Tyler: ‘I will run right through Sowe to get that Midlands belt’

Tyler Rivers…welter title date in February. Picture: Jayden Berry Visuals

TYLER Rivers, his voice raw with frustration, spat out each word slowly and deliberately.

“I cannot emphasise enough,” Leicester’s former fine amateur said, “that I’ll fight anyone in the UK abroad, not matter what their record or titles. I would jump at the opportunity.

“I cannot express strongly enough that I will fight anyone.”

He showed that last time out by giving tough two-time British title challenger Mason Cartwright a hard eight rounder. He lost the decision, but won a host of new admirers.

Rivers speaks with a suppressed anger stoked by seeing meaningful fights slip through his fingers.

The 25-year-old, managed by Carl Greaves, trained at Birmingham’s Eastside gym, was to have fought for the vacant Midlands welterweight title last month, but opponent Zach Evans pulled out.

Other significant contests have also fallen by the wayside. “There was a 20-0 lad,” Rivers said. “My manager said yes, the reply was ‘we won’t take that’.

“That bother me because I think, I’m 6-2, I’ve had two losses. Why wouldn’t people not want to fight me? But it’s out of my control, what happens happens for a reason.”

For Rivers, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. On February 7 in Cannock he’ll face Elliott Sowe for the Midlands belt. The Tyseley boxer, by day a rail worker, has lost two of 10.

“There’s no bad blood between us,” Rivers shrugged. “I don’t know the guy, I’ve never sparred him, I respect him for taking the fight. I only know he’s in the way of getting to where I want to be and on February 7 I’ll run through him to get to where I want to be.

“On February 7 I’ll do a job on him. All I know is the title’s coming back to Leicester.”

It will, however, be the first time Rivers has made 10-and-a-half stone in the paid ranks: to date the closest he’s been to the welter limit is 11 stone. “I have a good nutritionist and think I’ll actually be stronger at the weight,” he insisted.

Rivers, whose only other loss came against Jordan Grannum, a journeyman who has sprung his share of upsets, is a young man with lofty ambitions.

“I believe I can go all the way up to world honours,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m improving all the time and that’s down to the gym and the training I’m doing.

“The public haven’t seen the best of me, they’ve seen nowhere near what I can do. Last time, I put up a good fight – I was up against a two time British title challenger, a WBO European title challenger and I still gave a good account of myself. That’s not just me saying that.”

He added: “People ain’t seen nothing yet.”

They’ll see a lot more against Sowe, he vowed.