Photo above the Evangelou brothers Chris and Andreas pictured above with Carl Froch, three time world super middleweight champ.
Chris ‘The Flash’ Evangelou fights for his first professional title this week, taking on Danny Connor for the Southern Area light welterweight title and says a training camp at Floyd Mayweather’s Las Vegas gym gives him the edge.
The Wood Green man felt he needed to test himself in new surroundings as he moves into unknown territory in his first ten round bout, and his team decided there was nowhere better for the 9-0 fighter to go than Mayweather Boxing Gym in Vegas
“We wanted to do a really big training camp,” explained Evangelou. “I normally have my training camps in America and Vegas was the one place that I hadn’t been to. Floyd Mayweather is one of my idols so I said to my manager: “I really want to get into the Mayweather gym”. It’s not too easy to just show up there, you have to set it up so through a few connections we managed to get in there.
“Floyd had just got out of prison so he wasn’t really there for training, but I did meet him a couple of times which was great and 50 Cent was there too which was cool.
“I got to spar the whole Money team pretty much every day, they all wanted a piece of me, so I had to keep sparring. Literally every single day I was at the gym the main thing I did there was spar, it’s been a really good experience for me. Lanell Bellows was there, Ishe Smith gave me a few pointers and I also met Andre Dirrell who gave me some advice. They were all really nice guys who are really easy to talk to.
“We went there and the first day was so weird, it was really daunting. The first day of sparring was a little bit nerve-racking, I got in the ring and, to be honest, I out-boxed my sparring partners and when I got out the ring I could see that I’d raised a few eyebrows, people were like “wow, this kid’s not too bad”. From then on I gained a lot of respect, which is what you have to do when you’re somewhere like that. I became friends with all the boxers, I’ve got a big fan-base at that gym now, and they’re all such nice guys.
“It’s about 40 degrees in the gym, you’re at altitude and they only have 30 second rest periods between rounds. So if you add all that up the training was so immense and tiring, it was unbelievable. Every day I just tried to absorb as much as I could because I knew I only had a fortnight there and I knew that I had to do as much training as possible there.”
There was no room for The Flash to be distracted by the bright lights of the Vegas strip though, and Connor was never far from his thoughts as he put in the hard graft.
“I had Danny in my mind the whole time I was out there,” said Evangelou. “I was thinking about how I was putting in much more work than he is, I know for a fact that I’m training harder than he is. That’s been a big boost to my confidence.
I’ve tried my hardest to disqualify those doubts that I haven’t fought for a while, in fact I haven’t really thought about that for ages, mainly because I feel like I’ve had three or four major fights in Vegas. I’m really confident for this fight, not over confident, just super confident.
“Danny isn’t going to say that I’m going to be a hard fight, he’s my opponent. But I respect Danny, I know that he’s got an engine on him but he’s not fought anyone with my skill, and that’s the point in me stepping up. To be honest, I don’t think Danny Connor would last two days in the Mayweather Gym, and I lasted and became accepted as one of their own. I hope he does come at me and I hope he does put it on me because the more punches he throws, the more counter shots I throw and the more he’ll get hit.”
Evangelou fights at Alexandra Palace for the second time in his career and along with light heavyweight brother Andreas, he is a popular figure in the area – something he was prepared to prove with a little wager with his promoters.
“Alexandra Palace is just round the corner from where I was born and raised; my family lived a stone’s throw away,” said Evangelou. “So when I fight at Ally Pally it just raises my game because it’s my backyard, it’s where I’m from – you’re coming to my territory. I’m aiming to have one thousand fans coming along on the night, I think in anyone’s book that’s a lot of tickets.
“I had a bet with Eddie Hearn that I would sell a thousand tickets. I had a bet with his dad Barry as well, he said that anything over 800 and he’d give me one hundred quid. But I suppose for him its win/win; he’ll be giving me the money I’ve earned him. But yeah, me and Eddie have a bet going on, he’d better give me something nice when I win.
“I definitely see this fight as a watershed. It’s my graduation from my apprenticeship and now people will see the real Flash. I’ve never trained so hard in my life for anything, I’ve always trained hard but never like this. September 8 is going to be my chance to show everyone this is Chris Evangelou, this is who I am. I’m ready to fight. I feel like I’m a Spartan, September 8 is the invasion and I have no choice but I have to go to war, and Danny Connor is the enemy.
“Darren Hamilton has got the British title, another nice guy, another top guy. He defends in mid-September I think and if that goes well and my fight goes well then we’ll see what happens. I never look past a fight, you do that and the opponent in front of you can take advantage of it. So God willing it all goes well at Ally Pally and I do get the victory, because after that I will be calling out some big names. The next 12 months will be a real awakening for me and Britain will know the name Chris Evangelou, The Flash.”
This title bout promises to be the defining moment thus far in Chris’ career and there are still a few tickets available to watch this momentous occasion, tickets can be purchased from Team Evangelou on 07956 468841. So join the tremendous numbers who have already purchased tickets and support this wonderful young talent as he challenges for the first major title in his career.
