Berry: ‘I feel a totally different animal for my first title fight!’

Nyall Berry…IBF Euro title shot at Coventry Skydome on June 29

FOR relentless, heavy handed Nyall Berry the chance to claim a title has come.

And it brings with it the buzzsaw super-bantam’s first real test.

On June 29, on GBM’s major Coventry Skydome show, the Chelmsley Wood prospect faces Italian Francesco De Rosa for the IBF European title.

The winner earns a place in the top 15 of the organisation’s world ranking.

It is certainly no “given” for Berry whose big chance comes after 10 straight wins. De Rosa, aged 26, is also unbeaten and his eight wins include five stoppages. What’s more, he’s coming off a  KO of Jose Aguilar in March.

June 29 looks like being an explosive collision between two bangers.  And De Rosa’s brother has already stirred the bad blood by posting they are planning to bury Berry.

Nyall isn’t prepared to trade insults on social media. “I don’t do trash talk,” he told me. “I’ll be my usual lackadaisical self (in the build-up). It depends what De Rosa says. If he comes and hasn’t got much to say, that’s cool.”

I’ve been banging the drum about 24-year-old Berry from the beginning. It’s time for the Eastside fighter to show he is the force those around him say he is. Putting it bluntly, it’s time to unleash the beast.

I usually chat to his family, who are good people, at shows. Mum is always a bag of nerves: she may watch this one, with hands over her eyes, through a curtain of fingers.

Her son is calm and confident.

“I don’t know much about him,” he said. “I know he throws a lot of shots, that’s about it. I’ve been focusing on myself.

“I’ve trained relentlessly for this and feel like a different animal.”

Sparring partners have included Midlands lightweight champ Scott Melvin, top prospect Niall Farrell and unbeaten newcomer Minaaz Gurung.

The destruction Berry brings to the ring has made it difficult for manager Jon Pegg to secure a title chance. At featherweight, he was nominated by the Board of Control to box for its Midlands belt, but fellow prospects were in no rush to face him.

Berry has had more success at a lower weight, but stressed weight-making is not an issue.

“I could make bantam if I wanted to,” he said. “It’s something me and Jon have talked about, but I want to feel comfortable, I don’t want to feel like I’m half dying.

“I still do wish I’d fought for a Midlands title and we tried, but what can you do? It is what it is.

“This is a good step in the right direction. It’s time to get my first title in my first real test.”

It’s time to shine.

And with ambitious promoters GBM now backing Berry, the sky’s the limit if he’s successful at the Skydome.