Calm before the storm….Griffiths (right) and Fitzgerald. Pic: Facebook
JAMES “Jay” Griffiths sighed and stated the regret yet again: “I just wished I’d stuck to the game plan.”
After 10 straight wins, The Baggie Boy tasted defeat for the first time on Saturday – and he fell short in the biggest bout of his life.
At Alfreton Leisure Centre, Griffith’s dreams of lifting the vacant Midlands middleweight title were destroyed in two rounds by home favourite Dylan Fitzgerald.
I spoke to the immensely likeable 31-year-old three days after the setback and the hurt had not subsided.
“The game plan was to work him inside and it worked in the first,” James, from Wombourne, said. “I should’ve stuck to it, I think I tried to rush that game plan. It’s hard, you keep on playing it back in your head.”
On paper, it looked an evenly balanced encounter, with Derby’s Fitzgerald unbeaten in eight. On the night, one booming right uppercut spelt the early end, sending Griffiths down and gashing his left eye. The Black Country fighter never recovered, being floored twice more.
“I was so revved-up and, in the first, felt that energy in there. I felt he had nothing on me, his jab was out of range.
“The uppercut was the first shot he landed and I was blind in the eye. I just didn’t want the ref to stop it, you try to tough it out.”
The good news is James is determined to prove he’s better than that performance. It may sound bizarre, but the down he’s on is a measure of his desire.
“I love fighting, that’s why it’s so bad,” he said. “I thought that was my chance, now it’s been delayed. I’ve stressed that much about what I am, my age – that’s why I wanted it to happen now. I want a win a title so bad.
“I can say it’s a learning curve, you can only learn from it. It’s so easy for me to say it’s a lesson learnt. I’ve lost in bigger situations in life and I’ve never felt the pain like this.”
I’m used to fighters not answering my calls after a loss. Griffiths didn’t – he rang back and talked candidly. That’s a measure of the man.