Vicious, intimidating, dangerous. Andrew Cain has been described as many things, most of them extremely apt. More than anything, though, the 28-year-old from Liverpool, England, is hungry.
Cain (12-1, 11 KOs), has certainly built up an appetite during the nine years he has spent as a professional fighter.
He started at the very bottom. There was a long, early-career layoff and a battle through the small-hall circuit. He finally began to build some momentum but then damaged his hand before a tough fight with the dangerous Ionut Baluta. Not wanting to let the chance slip away, Cain answered the bell. He dropped Baluta twice in the opening round, but the Romanian somehow survived. Cain ended up with a split decision defeat and a hand so badly damaged that it required a bone graft to repair.
Barely a month ago, Cain forced the corner of Ashley Lane to stop their British and Commonwealth bantamweight title fight in the fifth round. Cain was favored to win, but he went about his work mercilessly and impressively, landing everything in his arsenal until the tough veteran Lane surrendered his titles midway through the fifth round.
After waiting so long for his moment, Cain savored every second of his big night, but that’s all it was: one night. Now he is desperate to press on as quickly as possible. Cain is still starving.
“I was just enjoying it. I feel like I could have got him out of there a lot earlier but I didn’t want it to end really,” he told BoxingScene. “I knew I’d get to him. I just wanted to carry on and carry on. I was enjoying it.
“To be honest, I know I’m capable of being a world champion, and that’s something I’ve always believed in since I was a little kid. I don’t need to beat Ashley Lane and win a nice shiny belt to know that. I’m going into these fights knowing that I’m a world-class fighter and knowing that I can become a world champion against anybody.”
Emerging from the fight in full health meant that Cain was able to say yes when he was offered the opportunity to make a quick defense of his newly acquired titles against Joshua John (10-2, 0 KOs), although, given which card the fight has been placed on, the chances of him turning it down were always somewhere between slim and none.
The fight will take place on the undercard of Nick Ball’s maiden WBA title defense against Ronny Rios in Liverpool on Oct. 5.
Cain and Ball have punched the bags alongside each other at the Everton Red Triangle gym since they were teenagers. The friends have shared cramped dressing rooms and piled into the back of cars and vans to support each other around the country. He was never going to miss the opportunity to fight alongside him at their city’s most famous arena.
“We’re doing the same thing now in the Echo Arena,” Cain said of the Liverpool space now officially known as the M&S Bank Arena. “I’ll also always miss those small-hall shows with your family and friends all there and the people who really care about you. Nobody else will really go to them. They only come to the bigger ones. Those nights will always mean a lot to me. I wouldn’t be here without them.
“This is what we all want. We all want to be active. I was happy to get the win in the last one, but there are well bigger nights to come from me and I haven’t had to wait long.
“It’s a belter, isn’t it? At the moment, though, it’s got to be just another night of boxing. We’ve got to be switched on and get the job done – otherwise these big nights are done for. It’ll probably be five, 10 or even 15 years down the line when we look back on things and go, ‘Whoa, what a night that was.’ At the moment, though, it has to be all business.”
John is a slick, tidy boxer who has appeared to lack the power to impose himself at title level. His two sorties into title class resulted in decision defeats.
It is extremely difficult to walk a single path to victory against a fighter as versatile and heavy-handed as Cain, but not having the ability to deviate from that path and at least offer a different threat makes the tasks that much harder.
Logic suggests that John will box and try to present Cain with a constantly moving target. Logic also suggests that the quick-footed Cain will catch up with the Welshman and force him to fight for the right to employ those tactics.
If John can hurt Cain, or at least make him second-guess himself, he may be able to get a foothold in the fight. If he can’t, he is going to have to box an inch-perfect 12-round fight to tame the aggressive scouser.
Cain has a good idea of what to expect but isn’t allowing himself to pigeonhole John. Having come this far, a slip-up now would be catastrophic.
“We’ll see, won’t we?” Cain said. “He boxed my teammate, Brad Strand, and was quite cagey and negative. There’s loads of things I can do in there. I can do whatever I want. I’ll use my judgment on the night and all will be well.
“You can say that that fella hasn’t got a punch, but he’s a cagey fighter. Brad’s like that – he’s quite cagey, but he’s got a punch, let me tell you. I’ve been hit with one. He can punch as hard as I can and as hard as Nick can. It’s just that he’s more cautious in his approach. This fella might be the same.
“I definitely won’t be going in there thinking that he can’t punch, because then I’d end up walking onto one and this will all be done. I’ll be going in there with my defenses on point and I’ll be looking to take him out as always.”
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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