Dylan makes debut as an Eastside boxer

Poster for Dylan’s fight in Coventry tomorrow (Saturday)

A NEW chapter in the career of unbeaten Dylan Norman opens at Coventry’s Sports Connexion venue tomorrow (Saturday).

On the undercard of local girl Jess Barry’s Midlands title bid, Norman has his first fight as a member of Birmingham’s Eastside gym.

The 23-year-old was with former middleweight champ Wayne Elcock. The pair parted amicably and Dylan joined Jon Pegg, Paul Counihan and his team at the title laden sweat shop.

It’s a gym crammed with top fighters and offers lightweight Norman the chance to regularly spar some of the best around his weight class.

The start of the new set-up looks undemanding. The Knowle prospect’s eighth win on the spin should be secured without drama.

In the opposite corner for the four rounder will be Glasgow southpaw Tony Morton who is yet to have his hand raised after 10 bouts. It’ll be 11 after tomorrow night, I’m sure.

The interesting thing will be whether Eastside have tweaked Norman’s aggressive, box-fighter style.

“I’m looking forward to the new start with a new team and doing what we do best, which is put on a performance,” Dylan said.

“We’ve been working on what you see a lot from Jon’s fighters – sitting in the pocket, fighting fire with fire.”

Norman is a boxer moulded by a very tough start in life – and, even now, there are hurdles to overcome.

His nan – a mother figure to Dylan - collapsed and died only hours after watching him scoring a first round stoppage of Louis Fielding last September. That tragedy has taken time to recover from.

“Some fighters talk about tough times and they hype it up,” said Dylan. “What I tell you is what it was. It’s my story and I want to use the negatives to provide something positive for others.”

His fanbase is growing rapidly, with around 100 tickets sold for tomorrow night – that’s despite the bout being made at short notice.

There are exciting times ahead for those fans. A Midlands title fight cannot be too far away for Dylan.

In the Midlands, the lightweight division is crammed with talent and he has plenty of competition. Birmingham alone boasts top operators such as Niall Farrell, Mykey Lee Broughton and Scott Melvin who holds the belt.

“I want to be remembered, all boxers want to be remembered,” Dylan added. “I want to be in Birmingham boxing’s hall of fame.”

*Dylan wishes to thank sponsors Glass Tower Jewellery, Slot Masters and Concrete Development.