Coach Gerry Higgins knows IBO Continental champion David Jamieson is living up to his Real Deal nickname, but reckons he’ll have to go full-time if he is to really kick on from his big win.
Higgins, who coaches at Priestfield Boxing Club in Blantyre, says the cruiserweight boxer will need to step things up and hopes sponsorship deals will flood in following his win over Swedish champion Samo Jangirov at Trump Turnberry on Friday night.
Jangirov took construction workshop manager Jamieson over 10 rounds, but the Westwood star won by unanimous decision.
Higgins, who has been coaching Jamieson for six years, said: “David is a brilliant fighter, and there’s room for improvement.
“He’s a great guy to work with, he has a great attitude. David has applied himself 100 per cent – he has no half-measures.
“His fitness and power is there, but he needs a wee bit more experience; that’s him up to nine pro fights and that’s his first professional title, so there’s nothing that can stop him from going on to bigger and better things.
“I’m not saying he’s going to go out and claim to be number one in the world, but he’ll not be too far off it.
“But he’s going to have to go full-time, because he’s still working between 10 and 12 hours most days, and the biggest part of training is the rest in between, but he doesn’t get that.
“For David to progress we need to try and get him some sort of sponsorship for him to go full-time.
“That means you can put more into your training to intensify yourself, whereas if you’re working, you can’t rest, and you’ll hit a ceiling.
“After the success at the weekend, hopefully that can entice more people out to help with sponsorship and help him to progress.”
Higgins says he and Jamieson learned a lot from Friday’s FightZone clash and hopes they get a chance to really work on it in the future.
He added: “It was a tough, tough fight, and both of us learned a lot from it. After 10 rounds it answered a few questions and left some unanswered, but it showed that he can go 10 rounds at a great pace.
“Maybe he needs to box a bit more clever because the guy he was in with, I’ve never seen anybody as durable as that in my life after being hit with so many hard shots – Davie can really punch.
“I do pad work with David and it’s like being hit by a bullet while wearing a bulletproof vest!”
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