Alex Arthur Jnr – 'a natural’ – ready for a spotlight of his own

GLASGOW, Scotland – Joe Calzaghe scooped the small boy up, hoisted him over the commentary desk and put him into the ring.

There, the six-year-old raced over to his battered-but-jubilant father and jumped at him, such was his unbridled joy.

At some point, before his father was stitched up in the dressing room, the boy grabbed his dad’s hard-fought WBO title and prised a diamond from it. Whether it was because he wanted a keepsake to remember the moment forever or he had designs on becoming a jewelery-thief later in life, one cannot be sure.

But with his father’s features eventually knitted together in the locker room, the six-year-old came clean. Alex Arthur Jnr had just watched his first boxing fight, and he had seen his father defeat the tough Georgian southpaw Koba Gogoladze in a hard fight in Wales.

Earlier in the week, the soon-to-be champion had left home to take care of media commitments. Alex Jnr followed him down a couple of days later and those moments form some of his earliest memories.

You might say it was preordained for Arthur Jnr to become a fighter with such a start in life, but it is not the path his father would have chosen for him.

“No, no, no – no, I didn’t want him to be a boxer,” snaps Arthur Snr. “No way. No chance.”

When Alex Arthur is asked a question by BoxingScene, Jnr asks if it is aimed at “Young Alex” or “Old Alex,” and “Old Alex” recalls an interview from near the end of his fine career, likely after a hard bout and gruesome weight cut to make 130lbs – where he held the WBO title – and young Alex sat next to him during his post-fight interview.

“Are you going to box like your dad?” the presenter asked.

Old Alex cut him off: “Not a chance. He’s not going to take part in this sport. He goes to a good school. I’ve brought him up in a good area. He doesn’t need to box. And then I did say, ‘If he does box, I’ll have Frank Warren look after him because he does a good job.'”

Young Alex turns pro at the Hydro in Glasgow on Saturday. The International Boxing Hall of Famer Frank Warren is promoting him. Old Alex will be training him, but his license has not come through in time for him to be in the corner, so his family friend Adam Booth will deputize.

It has been quite the turnaround from the former titleholder, who increasingly is fully invested in his son’s career and his future, and it is likely that the younger brother, Machlan, will in a couple of years also join the pro ranks.

Arthur Snr now recognizes that the way he brought his boys up, they were always likely to tread a similar path.

“I come from a fighting background, you know – albeit not fully legal – with my family members, but I come from quite a tough background,” the Edinburgh local explains. “So fighting was always a part of my life as a youngster, like my brother’s life and stuff. And my dad was a huge boxing fan.

“Me being the oldest son, I got to stay up real late and watch Marvin Hagler, ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard – and obviously the Mike Tyson fights were normally the big ones. I was always fascinated by boxing from a very, very young age. But my dad actually didn’t want me to box either because my father knew guys in the professional boxing circuit in Scotland who would throw their weight around outside the ring that weren’t fully accomplished boxers. My dad probably thought that that was the route that I would maybe go down as well. 

“My dad went to prison in the late ‘80s. And when he went to prison, I went off and joined the boxing club straight away, and when I brought the boys up, I wanted them to know how to defend themselves from very young. I was a very hands-on dad. I spent loads and loads of time with the lads when they were young. I didn’t run off to training camps and give up my duties as a father.”

Arthur spent a period training under the former world champion Wayne McCullough in Vegas, and when he traveled, he took the lads wit him. They went everywhere he went and were always around boxing gyms and in and around the sport.

“I didn’t want them to box, but it’s all they knew as well,” he concedes. “They were always in the gym. They were watching me spar. I would take them to camps with me because I never, ever wanted to give up my duties as a father. A lot of dads just run off. ‘I need to go to training camp for three months.’ They don’t see their kids. I didn’t want that.”

To that end, young Alex thinks that the path to professional boxing was predetermined.

“I believe it probably was,” said the 23-year-old. “It was probably written before we knew it was going to happen.

“I’m expecting it to be a bit different [from the amateurs]. I’ve always known it’s two totally different sports but I think I’ll adapt and I think I’ll thrive on the occasion and on the night.

“I’ll take it like a duck to the water, I think.”

Arthur Jnr was involved with the Scotland team in Glasgow, but revealed he missed working with his dad and being at home in Edinburgh. 

It was becoming a chore – he could feel himself getting stale – and the younger team members started to come through.

When Arthur Jnr was invited to Spain to train with the light heavyweight contender Willy Hutchinson, Arthur Jnr was continuously asked why he had not yet turned over and whether it was on his mind. He was also holding his own with the boxers in the camp – even having only recently returned from holiday – and he knew that if he applied himself he could make his mark.

Unlike his younger brother Machlan, programmed to be a fighting machine since he was three, Alex only adopted the spartan mindset of his father comparatively late, at around 16. But he does accept responsibility for his youthful sibling’s toughness and resilience. 

“I’d like to take some of the credit for that as well because I used to beat Machlan up when he was a kid,” Arthur Jnr smiles.

“I was his big brother so we would constantly, constantly fight.

“Machlan got it rough, especially through our WWE phase when we were kids. He really got it rough … John Cena, Randy Orton and stuff like that. Those were my kind of guys. He’s probably had more wrestling moves done to him than had clean shots landed in fights.

“But I’d rather go and play football with my mates and stuff. It wasn’t really until I was maybe 15, 16, I went to the boxing gym with my dad and Machlan and I started sparring with some of the guys in the gym and I was like, ‘Man, I’m actually really good at this.'”

His dad says it came naturally to him, too. 

“Machlan has been in the actual boxing gym since he was around five now,” says the father, “but Alex always had the most natural ability. You could literally play around with Alex, throwing four or five punches at him – and he was a muscular, chubby fellow; he was a real big lad for his age – and he would slip the punches. And he was chubby and he had ginger hair and he would evade the shots without me ever teaching him how to evade them. He knew how to slip punches way better than me. I would just rather put my hands up around my head and catch the shots. But Alex had this natural ability to evade punches from a really, really young age. I always used to say to him, ‘You know, you’ve got natural ability.'”

Still, young Alex preferred to hang out with his friends and play soccer. Even his dad says: “What’s better than running on to the pitch and scoring a goal? It feels great.”

But as Arthur Jnr matured, he started to listen to what his dad had been telling him for years, and he eventually told his soccer coach he wasn’t going back.

Young fighters with a valuable surname following their famous fathers has become a cottage industry in the UK. Recent examples include Conor Benn, Chris Eubank Jnr and Campbell Hatton. North of the border, Arthur Jnr is joined on Saturday’s bill by Drew Limond, a promising junior middleweight and the son of the late Willie Limond, who Alex Snr actually stopped more than 20 years ago.

Benn and Eubank have been in the headlines since their enthralling contest in April, and Alex Snr is not shy in predicting that he can go further than both.

“I’m better than all of them, naturally,” he says. “I think that’ll be a well-known, established fact as soon as people start to see me fight. I’ve always been naturally very good. I’m an awkward southpaw who can kind of do it all. I’m very durable and very fit. And also I take care of myself. I really do live the life and I think all these little things will come into play and show when I start to fight. But the main thing for me, I would say, is the fact that I really listen to my dad as well and really soak up everything that he tells me like a sponge.

“I don’t really feel the pressure because my confidence comes from my preparation and I prepare properly every time.”

Arthur Snr, who was 31-3 (21 KOs) as a pro, has been outspoken about how the amateur system has changed over the years. Machlan is still trying to navigate through a heavily politicized landscape – and his brother reckons he will give it another couple of years to make his Commonwealth, Olympic and World Amateur Championship aspirations come to fruition – but his dad does not have the passion for that side of the sport that he once enjoyed in his youth.

“It’s terrible; it really is bad; it’s so different now,” he sighs. “The one thing I will say is when I was boxing, it was all about the boxers. It really was. Even the officials and the coaches … it was all about what was best for the boxers. It always was like that. Right up to the later ‘90s. But then I’ve seen a massive change come over the sport that I love and still paid loads of attention to.

“I still had lots to do with the national team and stuff like that. I’d go and talk to all the lads and visit them in training camp. Even when I was a young professional champion, I stayed in contact with all the lads as well and still sparred with them.

“The changes now are dramatic. I think it’s not for the better. It’s quite sad to see.

“They should have just left everything alone. They mess around with the weights all the time. What happened to the Marquess of Queensberry that invented it all? Why not just leave it alone? 

“They’ve messed around with it all too much now to the point that they’ve ruined it. They’ve ruined the sport. We’re probably never going to see again, like a ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard or an Oscar De La Hoya. Some lad coming out of his country, being the best in his country, training with his trainers that are used to them and then going to the Olympics or one of the big tournaments, winning that and going on to have a pro career.

“We’re probably never going to see anything like that again if they don't get their acts together.

“It makes me quite sad because that was to me, amateur boxing; going away with my teammates. That life was the starting point for what was to come. And I think it's very, very important, the old way.”

Arthur Jnr will likely weigh around 173lbs for his debut. Arthur Snr has some of the most morbid weight-making stories, having done things to tip the scales in his favor that he would never let his son do – including sleeping in a hot bath and having camp members top up hot water throughout the night.

While there is a business-like demeanour about Arthur Jnr, there is also a youthful charm. He calls his dad his “hero”, even now.

But he boxes nothing like Alex, who was technically very precise, orthodox and textbook.

“I think that Alex has probably got more natural ability than what I had as well,” concedes Snr.

“He relies on reflexes and natural movements. He’s not the easiest person to teach in terms of, he’s very difficult. He’s got his own style. He’s got quite a unique style. So it can be quite difficult to teach, if that makes sense. 

“I’ve had to adapt my coaching strategies over the years with Alex as well because he is stylistically – I would call him a boxer-puncher because he can punch pretty hard. But really, right to the core, he’s actually a boxer. He’s a technical boxer. So making adjustments to that style has not always been easy.”

Arthur has thought outside the box, too, envisioning himself as the opponent and trying to figure out ways to come out on top against his boy.

On Saturday night, it will be down to the 13-49-9 (2 KOs) Robbie Chapman to figure out a way to beat the debutant, but Arthur Jnr hopes he can follow on from Josh Taylor – who tops Saturday’s promotion against Ekow Essuman – and Arthur Jnr hopes to be headlining his own shows in Edinburgh within two years.

Along with Drew Limond, he is also keen to usher in another productive Scottish era. His dad came through with Limond, Scott Harrison, and latterly Ricky Burns, who Arthur Snr also defeated.

“It’s very exciting to be a part of it all as well,” he adds.

Arthur Snr grumbles about having had to make his debut in a small hall in Manchester 25 years ago. His son gets to fight at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro in his first outing. 

“It’s a brilliant stage to start on,” his dad says.

The first public stage he was on, Alex Arthur Jnr was being passed through the ropes to share his father’s spotlight by the Welsh great Joe Calzaghe. 

On Saturday, when the house lights go down, he will have it to himself.

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.