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SHOULD Gavin Gwynne win his next fight then he will have fulfilled a promise to his late grandfather.
The 33-year-old bounced back from losses to Joe Cordina and James Tennyson to beat Sean McComb and become Commonwealth lightweight champion in February 2021. And in April this year the Welshman became the latest British champion to come from Merthyr Tydfil after beating Craig Woodruff in their rematch.
Gwynne is now waiting on a date to fight for the vacant European strap which according to the European Boxing Union website will be against Emiliano Marsili.
“I was supposed to have been boxing on September 30 in Cardiff on the Joe Cordina undercard but Joe’s boxing in Monte Carlo now,” Gwynne explained to Boxing News.
“That bill has been pulled. Just got to wait on another show. In the gym training hard waiting on the date really.”
Last September the British champion held on to his belt after a thrilling fight against Woodruff which ended in a majority draw. Shortly after Gwynne suffered a family bereavement after his grandfather Leonard Gwynne passed away at the age of 88.
Gavin told BN why winning the European title would mean so much to him.
“The triple crown. I gotta complete it. I promised my grandfather on his deathbed. We knew he was dying. He said to me, ‘Gav you gotta go and win that European title now. That’s all you got left to do’. I promised I’d win that European title so I gotta keep that promise to him.
“I dedicated my second fight with Craig, when I stopped him, to my grandfather. I owe a lot of my success to my grampa. He was probably the only one who believed me and knew I would get to where I am today.”
In August 2019 after 11 fights and wins Gwynne was paired against fellow Welshman Joe Cordina who was defending his British lightweight title for the first time. Prior to that night at the O2 Arena in London Gwynne’s best win came against Myron Mills who was the first opponent Gwynne fought with a winning record. The Welshman’s previous nine opponents had a combined record of, 33-338-12. Cordina, a 2016 Olympian, already held wins over the more established Sean Dodd and Andy Townend.
Gwynne, unbeaten since losing to James Tennyson three years ago, isn’t surprised by his recent form and success but remembers the lessons against his compatriot and then the hard-hitting Northern Irishman.
“I got chucked in the deep end,” Gwynne recalled.
“I boxed Joe Cordina for the British title and in his fifth fight after that he won a world title. I went 12 rounds with Joe. It was a really good fight and then same again with James Tennyson who was a world level fighter. I thought I was winning that fight and got caught and [he] got me out there. I turned it around by beating Sean McComb.”
The seventh round stoppage win over Newport native Woodruff in their return bout four months ago was a confidence boost in itself and then later that night in Cardiff Gwynne received another shot in the arm from one of the world’s best boxing writers.
“I was talking to Steve Bunce after my last fight against Woodruff in Cardiff and he said, ‘Only the elite boys will beat you because of their skill level and IQ.’ He said, ‘You’ll break everyone down with the amount of pressure and resilience you have. Unless they’re world level there’s no-one that’s going to beat you.’ I took a lot of confidence in that and I’m gonna push on and get that European title for my grandfather.”