Novice Norgrove - 'I haven't got time to waste'

After turning pro in April 2010, Michael Norgrove has been having the time of his life!

He won his first two fights and continues his journey this Saturday when he faces off against Iain Eldridge at Bethnal Green’s York Hall.

29-year-old Norgrove was born in Zambia. His family left the country in 1988 and lived in Australia and then London where Michael has been settled for some time. You could say Michael is a late starter but boxing was not on his agenda when he was younger. He sort of stumbled across it one day and that’s when his love of the sport was formed.

“Well I’m 29 now, I got into boxing about five years ago. I started quite late and used it to keep my fitness up. I used to play Saturday league football but my team disbanded and I couldn’t find another team near by. So started going to the gym and after I had a one hours session on the pads and that I was hooked. Ever since then I’ve done it pretty much every day. I thought to my self why didn’t I start doing this earlier!”

After taking part in some white collar shows and making his mark, Michael was advised to step into the amateur game. He was lucky enough to represent the one of the most famous amateur clubs in the UK.

“I was with Repton boxing club, I spent two years there and boxed in 14 senior amateur contests. After I had been there two weeks they threw me into the novices and I was fighting two times a week. Because I was fighting so often I had to learn quickly and so progressed quickly too. I won the London finals for Repton and got to the national final too, losing by just one point.”

Since he turned over things have changed, in Michael's case they changed for the better, I think you could say the pro boxer’s life suits him well.

“Ah mate, I’m absolutely loving it, I couldn’t be happier. Now I have signed with Streetwise management and I’m training at the Loughton academy. I have got a wicked team, really happy there and the atmosphere in the gym is great.”

Amateur boxing is a different entity to the pro game and adjustments have to be made when you make the move into the paid ranks. Not just in style, training regimes change and the hours can be long. This is all part and parcel of the sport.

“As a pro my training has been a lot more serious and a lot more intense. The pro game is a totally different style – I much prefer the pro style. When I first started boxing I trained similar to pro style and when I went to the amateurs it was a bit of a shock because it was all about getting in and out, we weren’t training to stand there and have a tear up, its all about scoring points. To be honest I wanted to get out of the amateurs as soon as I could after I had gained a bit of experience.”

Working hard in the gym is important, this is where boxers spend most of their time. But actual ring experience counts for so much and cannot be substituted for anything else. Michaels only human and he felt the pressure when making his pro debut.

“In my first against fight I was a bit apprehensive and I just wanted to win it. I wasn’t worried about winning in style, I just had to win and make sure I didn’t do anything silly.

“In my second fight I had a chest infection so four weeks before the fight I had to stop training for two weeks. Then I got two weeks intense training in before the fight to catch up. I didn’t feel 100% going into the fight but I had done enough training to get another win.

“This training camp has been the best ever, I’ve never trained this hard and have been 100% fit all the way through and now I’m just raring to go. I felt like I didn’t get enough out of my second fight because of the interrupted training but now I feel like I’m ready to move up a level.”

On Saturday Michael will take on Iain Eldridge (4-9-1) who represents a different challenge. He has won a few fights and should be a live opponent.

“I have watched one of his fights on you tube and know he is making a comeback after a break from boxing. He is there to win and will definitely come to fight. To be honest that’s good, I prefer if he comes to fight I don’t want to face someone who’s just going to be running away all night.”

One of boxing's biggest debates comes down to how important it is for a fighter to keep their ‘0’ intact. Padding records out so they look good on paper is something Michael is not interested in.

“If you lose to a good fighter then I don’t think it’s a bad thing. As long as you can bounce back from the loss then it’s no problem. A lot of unbeaten records these days are just picking fighters who you know you're going to beat. I will fight anyone, I’m not that fussed about losing one, if I do lose it means the other guys better than me."

Every fight I have I want to improve and fight someone better and really test my self. There’s not point going in there knowing your going to blast through your opponent in two rounds. I want to train hard and test the skills I’ve been learning in the gym and make it a challenge.

"I know it’s a bit early to start talking belts and titles just yet but aside from getting paid isn’t that why boxers step into the ring? Michael is not the sort of lad to take his chances out of context but when asked where he would like his career to be in a couple of years time he would like to be challenging for some domestic honours.

“I'd like to be looking towards an English of a British title. I will be sparring with Pat McAleese and he’s a good fighter so that will give me a good gauge of where I am and you never know I may be taking him on at some point. Soon I will be ready to move up to six rounds and start getting myself in line for a southern area title or something like that.

“I want to move up quite quickly, I want to step up a good level every fight. I haven’t got time to waste as I’m 30 in January!”