It was a cold Thursday morning in Mossley, England, just outside Manchester.
On the second floor of a drafty mill, unbeaten Irish super middleweight Tommy Hyde was making preparations for his 10th professional fight with his new trainer, Lee Beard.
It is certainly a change of scenery for the 25-year-old Hyde, 9-0 (6 KOs), who has been training in Los Angeles but recently decided to leave his California training base and move back, closer to his home of Cork in southwestern Ireland.
Hyde’s father, well-known manager Gary Hyde, sat quietly watching his son move around with his new gym mate, English light heavyweight titleholder Troy James.
Hyde is renowned for his work with Guillermo Rigondeaux and a host of other Cuban fighters. It has been more than a decade since the respected Beard began training a group of them, and his work with Alexei Acosta, Mike Perez and Luis Garcia made a lasting impression on the Hyde family.
When the tall, technically sharp Tommy Hyde needed a new trainer, Beard’s name sprang immediately to mind.
After ticking off his final sparring session before getting on a flight back to America for his fight with Germany’s Aro Schwartz, 23-9-1 (15 KOs) – which takes place in Boston on Friday night – Hyde sat down with BoxingScene to discuss his move.
“Everything’s going great, I just wanted to come closer to home. It’s only a 50-minute flight from Cork to Manchester, and I’ve known Lee a good few years,” he said. “I’ve heard the name for ages because he trained a couple of the fellas that my dad used to manage. We reached out to Lee and came over and gelled with him for a session. He’s given me great one-to-one time, three hours a day in the gym. I’ve got great sparring here with Troy in the gym, so I’m loving it in Manchester.
“It’s brilliant, and I think it suits me, being a tall middleweight. I like to box and I like to fight as well, and he’s a bit of both. He’s adding to all aspects of my style and just creating a stronger, more powerful fighter.”
Hyde has already won the BUI super middleweight title by stopping the decent Craig McCarthy in five rounds and, this Friday, he was due to box tough former Northern Area titlist Adam Hepple in a fight that would have given a good indication of where he would slot into the British scene. But the aggressive Hepple withdrew, and Hyde will instead box Schwartz – a 5ft 11in tall southpaw – in what looks like a solid step up.
Hyde isn’t being handled with kid gloves, but if he is to reach the level he believes he can get to, it is the type of test he should pass.
“I just want to stay busy and start collecting titles after this one,” he said. “There’s a lot of talent in England, and there’s a good domestic scene in Ireland as well. Obviously, Canelo’s the main man out there, but by the time I’m up there in the next two or three years, he’ll be gone, so hopefully I’ll be there to take over.
“I know it’s a long game, but I’m improving every day in the gym. I’m working hard every day in the gym, and when the time comes for me to be stepping up, I’ll be ready to beat all of them.”
Not every young fighter gets the luxury of making their debut in their hometown, cheered on by friends and family. But Hyde made his professional bow thousands of miles from his birthplace.
He took advantage of his father’s American contacts and got his career underway on a small show in the boxing backwater of Sioux Falls, North Dakota, just under two years ago. Since then, Hyde has steadily worked his way east and is quickly becoming a popular attraction in and around Boston.
With a growing fan base on both sides of the Atlantic, a settled training situation and a father who has seen everything there is to see in the sport, Hyde is ideally placed to make an impact. And he has plans to expand his horizons even wider.
“There’s been a couple of people who were at the fight who are still following me online from Sioux City, but it’s not a big boxing city,” he said. “But in the likes of Boston – and I’m supposed to fight in Melbourne – we were selling a lot of tickets there, and then I’ve obviously got a huge following in Cork. I try to meet anyone that comes to watch me fight and try and make a personal connection with them so that they come and support me for the next fights, too. It’s growing all the time in Boston, so hopefully I can bring big nights to Boston, big nights to Cork and then over to Australia as well next year.”
John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79
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