Overdue title shot lands in Stoke for Ben Vaughan trucc

   

Ben Vaughan

BEN Vaughan has been waiting for his shot at a major title, and on July 26th, he will get a chance to become English champion when he takes on Bobby Dalton at the Kings Hall in Stoke-on-Trent on the sold-out Nathan Heaney homecoming show.

The 26-year-old welterweight from Northampton has already won the Midlands Area belt in spectacular style and pushed world-ranked Ekow Essuman all the way, losing a tight majority decision. His opponent has also won honours at the area level and is unbeaten in 10 fights.

“I was told this fight would be for the English title, but it isn’t always easy to get opponents, so part of me thought, ‘Is it going to happen? But now I know the name, and I know it’s a definite. I’m really excited about it. These opportunities are what will set up the rest of my boxing career,” said Vaughan.

Tickets for the show were few and far between, so both men will be facing a fairly neutral crowd, many of whom will be watching the ‘Bomber’ for the first time live.

“There will be a few coming up, but tickets were very limited, and in some ways it’s been nice; I have just had to concentrate on my boxing rather than dealing with tickets.

 

“The atmosphere in there, I know, will be incredible, and it’s a big night with the show selling out so quickly. Everyone is there to see Nathan, but I want to put on a performance for those fans.”

Vaughan trains at the Shoe Box Gym in Northampton under coach James Conway, and it’s a busy week for the gym with five of its stable in action the night before at the Mercure Hotel.

“We are all boxing that same weekend, so we are all working towards the same goals, so you can’t ask for better than that. As the fight gets closer, that’s when we start to work on things specific to my opponent and watch his previous fights. My coach will analyse all that, but mainly it’s about focusing on what I need to do, and I’ve done that right; it shouldn’t matter too much what Dalton does.”

Outside of the ring, the quietly spoken Vaughan has accepted a challenge of a different sort, taking on a dog called Luca. They have become inseparable, with the pair often seen in the gym together.

“Having Luca has brought a different character out of me. He is my training partner; he comes to the gym and helps keep me dedicated and motivated. I’ve never been a big sharer on social media, as I always think people get bored of the same old training clips, but filming ones with my dog has been fun, and I always get told to post more, so I post videos of him instead.”

After his performance against Essuman, who has gone on to beat former unified world champion Josh Taylor, Vaughan has had a taste of boxing under the big lights and getting back on a major televised show is a priority.

“My full concentration is on this fight, so I’m not looking past this, but I have said it before: I want to fight for a British title this year, and to get that, I need to win this in style. If I put on a big performance, then I’ll have earned my shot at that belt.”

The unbeaten trio of Ollie Cooper, Lewis Lawton and Levi Vaughan are all in action along with Connor Parker and Shauna Browne. All tickets have sold out. The fight will be streamed live on BCB’s YouTube Channel.