack came away from Tokyo with dreams of reaching world honours in the paid ranks.<\/p>\n

He was then introduced to the training trio of Davison, Lee Wylie and Barry Smith, who all lent their expertise in a way he had never previously experienced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to train with my amateur coach but one of my friends, Mark Dickinson, said Ben would be happy to train me and [twin brother] Pat. I trained with him for one day and [decided to stay].<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the little details made it a lot different to what I was used to. I was never really bothered about video [analysis] but, since coming here, it\u2019s made each fight a lot easier. It\u2019s like you know what to expect before it even happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about looking at your opponent and knowing how to react to what he\u2019s doing, or how to capitalise on what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure, there appears to be a real sophistication to his training but, equally, McCormack acknowledges that experience under the bright lights is what every developing fighter needs.<\/p>\n

He was therefore happy to go 10 rounds against Kane Gardner in February and, having done so, he now feels fully equipped to complete the 12-round distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to have been more active but there\u2019s nothing I can do now. I just took the opportunity as it presented itself. As soon as Ben said, \u2018Do you want to fight for the British title?\u2019, I snapped his hand off straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all his amateur achievements, winning the British title has always been an ambition of McCormack\u2019s and, if he defeats Prospere, the Sunderland man will look to make three defences and win the belt outright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite having amassed just five professional wins, Luke McCormack will face Kay Prospere for the vacant British super-lightweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782424","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\/782424","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=782424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}