By Shaun Brown
AT the game of life, Jack Massey is winning. Fatherhood, recently married and over two months into his reign as European cruiserweight champion is a hat-trick you cannot put a price on.
The chance of a Massey quadruple was confirmed late on August 20 when Turki Alalshikh announced a seven-fight undercard to the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol main event on October 12 in Riyadh. In the middle of it all is Massey who will attempt to beat the world’s best cruiserweight and current IBF world champion Jai Opetaia.
Boxing News caught up with Massey four days before the card was fully unveiled. The 31-year-old kept his cards close to his chest while dashing about like a man who was a week away from tying the knot with his partner Amber.
Their 14-month old daughter was to be flower girl for the day and it is Bonnie’s short impact on her dad’s life which drove him on to become European champion at the expense of Isaac Chamberlain.
“I needed to push at the back end of the fight,” he recalled.
“I had my little girl’s name on my shorts and on my gloves, and it was actually one of the rounds when I was sat in the corner, and looked at her name on my gloves. Even leading up to the fight, it was all for her. Our little family.
“Even in training, building up to it, it’s in your mind, it gives you that extra portion. It’s all about securing a future for my family now. That’s what it’s all about.”
Massey insists whether he was a father or not he would have beaten Chamberlain. During fight week, Chamberlain tried to goad the underdog and get under his skin. His one-sided win against Mikael Lawal to win the British title along with an impressive showing in defeat to Chris Billam-Smith in 2022 ensured he would always be a favourite to beat Massey.
Since a narrow points loss to Richard Riakporhe in December 2019, the career of Massey has been played out largely on the small hall circuit. Winning the IBO belt against Bilal Laggoune was a much-needed boost but even that was three years ago. An experiment at heavyweight against Joseph Parker continues to age well but he lacked that one victory to prove that he wasn’t just potential.
Massey expected a slicker version of Chamberlain at Selhurst Park in June – not the one who met him in the centre of the ring. The Londoner made himself an easy target and, while it was overall a deserved win for Massey, he wasn’t completely satisfied with his own display.
“There was a lot of mistakes made,” he said. “I just think that little bit of inactivity showed. We had that fight back in January [against Steve Eloundou Ntere], but it obviously only lasted a minute and 50 something in the first round.
“And obviously the fight before that was Parker, the January before. Been out a year, more than a year. So yeah, just showed a little bit and I made a few mistakes.”
“I think that’s partly why I switched off, part way through the fight, letting him come back into the fight,” he added. “But, you know, we bit down on the gumshield and got back into it. I was like a man possessed though. There was no stopping me.”
Massey’s patience has been rewarded then. A pro for 11 years he’s stuck through the tough times is and now something of a late bloomer. And time working with Joe Gallagher at Champs Camp in Moss Side has been a huge positive for Massey. Working with a former Trainer of the Year who has been around the world and involved in many big fights helped take Massey to the level required to unlock his potential.
“It’s a massive sort of confidence,” Massey said of working with Gallagher.
“You can go back to your corner and he’ll give you instructions and you’ll never have a single doubt in your mind about the instructions that he’s given you. You’ll be more than 100% confident in following up on those instructions.
“He’s really confident in what he tells you, because he’s been there, he’s seen it all in his experiences. Also, the opponent and the opponent’s team are looking in your corner and seeing Joe Gallagher – it’s a bit offsetting on that side of things as well.”
The cruiserweight division is like a younger brother to the heavyweights that doesn’t get anywhere near the same level of fanfare. First created in 1979, its presence in boxing has often been elevated thanks to the hardcore fans of the sport. Remember those Saturday nights on Boxnation featuring Marco Huck and co?
A strong American presence has been lacking for a while and truthfully some fighters use it as a stepping stone to bigger paydays and many more rewards up at heavyweight. A division which is steeped in history, characters, memorable moments and money that will change your family and the generations to come.
Evander Holyfield and Oleksandr Usyk are the two greatest cruiserweights of all-time. But after that it’s up for debate who slots in behind. David Haye is arguably the best that Britain has produced but one of his former opponents, a man who once humbled ‘The Hayemaker’ – and a former European and World champion in his own right – is celebrated by UK fans for his miraculous performances in the ring. And several weeks before Massey was due to face Chamberlain Carl ‘The Cat’ Thompson popped in for a flying visit to Champs Camp where Thompson also trained years ago.
“When the fight got announced, Joe showed me a picture of Carl Thompson, and there was a picture of him in the gym with the [European] belt. He was saying it would be funny if I won.
“He [Thompson] seems a nice, humble guy. It was nice for him to pop in the gym and come and see all the lads.
“Joe said, ‘It’s written in the stars’. I got the job done and brought it back to Champs Camp.”
What Jack didn’t know, however, was his win against Chamberlain came just one day over the 30-year anniversary of Thompson’s first European title defence which took place in France against former world title challenger Akim Tafer and ended with a sixth-round win for the champion.
“So there perhaps was something in the stars,” Massey said.
Inspired to win for his daughter got him through the Chamberlain fight and meeting Thompson brought added meaning but there was something else that played on his mind.
Years ago, Massey worked in a brake pad factory with his dad who has been there for 40 years. Ten-hour shifts and putting brake pads into boxes one after the other has stayed with him since he worked there after leaving school nearly 15 years ago.
“I can always remember my dad coming up to me and saying, ‘Do you want to be stuck in here doing this for the rest of your life or do you want to make something of the boxing?’ And that played a massive part. It’s always stuck with me,” Massey recalled.
“Going through boxing, it’s always been like, ‘I need to make something of this’ so I’m going to stick with it. I might get everything thrown at me, injuries and setbacks and whatever, but you keep pushing through and your time will eventually come.”
Labouring jobs and fitting kitchen tops also formed part of his résumé while waiting to add some big wins.
“I was an amateur at the time, and my dad used to take me down to the gym and I was falling asleep in the car on the way to the gym,” Massey said. “Throwing punches in my sleep. Must have been dreaming about going to the gym.
“I was then lucky enough to get sponsors on board to help me, you know, train full-time, because that’s massive.”
Massey has been back to the factories and still knows the people he worked with. He may be a European champion and on the verge of his biggest payday against the best cruiserweight in the world but he doesn’t forget the chapters of his story that played their own unique part along the way.
“It’s humbling in a way but even before the Joseph Parker fight, I went back to labouring,” Massey revealed. “I needed some money. Struggling for fights. Going through a bit of boxing politics. I had to go back but that was great. I don’t mind and it’s humbling. It makes you realise and it gives you that kick up the arse. Sometimes you can get comfortable in what you’re doing.
“Doing that labouring or scaffolding in the freezing cold, chucking the tubes up all day, it made me think, you know, I don’t want this, I want to get back on the boxing and work even harder, work harder for it.
“The years of doing that and putting in the work then there was the setbacks. It’d have all meant nothing if I didn’t give it my all against Chamberlain and lost the fight. It would have been hard to get back up there.”
Massey didn’t lose, though, and he’s won in more ways than he might have imagined. The biggest victory of them all is now in his own hands.