“April 6, 2021, I will be tidy for two years. It’s true, even though I’ve finished rehab, I’m still recovering. I still have dreams and wake up in the middle of the night thinking I lost a lot of money on bets.

Boxing without crowds has become the recent norm during the pandemic, but for Ted Cheeseman, the biggest fight of his life took much longer behind closed doors.

In a brutally forthright account of his journey over the past two years, Cheeseman joins James Lupton for a candid interview where he reflects on his recovery from addiction.

Cheeseman was 20 when he won his professional debut, stopping Gabor Ambrus in two rounds at the o2 arena following the victory of Anthony Joshua vs Gary Cornish.

However, the battle of his life began when he was just 17 years vintage, and Ted battled this demon for six years.

“I see people talking about their friends who let this get to them and I think, How could I have ever lived in that bubble for so long?

“From 17 to 23, it was a lifestyle. It wasn’t just a hobby. It was like boxing was a hobby and gambling was my career.

“It’s crazy to think about it.”

A day in the life of a boxer is very strict, almost regimental. A routine ingrained in their brains and a tunnel vision of success. For the former British champion, his routine was very different when discussing his previous antics on proboxing-fans.com.

“On Saturday or Friday I could be at the bookmaker until 10:00, do my job well, and then I’ll call my lady and tell her to get ready, I’ll take her to Aspersa [Casino].

“I would book her into a hotel and tell her I’d be back in a few hours and I wouldn’t be back at the hotel until about 6 or 7 in the morning, I’d made another load of money. I’m sitting there with my head in my hands thinking, what am I supposed to do?

“I just kept doing it over and over again. It’s crazy. I think back to when I was 21 and I went to Blackpool with my wife.

“Of course, during the day you have the theme parks and you can eat a little bit, but there was a gigantic casino there and I immediately said, ‘Let’s go there,’ and I immediately did everything I had to do, again.”

As his addiction grew and encroached upon Ted’s life, his mental health began to deteriorate, and negative, and then morbid, thoughts emerged and persisted.

“I thought, what is my life? What am I doing with my life? I finally got to the point where I didn’t want to make money, because whatever money I made, I knew it was going to last. The problem wasn’t the lack of money, it was me, I couldn’t control the addiction.

“I hated boxing, I even hated life in general. I even got to the point where I thought, what’s the point in boxing, because what I earn in boxing, I’m just going to gamble, so I might as well be a real loser and earn nothing.

“Those were the thoughts I had, it’s crazy that I had those thoughts, sometimes I said to myself what’s the meaning of life, I might as well kill myself.”

As an alcoholic or drug addict, you have observable signs of addiction, but gambling is an addiction that you can mask. Only those who witnessed it sensed it, but no one could stop it. Only Ted could do it.

“I hit rock bottom. They say when you’re addicted, that’s when you get support. Until I hit rock bottom, which I did [Sergio Garcia] fight, I thought my career might be over, that’s when I decided I needed support.

“The night of the Garcia fight, I knew I had no more money from the fight and I owed [trainer] Tony [Sims] money from tickets and other things.

“I thought to myself, all I want is to win this fight to get a world title eliminator and then I’ll get a lot of money, that’s all I thought about. It’s become like you don’t care about your career, you care about her [money].”

That fateful night in 2019 was the final straw, and the 25-year-old had to speak out. The first defeat of his professional career was a blessing in disguise.

“If I had never spoken to Tony after the Garcia fight, would have had another fight, sold all the tickets again and spent the entire purse before I even fought and got beaten again, that would have been the end of my career!

“But I came out and admitted it. The most significant thing is to admit the problem. People would often say to me, ‘Why are you doing this, why are you wasting all this money?’ I would just say, ‘It’s my money, I earn it. Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do with my money if I want to spend every penny on gambling!’ But what do you do when you can’t earn more money?

“Until you understand addiction, you don’t know how to deal with it. A lot of people tell me, ‘Why are you gambling, you’re wasting your money,’ not, ‘Why are you gambling, you could ruin your mental health, you’re going to ruin your life.’ It all goes straight to the financial side, not to the problems it can cause.”

The next step for the super welterweight was rehabilitation. A chance to overcome this battle and win the war.

Now, two years after filling out his last coupon, the signs of addiction in others are crystal clear to Ted, and he now understands addiction, something he thanks his time in rehab for.

“I see it now in every aspect because when we were in rehab, we did AA meetings, drug meetings, all the meetings because it was a mix of people, so you see all the aspects of different addictions and how some addictions can lead to others.

“It’s crazy to see how it’s destroying people’s lives. If you don’t catch it at the right time, it’s going to affect you.

“Now I can control it, I think to myself, how could I ever get into that state of mind?! You see people do it with alcohol, drugs, food, and all sorts of things, and that’s a really bad way to be.”

Bermondsey brawler gets second chance at boxing career. Now committed to the sport, Cheeseman takes his obsessive, addictive traits and uses them to his advantage.

“The person I was back then, compared to the person I am today, is completely different, even the fighter I am now because I really want to box.

“Now that I’m in camp, I’m totally focused on boxing. I have to be in bed at a certain time, I have to take my vitamins at a certain time, I have to eat at a certain time, and it’s an addiction because I have an addictive personality.

There is earnest money to be made in British Championship boxing and above. Anyone recovering from addiction is at risk of relapse.

Ted is motivated not by money but by success.

“It’s not the financial aspect that hurts you, because you can make money your whole life in this or that career. It’s the mental aspect of it, whether it hurts what you’re trying to achieve. If it hurt my boxing career too much, before there was no turning back, if I didn’t admit I was an addict, I would have been ruined.”

“Although the purse has to match, I’m not fighting for money, I’m fighting to go as far as I can. Obviously you have to make sure you’re taking the right money for the fights because it’s a business, but as long as I can live and have a decent life and my family can have a decent life.

“I want to try and achieve as much as I can. When I started boxing and I was addicted to gambling, I didn’t care about boxing, I just cared about getting as far as I could as quickly as I could and making as much money as I could.

The revival continues on March 6th when Ted fights for the British title he once lost when he faces JJ Metcalf in the Dillian Whyte vs. Alexander Povetkin rematch, in a fight that for him is more than just a fight.

“It means a lot because it’s part of the recovery. When I started to recover, I lost my belt [in a fight] that I felt I didn’t deserve to fail. Now I get a chance [to win it back]it’s like I’m a little lucky now to be offered a fight and a chance to get my belt back.

“I’m glad I got out of that situation, now I have a very good life and I’m enjoying my career again.”

Redemption is in full swing for Ted as he is in good shape both mentally and physically. Life now begins for Cheeseman.

Heavyweight prospect Johnny Fisher says he was thrilled with his debut victory and feels he has coped with the weight of expectations.

Fisher (1-0, 1 KO) got off to a winning start in his highly anticipated debut, dropping Matt Gordon twice en route to a first-round stoppage at the SSE Arena on Saturday.

The ‘Romford Bull’, who trained in Fuerteventura alongside WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in preparation, says he couldn’t be happier with his start to professional life.

“I feel relieved, I feel cheerful, I feel relaxed,” Fisher said. proboxing-fans.com.

“I feel like with all that hype and expectation around me, I showed a little bit of what I can do.

“There is a lot more work to do with Mark [Tibbs] and Steven [Andrews] and my team, and that’s just a good start.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better start than a first-round knockout against Matt Gordon, who we have to thank for his work, he’s dealt with other opponents, other debutants have come through, he’s lasted two years, three rounds, and he’s always been stopped on his feet.

“Since I knocked him down a few times, I’m quite cheerful with that, it’s a good performance.

“I wouldn’t be unhappy if the fight went four rounds, if I boxed well, I would box well, because I know I’m powerful, I know I have strength, and every heavyweight has a little bit of power in it. But I know I have massive hands.

“So all I did was the first 20-30 seconds, I thought I’d establish my power, let him know you have that power, let him feel it, and if you notice it in the second minute, just serene down, and I didn’t take a breath, I just calmed down a little bit and assessed the situation, and then I started taking counter right hands because it was coming down.

Fisher has had well-publicised sparring sessions with the likes of British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion Joe Joyce, English champion Fabio Wardley and former world title challenger Hughie Fury.

The 21-year-old, who has just made his debut, believes that high-level friendlies have improved his game and played a key role in helping him stay serene under the lights.

“I didn’t think I’d be as hooked as I was,” Fisher added.

“I think it helped me change my mentality from being a raging bull, someone who just charges in, head first, smash, smash, smash.

“I think we saw that in that fight because I was a little bit, not reckless, but I was very aggressive for the first 20, 30, 40 seconds, and then it gave me presence of mind.

“When you spar loads of rounds with people like Fabio Wardley, Joe Joyce, Hughie Fury, Dave Allen, you learn from them that you have to pace yourself, it’s 12 rounds of boxing that we’re going to work towards, so you have to pace yourself, you can’t fight at a relentless pace, you have to be switched on.

“It’s definitely benefited me and I hope I can now start translating their sparring performances into boxing matches.”

The Essex fighter is hoping to return to the ring in behind schedule April or May and while his aim is to be as dynamic as possible with just 10 amateur fights under his belt, he admits he is in no rush and expects to be given more tough tests.

“I know I’m not a world-class hitter yet,” Fisher continued.

“I have the basics, good skills and good power, but I still have to learn to improve them. I’m not calling people names or saying I’m going to be the next massive thing.

“I’m going to follow the advice Conor Benn gave me when he did an interview with Sky later.

“He said people are going to be rooting for you to fight this guy, fight that guy, fight this guy, but listen, I have plenty of time, nobody’s going to rush me into these massive fights.

“I don’t have to, I really don’t have to, because I’ll burn out. I have to keep my balance and I’ve had enough tough fights, fighting at the sub-national level and getting those tough guys out there, so I’ve got a long, long way to go before I even think about competing with them guys.

Watch the full interview with Johnny Fisher below:

Canelo Alvarez is aiming to become the undisputed super middleweight world champion by the end of 2021, and his hit list includes Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant.

Canelo, who won the WBA ‘Super’, WBC and Ring Magazine belts from Callum Smith in December, needed just ten weeks to make his first defence against mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim at Miami’s Challenging Rock Stadium on Saturday night, live on DAZN.

A win over Yildirim would set up a unification first with WBO champion Saunders, with whom he reportedly has a deal in place to fight on Cinco De Mayo weekend in May as part of a two-fight pact with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, and the fight is expected to take place in Las Vegas.

Many believe undefeated southpaw Saunders has the style to trouble the four-time world heavyweight champion, and Alvarez insists that while the Briton would be a tough challenge, he believes he has seen every style in his 15-plus year career.

“His style is very complex” Alvarez told Ring magazine.

“He’s a leftist. That makes it even harder.

“But I’m a fighter who’s fought all styles. I’m ready for any style. I just have to work.

“I always look at that. I always look to the future and that’s what motivates me to keep winning fights.

“I really want [to fight Saunders] in Las Vegas.

“I would really like to go back to Las Vegas. Hopefully, with the pandemic, things will go back to normal and we can go back to Las Vegas.”

If the fight with Saunders happens on Cinco De Mayo weekend in May, the 30-year-old will likely face the other 168-pound titleholder, IBF champion Plant.

The 28-year-old, who is also undefeated, defended his belt for the third time with a victory over Caleb Truax, and Alvarez has high praise for “Sweethands.”

“He’s a great fighter,” Alvarez said when asked about the American.

“He’s a player who has a lot of skills and of course, if he becomes champion, he’ll be in my path and I’m going to go for him.”

When asked about his opinion on his rival’s victory over Truax, the Mexican replied: “I watched two or three rounds and fell asleep.”

The delicate heavyweight star moved up to delicate heavyweight in November 2019, dethroning Sergey Kovalev to become WBO champion, before vacating the belt and returning to 168 pounds to defeat Smith.

However, Canelo, who began his career at 154lbs, has ruled out a future return to the 175lbs division, where Artur Beterbiev (IBF/WBC) and Dmitry Bivol (WBA) reign supreme, but says a return to middleweight is also an option, where a trilogy with IBF holder Gennady Golovkin would be lying.

“All right, [trainer and manager] Eddie [Reynoso] he doesn’t want me to fight at 175 pounds anymore because it’s too gigantic of an advantage [for the opponent]– Alvarez added.

“I really feel good at 168, but I can go down to 160. I don’t know.

“I’m open to anything. And like I said, I want the best fights for the people, for the fans.

“My goal right now is unification. If this fight [with Golovkin comes up] so why not?”