Robbie: I’ll settle for a statue in Stratford

Warner with grandad Barry Warner after the win. Picture: Mark Clark

ROBBIE-LEE Warner, the bantam from Bard Country, has scaled down his grand plans.

When the Stratford scrapper turned pro, he stated he wanted to be more famous than Shakespeare in his hometown.

Robbie now concedes that’s unlikely to happen. He’ll settle for a boxing statue outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. “It doesn’t have to be me,” Warner shrugged. “Maybe Rocky Balboa…”

On BCB’s July 25 show at Aldersley Stadium, Wolverhampton, Warner, weighing 8st 10lbs, picked up his second straight pro win. He took every round of the four against Stephen Jackson, but it proved a frustrating night, with the well-travelled Manchester man elusive and cautioned for holding.

“It was that boring a fight, I didn’t feel I had a fight,” Warner said candidly. “I hit him with a body shot in the first and he ran. It was like trying to catch a gerbil.”

The build-up was also less than ideal. He had to juggle training with long daytime shifts as a carpenter and landscaper. Then he discovered the bout would be at bantam, not feather: with an “on the day” weigh-in that meant making serious sacrifices to slim down.

“I had to pick up work and was working 60 hours a week,” he said. “I felt drained, to be honest with you, but once I was under the lights, I felt fine.”

He  did, however, create the time in the weeks before to train in Tenerife, with former world champ Liam Davies, and Turkey.   That’s a lot of air-miles for a contest with Jackson, who has won one of 76.

In a stop-start, 13 year amateur career, Robbie flitted from gym to gym, had around 30 bouts, but failed to make a title impact.

He’s the first to admit there’s a lot to be learned before titles can be talked about. “You are always learning,” Robbie said. “I knew it was going to be tough from the start. I didn’t expect to be where I am now with the people (at BCB) I’m training with.

Warner catches Jackson with a left hook. Picture: Manjit Narotra/BCB

“I’m training at the highest level and that hard work has paid off. I’m with these guys who have been there and done it, like Liam Davies, Tyler Denny and Ryan Griffiths. To have the opportunity to train with those guys is an honour. I’m a council kid, so you appreciate every opportunity given to you.”

Robbie added: “I’m hungry, I don’t mind a war, I don’t walk away from a shootout. I’m not a shy fighter, I know I can whack when I want to.

“I’m just at the start. Journeymen are no mugs, they’re there to test the waters, although I feel I haven’t been tested yet.

“I’d like to push on – anything to put a title on my nan’s grave. I’d like to win a title for my grandad, but it’s when Errol (manager Errol Johnson) thinks the time is right.”

Has Warner the stuff to be a champ or will his career be a case of Much Ado About Nothing? Time will tell.

At present, the likeable lad has to toil by day on building sites while dreaming of one day being up there with Shakespeare in Stratford’s popularity stakes.

At present, Robbie can only gaze at the workplace plant machinery and think: “Is that a digger I see before me?”