Essex light-heavyweight prospect, ‘Dazzling’ Darrel Church (2-1) has pulled out of the scheduled March 4th fight due to illness and replaced with an April 16th date at the York Hall in London.
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Church was due to tackle North East banger, Scott Westgarth (3-1-1) over four three-minute rounds at the Grays Civic Hall in Essex on a Carl Greaves Promotions show on the first weekend of March.
However, the 175-pounder from Tiptree suffered with tonsillitis just weeks ahead of the bout, forcing him out of training and ultimately out of the show.
He explained:
“I had tonsillitis again and my coach, Mark Massow, pulled me from the show. I couldn’t believe it and I thought to myself, ‘How’s my luck?!’ I took a week and a half out of training at just a few weeks away from fight night which is so detrimental that there was no other choice but to withdraw. Mark is a consummate professional and he’ll only allow me to fight if I’m 100 per cent and he’s right to do so.”
The next show scheduled for the middle of April is a Warrior Promotions event headed by promoters, Greg Steene and Mark Prior, featuring Justin Johnson and exciting debutant, Eli Matthews, a seven-time ABA champion from Guildford City Gym.
Church’s fourth pro contest will provide him with his York Hall debut, a memorable moment in any boxer’s career. ” The 26 year old beamed:
“I can’t wait because I’ve never fought there before and, as a young boxer, you dream of one day fighting at the York Hall, there’s just something about the place. I’ve got no idea of my intended opponent yet, my trainer mentioned a couple of names but I’ve said to him to choose and I’ll fight whoever, I just want to get in there and do it.”
Church has suffered an unfortunate run of late, having to pull out of the last few shows with infections and injuries, and agonising over his first loss to Angelo ‘Concrete’ Crowe (3-6) back in June last year, which ended a 13-fight winning streak stretching back over six years to the unlicensed circuit.
He added:
“I’m in the gym every night and really enjoying my training. Mark and I get on really well and that helps to make a happy and fruitful partnership.”
The father-of-one switched training camps following the defeat to respected boxing coach, Mark Massow in order to be located closer to home and family life.
Massow, a 42-year-old Firefighter and former paratrooper, used to work closely with Frank Maloney and trains a mixture of amateurs and pros in his Witham gym.
Unbeaten in 11 fights in the thriving unlicensed boxing scene in Essex, Church turned professional under the guidance of manager, Carl Greaves and debuted in July 2014, defeating Curtis Gargano (0-1-1) on points at the familiar setting for all his pro fights to date – Grays Civic Hall.
He followed up with another points win over a debutant, Haidar Sadik, four months later in November, capping off the year with a decent unbeaten start to a promising pro career.
In what should have been a hat-trick for Church in June last year, he unexpectedly conceded his first loss to Angelo ‘Concrete’ Crowe (2-6), losing by just one point. The 175lbs prospect declared:
“The loss was so hard to take because I had never experienced that feeling before since taking up boxing but it’s definitely made me stronger. The loss has made me think I’m never letting this happen again and I’ve already said that I’ve got a feeling about 2016, it’s going to be my year!”
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