Journeymen: How does it feel when they finally win?

JORDAN GRANNUM, 11-133-5

THE new pro was feeling good about himself when The Islington Gazette rang him ahead of his debut.

“I think I can be challenging for world titles in four or five years,” he told them. “I’ve got all the shots to take me all the way to the top.”

It was September 2015, and 22-year-old Jordan Grannum looked a good prospect. As an amateur with Islington and Finchley and District ABCs, he won Haringey Box Cup gold and back-to-back Development championships during his 31-bout apprenticeship.

Grannum won his first two pro fights as well – eight months apart – before a 14-month break during which time he had a rethink. “I knew I couldn’t sell tickets,” he said, “so I asked (the late) Greg (Steene): ‘What can I do?’” The answer was simple. Go on the road.

“I’d heard the word ‘journeyman’ before, but I hadn’t a clue what a journeyman was. So, I did research on people like William Warburton and Kristian Laight.”

Grannum discovered how the boxing business worked and in only his third fight, he took on 17-1 Ryan Brawley in Glasgow.

“I dropped him in the last round,” said Grannum, “and when he got up, I helped him through it. As an amateur, I would rather die than lose, but I settled into this role so quickly.

“They put me in the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and I remember sitting there and looking at all my money on the table and thinking: ‘This is me.’”

On Saturday, May 4, Grannum is pencilled in to have his 150^th fight, though it may come before then.

Grannum has proved recently that, when in the mood, he can fight. He upset 5-0 Tyler Rivers last month and said: “I have let my hands go more this season. But I need to take minimal damage and the more you open up, the more chance you have of getting caught.”

Grannum doesn’t get caught much. In 149 fights – 147 of them on the right-hand side of the bill – he says the worst injuries he’s picked up are a fractured rib and a swollen eye, putting the latter down to a car accident he was involved in a few days before he boxed.

He says Irish punching machine Aaron McKenna gave him one of his hardest nights in December, 2020.

“It was during (the) covid (pandemic) and I hadn’t boxed for nine months,” said Grannum.

“Your body gets conditioned to taking punches and I hadn’t taken a punch for nine months. I took the fight for some money before Christmas.”

He earned his money the hard way, McKenna forcing him to retire after two rounds.

Only three times has Grannum failed to hear the final bell and, because of that durability, he knows only too well that prospects “want to make a statement by stopping me.”

He says his job has been made easier by a change in lifestyle.

“For my first 120-130 fights I would turn up after being out the night before,” he said. “My talent and experience would get me through, but it could be uncomfortable. I made it more comfortable for myself by training harder.

“I still feel fresh. I feel like I’ve had 49 fights, rather than 149 fights.”

Grannum hasn’t entirely given up hope of one day fulfilling his potential.

“One big call could change everything,” he said. “I have a foot in the door and they are always going to need opponents on big shows.

“If I beat a prospect, the phone calls might slow down – or I might get another chance.”

If that doesn’t happen?

“I would happily fight on small hall shows and pick up losses until I have the money for a house,” said Grannum. “I love fighting and I love making money, so this is the perfect job for me.”

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LEE HALLETT, 2-74-4

OUTSIDE the York Hall last month, Johnny Greaves sucked on a cigarette and wondered where it had all gone wrong. The fighter he manages had won – and winning isn’t always good for business.

Greaves was always in the business of losing fights – he lost 96 of 100 – and he’s passing on his knowledge to Lee Hallett.

“There’s been many times when I’ve thought: ‘I could turn this lad over,’” said Hallett, “but then the phone won’t ring and I won’t get to my target. I will never get to 100 fights if I start winning too many…”

The target is actually 101, one more than Greaves.

Johnny met Hallett when he was a schoolboy at East Ham ABC. “I was a senior and helped him out with training when he was a young kid,” said Greaves, also a southpaw from Canning Town.

The pair were reunited after Hallett bought a ticket for Greaves’ last fight, a points win over Dan Carr at the York Hall in September, 2013. “I looked up to Johnny,” said Hallett, a father of two who works in restoration. “I wanted to do what he had done. I had thought about turning pro a few years earlier as a prospect.

“I met a manager when I was 25 and he told me how it works with selling tickets. I was unbeaten in the unlicensed circuit, won a couple of titles. I did okay on the tickets. I would do 100, but then the next fight it would be 30 or 40. I didn’t want to train my heart out for two or three months and then not sell enough tickets. I had a young family to support.”

Greaves told him: “Unless you have Frank (Warren) or Eddie (Hearn) backing you, the only way to make money is to go on the road.”

That was how Greaves did it.

“My first 20 fights I thought I won seven or eight and I didn’t even win a round (according to the referee),” he remembered and that led to a rethink.

Greaves decided that if he was going to lose, he might as well keep himself safe – instead of “going home bashed up, cut and beaten” – and put on a show.

“I tried to entertain the crowd more than the other boys (journeymen),” he said. “I would talk to the crowd, stick my tongue out, do the Ali shuffle.

“Lee gets a lot more involved than I think he should. We have a different mindset sometimes.”

Hallet said: “I like to give them a fight. I like to give them a test.”

A pro at 30, Hallett didn’t test his first opponent, however.

“I went about it completely wrong,” he said of the first-round stoppage loss to Callen McAulay in Paisley in April 2018. “I was overweight and went out for a run at four o’clock on the morning of the fight to get the weight off. By the time I came to fight, I had nothing in the tank. I got hit on the top of the head and ended up on my knees.”

Hallett has been stopped only once in 79 subsequent fights. He ended a near five-year winless streak when he outpointed Tyler Chambers at the York Hall on March 16.

“Usually when I (feel like I) win, I get excited,” said Lee. “I was shocked. There have been so many times when I would get to the end and thought to myself: ‘I might get this’ and then it goes completely the opposite way.”

As was the case in Coventry last month when he fought Leicester debutant Ali Meesam.

“I thought I had won every round,” said Hallett of the 39-38 points reverse. “I had my hand up and then I got robbed.”

Greaves said: “Lee can be a hard night’s work for anyone. He has let himself down with a lack of motivation sometimes and he doesn’t have the most confidence in the world. He over thinks everything. He wasn’t as loose as I was. He doesn’t let himself go.

“He isn’t as smart defensively as I was, but he is the best on the road in the country for me.”

Hallett says York Hall is “my home venue, but I’m always fighting out of the away corner.”

Lee, who has daughters Macie (15) and Darcie (8) with partner Michaela, wants to finish his career there, as the home fighter.

“I would like to get a few people there and show them what I’m really all about,” he said.

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GENADIJ KRAJEVSKIJ, 1-69

SOMEONE’S ‘0’ had to go when Krajevskij faced Ryan Broten in Oldham. Krajevskij was 0-67, Broten 0-3.

“I felt like a superstar,” said Krajevskij when remembering the aftermath of his points win. “Everyone gave me congratulations. I can’t remember the last time I felt like this. It’s hard to get wins. If I fight people at my level, it’s different, but I fight people who have won seven or eight national titles. I fight tough, tough boys.”

Krajevskij is a tough man himself.

He left Lithuania for England with two friends when he was 21 years old.

“It was amazing to start with,” he said.

“We saw Big Ben and we only ever saw Big Ben on the telly. But we started living a horrible life. It wasn’t living. It was surviving. We were living in a squat with no electric. I was sleeping on a dirty mattress and waking up because I was cold. We would go to the shops and steal bacon because we have no choice.

“We had no friends, no connections, no work. My two friends gave up and went home. I didn’t give up. I’m a tough man.”

He made a connection who suggested a move to Liverpool and Krajevskij got work on a farm in Southport.

“It was hard work and pressure,” he said. “I have a nasty boss who say: ‘If you don’t work harder, don’t bother coming in tomorrow.’ It was seasonal work and after two months, I was left without work, without any money.”

Krajevskij got a job at a popular discount store and rediscovered boxing.

“I did a little bit in my country,” he said. “I had a friend who lived on my street who won the Lithuanian title twice. He said: ‘Come to the gym with me.’ It was nothing serious. I was young. There were parties. There were girls…”

Wayne Smith was a neighbour after Krajevskij moved to Liverpool and he planted the seed about a return to boxing.

Krajevskij went on the white-collar circuit and said: “I was earning £100-£150 and I won a title.

“It was Mickey Mouse, but I was a champion. I won 27 of 28 fights and someone told me I should try amateur boxing.”

He won four of six and then bumped into ex-pro Shea Neary.

He told Krajevskij: “You’re a tough man, amateur boxing doesn’t pay your bills. You should be a journeyman.”

Krajevskij answered: “What’s a journeyman?”

He found out the hard way.

“I was thinking: ‘What’s wrong?’” he said. “I win unlicensed fights and amateur fights and now I’m losing.

“I understood they were a different level. They had been boxing since they were six or seven years old. They have better skills. If you’re not fit enough, you can go to the gym and work on your fitness, but they were just better than me.”

Krajevskij has stuck at it – and got his rewards when he beat Broten.

“It’s been a long journey and people say I should be proud of myself,” said Krajevksij, who works for a security firm run by ex-pro Stephen Harkin.

“I will be proud when I have a house and a mortgage. That’s my target.”