Johnny Fisher was supposed to headline on September 28 against Andriy Rudenko in the Copper Box Arena. An injury forced the big heavyweight out of action. Before Fisher smashed up his most recent foe, Alen Babic, in under a minute, Declan Taylor caught up with the big man to separate fact from fiction – and talk Chinese food.
IN THE kitchen at the House of Fisher is a famous table, which for weeks now has been covered almost entirely in paper tickets.
The table is probably the most viewed item of its kind in Britain due to its prevalence on the social media of Johnny Fisher’s wildly famous father Big John, who routinely covers it in Chinese takeaway boxes and says ‘Bosh’.
It is not labouring the point to say that the Fisher family have been one of British boxing’s strangest idiosyncrasies of the generation but on Saturday night it’s John Jr who will once again take centre stage.
“The rather large elephant in the room,” Fisher explains. “Is that Big John is the star and I’m just the back-up dancer. Sometimes I think I should have just gone for chicken balls instead of punching a bag but we’re here now.”
But besides his career as a social media celebrity, meet-and-greet phenomenon and international DJ, Fisher Sr has always been the man in charge of managing his son’s astonishing ability to shift tickets. And for Saturday’s show at the Copper Box/Bosh, headlined by Fisher against Alen Babic, that has meant a return to the old school for the family.
“For this fight we’ve gone back to the old way of physical tickets,” he says. “So they have been laid out all over the kitchen table. Big John does it all by hand, with pen and paper, there is no Excel spreadsheet here.
“He keeps it all written down in his little book, when someone has paid he closes their envelope, if they haven’t it stays open. God forbid one of the dogs gets hold of the papers though, then we’d be in trouble. If it’s not the table being taken over it’s the kitchen island. So my mum’s not happy but it has got to be done.
“People come and collect their ticket and t-shirt – Big John has done 3,500 tickets from the front room alone. There is going to be 7,000 there on the night so it will be full at the Copper Bosh.
“The old way is the best way and I think it’s the way we are as people. We are no frills and you get what it says on the tin. There’s no need to try and dress it up and be fancy. We are very grateful that people want to come and support, I’ve got to put the work in in the gym and it’s just amazing that people want to come and be part of the journey.
“That’s why we meet them up at the fish and chip shop, to give people their ticket and t-shirt, or people come to our house and knock on the door. That’s what it’s all about, it’s about community, not just me winning a boxing match, of course that’s the most important thing but we’ve built a community now.”
Given his support, his famous dad, the catchphrases and everything else that exists in the Romford Bull’s slip stream he has in the past been written off as little more than a ticket-seller or even worse, a gimmick.
But he is stealthily building towards the upper reaches of the British heavyweight rankings and, in the last 12 months, has ticked off three major milestones. First, in August, he won his first title when he stopped Harry Armstrong to claim the Southern Area title. Then in February he dismissed Dmytro Bezus inside a round on his US debut in Las Vegas.
And on Saturday, he will headline for the first time when he and Babic collide over 10 rounds. The chances of this going the distance, however, seem slim.
“Building is what boxing is all about,” Fisher adds. “And in professional boxing you do have to be calculating and tactical in a sense because it’s heavyweight boxing, your lights could be switched off at any point. You’ve got to take incremental steps up where you’re learning.
“Harry Armstrong was a step up, a bloke with big ambitions to win who really thought he could beat me. Then we went to Vegas, dealt with a different commission, training over there, different environment. And now my first headline event.
“These are all incremental steps, but something new to learn every time, every step is more important than the last and that’s what I need to remember. The next step is all that matters.
“For me that means this event in front of all my supporters. It’s only 20 minutes from where i live in Romford so it’s good for me and all my supporters. I threw it out there to Frank Smith and Eddie Hearn to see if we could do somewhere closer to home, get a few prospects on there and it’s worked really well.”
Fisher is 25 now, with 11 fights, 11 wins and 10 quick. And although the tickets for Saturday are currently taking pride of place at his parents’ house, he has just moved into his own home as a result of his earnings from boxing.
“Life has changed but there is still so much more to do,” says Fisher. “I got my first house last year and it’s about building in the right direction and going up the levels. I’m very humble and I know where I am. I’m not even at English level yet, I want to get there. I want to get to British title level in the next year or 18 months. But there is a long process ahead of me and I just need to keep myself grounded.
“The new gaff is only two minutes away from mum and dad’s so my mum can still come round and do my washing and ironing. It’s in Gidea Park in Romford. It’s a lovely little house. It still has so much work to be done to it but that’s exciting. Where I’ve been abroad in Vegas or in Texas training with Hrgovic, I’ve had no time to get things done. I’m still living off rails, I don’t have any wardrobes or cabinets in my house. I’ve got no ornaments or anything either.
“I’m living in a bare house, I’ve got a kitchen which is the most important thing but I’m really excited to get to work on that. That’s what boxing is about – improving your livelihood and improving your own standing. If I can make a living out of boxing then that’s what it’s all about.”
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But on Saturday Babic will attempt to blow a hole in Fisher’s so far serene progress towards the top. The Croatian’s own career was rocked when he was stopped inside a round by Lukasz Rozanski in Poland last year but he began the rebuild by beating Steve Robinson in March. He knows doing a matador job on the Romford Bull will catapult him into more lucrative opportunities once again.
Fisher said: “He’s going to bring the heat. It’s my job to deal with him, expose him and get rid of him.
“I’m actually quite glad he’s a little bit taller. He’s about 6ft 2ins. I thought he was more like 6ft so it’s a bit of a bigger target. He’s not like a stocky cruiserweight, he’s just like a small heavyweight. If anything it’s just a nice bonus because I’ll just be too big for him.
“With his height, he’s a couple of inches shorter than me so a smaller version of me. I think it’s perfect.
“We’ve never sparred but we’ve fought on the same show a couple of times. I get on with him well but it’s boxing, it’s business and we’ve got to be enemies for this week. After the fight, win, lose or draw I’ll shake his hand.
“And maybe I’ll even get him round mum and dad’s table for a Chinese.”