Raw talent and enthusiasm can take a young sportsman a long way but – and it doesn’t matter what sport they are playing – if they are to really push on, there needs to come a moment where everything suddenly slows down around them, and it dawns on them that they belong. At that point, their true potential can really begin to show.
Suddenly they are darting past, tackling, or, in Sam Noakes’ case, landing punches on figures they once watched on television.
On September 6 Noakes will make the first defense of his European lightweight title against Italy’s Gianluca Ceglia. In April he won the belt by comprehensively out-boxing Yvan Mendy – a fighter he once paid to watch.
“I think [Mendy] is a very tough opponent,” Noakes, 14-0 (13 KOs), told BoxingScene. “Obviously, I’ve grown up and I’ve seen him beat Luke Campbell. I mean, Luke Campbell was an incredible fighter. Everyone knew who Luke was and then, the first ever boxing show I went to, he had the rematch with Luke Campbell as well.
“To then be in there fighting him and, realistically, winning very, very convincingly – I didn’t lose a round – it does make you sort of think, ‘Oh, maybe I can do this’. It’s a good feeling. A very good feeling.”
The happy go lucky Noakes spent the early part of his career bouncing from fight to fight, recording stoppages and becoming one of the most fan-friendly fighters in British boxing.
More recently things have gone to a different level and gotten altogether more serious. Over the space of four months he blasted through Carlos Perez, bullied Lewis Sylvester to win the British title, and then earned that convincing, confidence inspiring European title win over Mendy.
In between training, fighting, collecting belts and answering a constant stream of questions about his lightweight rival Mark Chamberlain, Noakes barely had time to breathe, but since beating Mendy he has had time to step back and look at what he has achieved.
Noakes never lacked confidence, but he has carried the knowledge and belief he gathered from beating Mendy back into the gym with him. Noakes, increasingly, feels like an established presence at 135lbs.
“If I compare the last camp to this camp, I’ve been sparring really well and I just feel more experienced, if you like,” he said.
“With sparring, I’m relaxed in there. There’s none of this, ‘Oh, what’s going to happen?’ Not that I was ever panicky about things before, but I’m just trying to use the contrast to show the difference in how I feel. But now, it’s like I’m just sort of finding my feet with it all. I just feel really good at the minute.”
Noakes may be approaching the next part of his career with a more mature mindset, but his style and personality isn’t given to a safety first, cautious approach. He is highly ranked with both the WBC and the WBO, and although the higher reaches of the 135lb division are inhabited by some of the most talented and dangerous operators in the entire sport, Noakes finds his own name appearing alongside theirs more and more regularly.
For the time being, Noakes’ sole focus is on getting past Ceglia and then monitoring the lightweight landscape, but he would find it extremely difficult to say ‘No’ if a big fight suddenly presented itself. After all, no young fighter ever dreamed about receiving a life-changing offer to fight for a world title and turning it down.
“As a fighter, you’ve got to take into consideration that sometimes it fits better timing things than doing it straight away, if that makes sense,” he said.
“I know all about the politics of the boxing world and everything that goes on and all that.
But the thing is, you never know when those kinds of opportunities are going to come up again do you?”
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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