Paul Butler - The Merseyside Mexican

By Danny Winterbottom:

As a starry eyed youngster unbeaten 23-year-old super flyweight prospect Paul Butler remembers how he watched in awe as a Mexican world champion by the name of Marco Antonio Barrera befuddled and brutalised a shell shocked Paul Lloyd in defence of his super bantamweight title back in 1999.

“He’s the one I watch the most, his fights with Morales are incredible” Butler told Secondsout with an excitable tone to his voice.

Mexico City, the sprawling metropolis in the Distrito Federal area of a country famous for producing some of boxing’s greatest sons, is a world away from Ellesmere Port an industrial town on the Wirral peninsula, but the night Barrera beat Lloyd to a pulp in one savage round made a lasting impression on the young Butler, enough for him to adopt the ring moniker of his favourite ever fighter in his own quest for glory.

However, it was a warrior from these shores that first pricked his interest in the sport when he watched Nigel Benn’s thrilling but ultimately tragic fight with American Gerald McClellan. “It sounds strange,” said Butler. “But after watching the fight I wanted to get down the gym, I wanted to do what they did”

Ellesmere Port’s “Baby Faced Assassin”, like Lloyd before him, boxed out of the famous Vauxhall Motors ABC as an amateur, spending 11 years there before his career in the unpaid ranks culminated in success at the ABA championships, where he was crowned senior Flyweight champion in 2010. Capped almost 30 times for England, Butler points to the support of his family as a base for his success. “My family have always been behind me, but at first my mum wasn’t so keen, but my dad has been watching me since I was 10-years-old”, remembered Butler, “He’s always given me encouragement”.

As a professional the passionate Liverpool football fan has racked up a 5-0 slate against the usual trail horses picked to test the resolve of standout amateurs new to the paid ranks. A come forward pocket battleship of a fighter who has skills to burn, Butler has made a perfect start to life as a prizefighter and is steadily building a solid fan base.

When I caught up with him he was in the middle of a rare day off from the rigours of training with emerging coach Anthony Farnell in Manchester, a journey he makes down the M56 Monday to Saturday.

“I get a lift off a mate, it costs me £75 a week” joked Butler,” but it will be all worth it. Training is going well, I sparred Gary Davies the ex British bantamweight champion yesterday,” Butler told Secondsout.

The unbeaten pro is in preparation for a slot on the undercard of Derry Matthews world title fight on January 20 at Liverpool’s Olympia, although when we spoke an opponent was yet to be named. “I did some pad work, some shadow and then we usually do 10 rounds on the body bag before moving onto the circuits to keep a sweat up” said Butler with the enthusiasm of a man who relishes the challenges ahead.

In a division with so few professionals Butler admitted that he has found locating adequate sparring a chore, more often than not having to get in the ring with men physically much bigger than himself.

“Yeah I find it hard, I’ve been working with a lad about to turn pro down at the gym, he’s a super featherweight but I handle myself well and know when I do fight the super flyweight’s I will be strong”.

It’s often said that after sparring bigger, slower men it is hard to adjust to the speed of your own weight division, but Butler believes his experience down at the Great Britain camp as an amateur makes it easier to deal with. “I used to spar lads my own weight all the time so I never find it too much of a problem”

The recent super flyweight prizefighter tournament gave us an insight into practically the entire division as a whole and it came as no surprise to learn that Butler was there running a rule over the competition. “I was ringside” said Butler, “I was actually sparring Don Broadhurst for it and if I’m honest I handled Don with ease”, bold words from a five fight novice but said with a conviction that made them entirely believable. “He was doing ok against Haskins in the first round but then got caught with a big shot”.

The conversation gradually turned to his opinion of Haskins and it was clear that the 23-year-old is confident of beating the heavy handed British champion even now. “Everybody thinks the way to beat him is to rush at him, but that’s exactly what he wants”. “He wants to catch you coming in with those hard shots, but someone with a good boxing brain beats him”. “He is lazy; he throws one phase and looks to catch you with it”.

With such confidence in his own ability, Butler expects to begin his assault on professional honours sooner rather than later. “I definitely want titles this year, maybe a commonwealth shot against Kareem or the winner of Power and Donnelly who are fighting for the English belt that would be good.

“When I sparred Davies I was bigger than him, so in a couple of years I might move up to bantamweight full time, there is some good fights at the weight such as Stuart Hall or Jamie McDonnell” reasoned Butler

Like every fighter that laces on the gloves “The Baby Faced Assassin “dreams of one day being crowned world champion, a goal he believes he can achieve. “I wouldn’t be in the game if I didn’t have the confidence that I will be a world champion one day”. “I take this sport seriously so I firmly believe I will get out what I put in”

After his first round blowout of previously unbeaten David Kanalas on the undercard of Tony Bellew-Nathan Cleverly in October, it is clear that Butler can be moved on in class fairly quickly without too many “Keep busy fights” and he will hope, despite his lack of professional rounds, that promoter Frank Warren can deliver the fights to push him into title contention this season, and if matched well we could see the emergence of a little star in 2012.

Twitter: @Hitmandann