Following a busy first year as a pro, Jimmy Sains is well and truly into the swing of things

When Jimmy Sains isn’t knocking people out, the unbeaten middleweight likes a round of golf.

The hard-hitting 23-year-old from Essex has stopped all six of his professional opponents but when he steps up to the tee box, don’t expect him to crunch his driver down the fairway like a Rory McIlroy or a Bryson DeChambeau.

Drive for show, putt for dough, as they say. 

“Do you know what? I do try to but I’m shouting, ‘Fore, right,’ if I do that,” Sains, 6-0 (6 KOs), told BoxingScene.

“I actually am not too great off the tee. I make up for it with the short game. I usually use my irons off the tee and my short game’s not too bad. But, yeah, I do enjoy a game of golf.

“Everyone in my family plays. It’s a bit like, we’ve all got our own sports that we do and then golf is the one where we’re all sort of level. We’re quite competitive but I do like a round of golf, yeah.”

At first glance golf and boxing may not appear to have too much in common but just as Sains uses a delicate touch around the greens and the ability to think his way around a golf course rather than relying on a booming driver, he has shown an ability to set up and prise apart some tough operators in the ring.

The journeymen who make their living on the European circuit love nothing more than facing a heavy-handed novice who loads up on their shots and fights to impress their friends. After a few well-timed clinches, they are usually set for a safe few rounds and an easy night’s work. The difficult and dangerous part of their job comes when they step into the ring with a prospect who has not only the power to hurt them but the technique and patience to set traps.

Sains has quickly realised that there is more to being a power puncher than simply digging his toes into the canvas and firing away. 

“I think a lot of it is timing. When the opponent’s coming on the front foot or when they’re leaving their head in the air and you catch them on the perfect spot,” he said. “Maybe more the timing and the speed of it, because you can see a lot of fighters who are very fast punchers, maybe they haven’t got the power, but they do get the knockouts.

“It’s because you don’t see it coming as much. I think if you see a shot coming, if it’s slow, it gives your body time to prepare yourself for the shot. But if you can’t see it coming, they’re the ones that cause the damage.

“So far I’ve boxed a few solid journeymen. A lot of them are in there just to get the rounds out. With a few of them you can see the openings, but they hide them very well and they hide if they’re hurt so it can be a lot harder.

“In the amateurs, it’s very fast-paced and you haven’t really got much time to sit and look for shots or set up any shots or traps or combinations.”

Sains hasn’t had too many opportunities to get out on the course this year. He has been kept extremely busy, notching up six wins in less than a year and he will bring up his one year anniversary as a pro with his seventh appearance on September 28th. 

A talented amateur, Sains seems to have adapted seamlessly to life at Tony Sim’s gym. 

“Yeah, definitely. I mean, I’ve had a great first year,” he said.

“I couldn’t have even asked for it to go any better if I’d made it up, to be honest. I’ve had some good experiences up and down the country and I’ve had a Las Vegas trip as well which I never would have thought would have happened in my first year as a pro.

“You put all the hard work in the gym for like eight to 10 weeks for each camp so you can go into a fight and get that first round stoppage or a stoppage in any round.

“A lot of non-boxing people don’t actually realise the difference from the amateurs into the pros, just how big and different it is.”

Sains shouldn’t be too far away from competing for the minor domestic titles but, as he looks to the future, he can see a route towards the top of the division. There are attainable targets at every level of the British 160lb scene and a flourishing crop of talented young fighters all rising through the ranks at the same time.

The conditions are in place for a long series of competitive match-ups and whoever eventually emerges from the unofficial round-robin should have accumulated enough experience to carry a genuine threat at the highest level. 

“There’s boys at every level in the middleweight division at the minute. To be honest, coming through the British level, I think it’s slightly open,” he said.

“There’s a lot of good prospects coming up at middleweight as well. I think, in three or four years’ time, it’s going to be a great division but at the minute at British level – I think that second fight between Brad Pauls and Nathan Heaney was a great fight – I think that’s slightly open.

“There is maybe a slight gap with the top three or four in the weight division and then underneath is British level. You’ve got Hamzah Sheeraz, who’s looked great in his last couple of fights, and Chris Eubank Jnr.

“Tyler Denny is a solid fighter. I thought he looked quite good against Felix Cash. I mean, he did only four rounds, was it? Four or five rounds [European champion, Denny, stopped Cash in the fifth round in June].

“I know Felix and he’s a very good fighter. To do that to Felix within five rounds, you’ve got to be a good fighter yourself.”

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