Exclusive interview by Ian Aldous: On Saturday April 22nd, British middleweight champion, Tommy Langford (18-0), will face Avtandil Khurtsidze (32-2-2) for the interim WBO world middleweight championship at the Leicester Arena, live on BT Sport in the UK. It’s a huge opportunity for the Frank Warren promoted fighter to claim a seat at the table of the elite 160lb fighters in the world. Last week, Tommy took some time to talk with me over the phone after a day of sparring in Manchester with fellow British middleweight Martin Murray.
IA: You’re still undefeated as a professional, you’ve beaten everyone who’s been put in front of you so far, do you think it’s safe to say that you’re not sure quite how good you are yet?
TL: That’s fair to say. I’m a pretty unknown commodity. You know how good you believe you are and the calibre of people that you’ve mixed with, but it’s very different mixing with people in the gym and doing it under the lights. That’s why I’m really looking forward to this fight, because it is a big test and it is a step up. I’m fully capable of dealing with it but it’s fair to say I’m an unknown commodity and I think that’s a good position to be in because you’re likely to be underestimated. And you can shock a few people when you do it (laughs).
IA: Not only is it a big fight in itself for the interim world title, it’s all a part of BT Sport getting into televising boxing. You’re well known to the hardcore fans on Boxnation but this is kind of your ‘coming out’ party in front of the more casual boxing fans.
TL: Definitely. This BT Sport thing obviously means a great deal to all the fighters who are under Frank Warren. You’re going to get a lot more exposure which I think is needed. We’ve got some great talent amongst the stable and I don’t believe they’ve been seen enough or talked about enough. So, hopefully the general public will jump on board and see some top quality action. Frank’s kicking off with two back-to-back world title shows, if you class mine as a world title as it’s basically a world title in waiting. Then you’ve got Gervonta Davis coming over against Liam Walsh. It’s absolutely stacked with big fights, and proper fights. It’s great to be part of it, it’s great to be headlining one of the first shows and I’m really excited for it. Hopefully it’ll be a very positive coming out party (laughs).
IA: You’re obviously quite a bit younger than Khurtsidze and you’re quite well known for your energy and work rate. Do you think that could be a key thing on April 22nd?
TL: It’s very hard to say because he’s got a bit of a relentless work rate as well in the footage I’ve watched of him, but I’ve not seen that much recent footage. The stuff I’ve found of him has all been against Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam and things like that – that was seven years ago. He was probably at his physical peak then, so, I’m expecting him in that tenacity and that relentlessness. One thing that you can say is that I’m not going to be out-finessed. My work rate if anything is going to match him or overtake him, and he’s supposedly very strong physically. He’s supposed to be 5’4″, I think he’s slightly bigger, but if he is that short he’s going to have some serious legs and body to him, he’s going to be very physically strong. He’s not really been in with any of the elite other than N’Dam, and that was a long time ago, he’s not been in with any of the elite middleweights.
IA: Is that because he’s avoided?
TL: I think he’s avoided because what does he bring to the top fighters? If they have a hard night against him, (people will say) who’s he? If they beat him then it’s like, they’re supposed to beat him anyway. I’m not up there yet, I’m not on that platform yet so I’ve got to take these chances, I’ve got to fight these tough fighters and beat them to get myself onto that (top) level. It’s going to be interesting and we’ve got two styles. I’m obviously big for middleweight, tall, long and fast. He’s short, relentless, so he’s going to come in and I’ve got to keep him off. It’s going to gel into a really great fight. I’m looking forward to the test.
IA: With the current situation of Billy Joe Saunders trying to fight GGG, is it almost a case now where you’re taking the role of Billy Joe for this fight by fighting the No.1 contender to his WBO championship?
TL: Well, yeah you can say that. I’m doing Billy Joe a solid because he’s his mandatory, isn’t he? A unification fight can take over a mandatory, so I’m hoping Billy Joe gets the big Golovkin fight. With me fighting for the interim title, it puts me in a great position should that fight happen. If it don’t happen then there’s a good chance that you can be made the immediate world champion. I’m not really quite sure how it all works, but it puts me in a fantastic position because the winner of that fight must fight you. I’m doing Billy Joe a solid here (laughs).
IA: One guy I’ve got to mention, who I know you don’t really like talking about, is Chris Eubank Jr. What was the situation when you were signed to fight him for the British middleweight title, what actually happened there?
TL: What’s said to have happened is, yes he signed to fight me and he agreed to the terms. Basically, when you’re a mandatory it goes out to purse bids, Frank Warren, my promoter, won the purse bids and you’re given a period of time to sign and agree to fight on a promotion. He signed, he agreed, the date was given. Then they proceeded to not turn up to press conferences, like three or four and it actually ended up costing them money because they didn’t turn up. He said he got injured, an elbow injury, tennis elbow I think. To be honest, if you get an injury and have full intention of defending the title, if it’s a genuine injury then the fight would get postponed and put back, so I’d still end up fighting him. He then withdrew and vacated, he’s not honouring the contract really. It was just very frustrating. The whole situation was very frustrating. I’d agreed and signed and done everything. I was training very hard for Eubank Jr. and that was the scalp I needed to get myself up onto that level as it doubled up as a world title eliminator because we were both ranked in the top ten with the WBO. They keep calling people out and saying they want things and they don’t do it! They’re showing themselves to be what they are. The boxing fraternity are starting to realise what they’re doing and how they’re not what they say they are and all this warrior code is a load of rubbish and nonsense, you know. I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot, as much I’ve slagged them in the past, and I have! I think they’re doing the job well enough themselves (laughs).
IA: Going back to your last fight against Sam Sheedy when you won the vacant British middleweight title. He was extremely cocky and his corner was even told off twice by the referee during the fight for berating you, it was a strange fight.
TL: This is the thing, they’d come in with a tactic. If you know you can’t beat somebody boxing-wise, if you know you’re not good enough to beat them boxing-wise – you’ve got to try everything under the sun and everything to really wind them up. Basically, they were trying to throw me off my game plan, Glyn Rhodes in the corner was mouthing off at me the whole fight, he wasn’t shouting instructions to Sam, he was constantly giving me loads. I expected Sheedy to be that way himself and I’ve seen him do it before in fights being cocky and show-offy and that sort of thing. His tactics that he adopted were very much to frustrate me and try and throw me off my game plan rather than actually try and rip the title away, he was just coming to try and make me make mistakes.
IA: Surprising as Sheedy’s a decent boxer as well.
TL: He’s a decent boxer but they had a tactic to try and do that to me – it didn’t work. If they come out and box me and have it, and fight, I think I’d have won heavily then. So, they made their decision and that’s what they wanted to do . To a certain extent you can say he upheld the tactic and did it well, but I think it was a frustrating night for everybody. You’ve got (laughs) this geezer in front of you who’s running away and mouthing off, and you think ‘fucking hell’, but I got over the line and got the job done. It’s annoying because I sold so many tickets for that fight, I had over 1,000 people go to that fight and that was with the re-arranged date. I had fantastic support there and I think they wanted to see an engaging fight and in the end it was a bit of nail-biter due to the tactics that were adopted.
IA: So, you’re British and you were Commonwealth champion, he’s now fighting for that Commonwealth belt later this month.
TL: I vacated the Commonwealth. I don’t really need to go into it all, but long story short is the Commonwealth’s vacant now. He’s fighting for that which I don’t really get myself and I’m not going to go into slagging off boards of whatever, but when you look at it, I beat him, he’s lost to me and now he’s fighting for the belt I give up. It doesn’t really add up. It is what it is, so be it, doesn’t matter to me anyway. I’ve got the British (title), but I’m looking on at bigger things and ultimately this fight is a huge chance and can mean me pushing on and mixing with the elite in the world, that’s what I’m looking at.
Langford Vs. Khurtsidze for the interim WBO world middleweight championship at the Leicester Arena on Saturday April 22nd. The event will be broadcast live on BT Sport in the UK. Tickets are available from frankwarren.com
Don’t forget, you can follow Tommy on twitter: @Tommy_Langford1