Life is flantastic for boxing baker O’Hare

O’Hare…knockout competition in the ring, knockout venture outside it

ROBERTO Duran famously went by the ring nickname “Fists of Stone”.

Former Midlands champ Liam O’Hare could well become “Fistful of Scones” after having the gateaux and go to start his own cake making business. He’s gone from Rocky to rock cakes.

And the 29-year-old, who fights out of Birmingham’s Eastside gym, hopes new business boxers_bakes will become a slice little earner.

“I’m trying to keep it as a hobby I get paid for,” he said. “My priority is the boxing, this is the retirement plan.”

Likeable Liam is currently juggling a lot of plates.

The Hereford crowd-pleaser is in training for major, televised knockout tournament “The Heist”.

Staged by GBM at Hull’s Connexion Live on Saturday, November 8, the competition sees eight super-middleweights battle it out over three rounds – quarters, semis and final – for a £25,000 top prize.

Liam has joined the punch-up party late, replacing gym-mate Steed Woodall.

He’s enjoyed a fine career, but winning the whole caboodle would really be the, errr, icing on the cake.

“I see it as a win-win,” Liam said. “I’ll move back to super-welter after it, it’s all to take and nothing much to lose. I’m excited about it and think it’s going to be a great experience – it’s on DAZN, the press conference, the bright lights…”

“The training has been horrible,” he laughed. “The 400m sprints, it’s heart-rate hell, but that means I’m doing it right. Give me a nice, steady 10 miler any day.”

Liam’s passion for baking – he calls it an obsession – is a welcome distraction following the gym’s hard slog. Using a local pub’s kitchen, he’s soaking-up the skills needed for ever more elaborate creations like a sponge, then advertising them on Instagram.

Actually, he started with Victoria sponges. He presents new culinary inventions to Eastside top man Jon Pegg for a taste test. Jon is known for having a sweet tooth.

“I used to work for a veterans’ charity and started baking cakes there,” he explained. “I started to get carried away with it, started obsessing a bit. The cakes got bigger and bigger, madder and madder.

“For me, it’s all about the taste – that first slice of cake, the taste of it is very important. I love the taste of that first slice after a fight. I’ve put the love of that first taste at the heart of my business.”

For that reason, Liam’s not yet ready to craft elaborate traditional wedding cakes.

He’s more interested in flavours than fancy presentation and fears branching into wedding cakes could end in tiers.

At present, Liam’s signature – and most popular – creation is the Biscoff smores cake – a calorie drenched mound of cream, chocolate and those famous biscuits.

He believes baking has helped him make weight: “While I’m making them, I’m not eating them.”

Liam added: “As a hobby, I really enjoy it. I feel really blessed I can do boxing as a living and bake cakes as part of a living.”

You could say he’s jammy, which reminds me: does O’Hare do doughnuts?