Andrew Cain exclusive: I’m coming to do what I do
Andrew Cain faces the toughest and most high profile test of his career this weekend. But don’t expect the British and Commonwealth bantamweight champion to approach his fight with former world flyweight champion, Charlie Edwards, any differently to any of his other fights. For all the latest fight odds, visit our sportsbook.
“Do you know what? The opponent, to me, is irrelevant. I just think about the date and whoever is in the other corner is whoever is in the other corner,” Cain told 32Red.
“Look at my last fight [a second round knockout of Colombia’s Lazaro Casseres]. We got that fella on two weeks’ notice. No footage on him whatsoever and he was 11-1. He could have been anyone, you know what I’m saying? It’s the same attitude, the same mentality as that. It doesn’t matter who is in the other corner, I’m coming to do what I do and that’s it. It doesn’t matter who it is, it really doesn’t.”
“Boxing is a funny old game”
Cain, 13-1 (12 KOs), and Edwards 20-1 (7 KOs), will fight on the undercard of Nick Ball’s WBA world featherweight title defence against TJ Doheny in Liverpool on Saturday night.
The ferocious Cain is known for his heavy hands, aggressive style and unorthodox angles. The resurgent Edwards is a slick mover who is is steadily working his way back to the top after a long period of inactivity.
Rather than trading with Cain, Edwards’ seems almost certain to rely on the boxing skills that carried him to a world title. Cain isn’t expecting Edwards to meet fire with fire but experience has taught him not to take anything for granted.
“He’s not known for that but what I would say is this boxing game is a funny old game,” Cain said.
“People see my gym mate, Brad Strand, in the same way but I’m telling you now, he’s got a powerful right hand, Brad. Probably the most powerful, near enough, in the gym and that’s not just me, that’ll tell you that. All the lads will say that.
“Anyone can hurt you”
“So you can’t take nothing away from records. We’ve been punching all our lives, haven’t we? We’ve been turning our shots over correctly and putting our body weight through our shots so anyone can hurt you. I won’t be thinking he’s a feather fist.
“But that being said, he is quite negative, isn’t he? He is more trying to score points and nick the fight rather than take the play away from someone.”
Cain is relatively new to the spotlight but he is the opposite of an overnight success story. Although he is still only 28 years old, he has been a professional for a decade.
Cain looked like a future star when he first burst onto the scene but frustrations at behind the scenes boxing politics sapped his enthusiasm and led to him leaving the sport behind for almost four years.
He never fully gave up on his dream and still fights as if he is making up for lost time.
“I went and done what I had to do for a couple of years to make some money and then I thought to myself, ‘Even if I end up a millionaire doing something else, I’m still always gonna regret my life unless I give this another go,’ so I had to come back. Even when I stopped, I knew I’m not finished, you know what I mean?”
“I’ve always loved fighting”
Cain is as natural a fighter as it is possible to imagine.
He has no interest in creating fake drama to sell a fight but when he does talk, he cuts directly to the chase. He spends endless hours perfecting tactics and techniques in the gym with his trainer, Paul Stevenson, but when he steps between the ropes fights to fight, he does so with a hard to teach instinctiveness.
Cain enjoys what he does.
“I love it. I’ve always loved fighting,” he said.
“There’s nothing that gives you them feelings because, as humans, we don’t know whether we’re fighting to the death. We know but there’s something in our brain that doesn’t, so it releases the feelings that it releases. It’s that what I love, it’s like a drug to me. It’s a craving and you miss it. I’m always going to miss it when I have to stop.”
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