By Oliver McManus @OliverGMcManus
The third installment of Ultimate Boxxer will take place on May 10th with eight middleweight’s battling it out for the lion’s share of £50,000. Amid the field, which includes former English and Southern Area champions, will be Derrick Osaze.
The 25 year old from Nottingham who combines his day-job as a Minister with the noble art of pugilism. Having turned professional in December 2017 with a routine six-round points victory over Callum Ide, Osaze racked up six fights in the space of 10 months and I asked him to reflect on the opening phase of his pro career.
“It’s been good for me, I built some solid foundations and, even though I knew what to expect from the pro game, those fights reinforced that knowledge. All the fights I was involved with were learning fights and you can see the opportunities that have come through it. I can take plenty of positives but my most positive performance was when I fought on the away show (at Dolman Exhibition Hall in Bristol) against Liam Hunt. That fight was never meant for me but I got the call and, at the time, Liam was 6-1-1 so in their mind I was the underdog.”
For Osaze fighting “away from home” is nothing new with half his pro fights taking place in London but, even then, he’s officially designated as the home fighter. The actual circumstance of being the ‘opponent’ was one that he thrived on.
“I loved that, I was very aware I was fighting the home favourite and over four rounds there’s every chance he’ll get the nod. I felt I had to take the victory away from him, force the decision, and I was first to everything. First to every punch. I had to perform to the best of my ability and I ended up not losing a round.
Derrick Osaze
I think that shows my adaptability because that was never meant to be my fight, if you know what I mean, but to be a good boxer you need to go with the wind and adapt to different scenarios.”
The Punching Preacher
The Punching Preacher initially had his sights set on a Midlands Area title but matchmaking difficulties quickly kept him in touch with the realities of professional boxing. Ultimate Boxxer, then, was an opportunity he simply couldn’t turn down.
“My manager got a phone call from Carl Greaves and pretty much just asked if I wanted to be in the competition and it was the quickest ‘yes’ you have ever heard. I didn’t care who was in it, I genuinely didn’t, because this was an opportunity I have been waiting for to test myself. Unfortunately my eyes have been opened to the level of politics in this sport, even at small hall level, people just don’t want to fight anyone anymore. What’s the point of being undefeated but fighting nobodies?
Being a good fighter just isn’t enough anymore and it’s all about what you do outside of the ring, your persona, how many tickets you sell. Suddenly, though, even selling tickets and having a good following can’t guarantee you the fights. I had someone tell me they didn’t want to fight me because I was ‘too ambitious’. They’d had three times as many fights as me, and they’d won pretty much all of them. I’ll let your readers figure out who it was, Ollie”
He was cautious not to pay too much attention to the format – which could see him compete in three, three round, contests – with a desire to treat this as he would any other fight. “If you overthink it you run a tightrope of forgetting the basics”, he told me.
“I’ve had a lot of questions asking if I’m going to change the way I train but what is the point in that? It’s impossible to change the way I train, I don’t even know who I’m fighting yet! If I have to win a fight by jabbing away, if I have to move and box, if I have to get involved on the inside, it doesn’t bother me because I know my capabilities. I don’t know how some of the other guys have got the time to “study” each of us and train at the same time.
There’s only one of my fights on YouTube so unless they’ve known about this for years and been coming to my previous fights, they’re not going be able to get much information. And let me tell you know, I’m going to deliberately throw in some curveballs just to mess them up. Here’s something I’ve not told anyone before but when I was an amateur I got entered into a tournament with someone from the gym,if we kept winning we were going to fight each-other so I sparred him in southpaw and you should have seen the look on his face when we eventually fought each-other!”
Ekow has been carrying Nottingham on his back
Part of the set-up that includes, English champion, Ekow Essuman, Osaze is at the forefront of a boxing renaissance in Nottingham. On May 10th, the same night as Ultimate Boxxer, Sky Sports will be back in the city for the first time since the days of Carl Froch. A sign that city is no longer being “slept on”.
“I think it’s a testament to the hard work that the promoters have been putting in. You look at the fact they’ve returned to Peterborough but they were left completely alone for years, boxing has always been in Nottingham even when the TV companies left. It’s slightly frustrating that it’s on the same day because, who knows, I maybe could have got on the show. It is the start of something big, though, and Ekow has been carrying Nottingham on his back, I think, for the last few years. Leigh Wood has got himself success lately, Nina Bradley as well. I’m certain they’ll be back soon, it would be rude not to, there’s so much noise coming from the city, so much talent with titles already.”
Being based in the thriving city – which boasts two universities famed for their journalism and media courses – there was always going to be a certain spotlight afforded to the 25 year old. Now he’s in Ultimate Boxxer, that exposure has gone national and it’s something Osaze is taking in his stride. You can tell he dips his toe in the motivational speaker market, as he talks with such natural assurance and authority.
“It’s been good, I’ve got nothing to lose so let’s get my name out there. I spoke to so many different media outlets, The Telegraph, Talksport, iFL, Boxing Social, BT, it was amazing. I know it’s part and parcel of the sport but, man, it’s great and I really am thankful for it.”
With names like that all vying to get a piece of the, Barrington Brown trained, fighter, I’ll soon have to be paying him for his time. I was quickly reassured, however – “you’re not the first to say that, Ollie, but the love is still there – don’t get me wrong.”
Outside of the ring and, as we’ve already touched on, Osaze is a minister at God’s Vineyard Ministries. Hand in hand with that work is AIM Youth, a company founded earlier in the year, that aims to “aspire, inspire and motivate”.
“I’ve been sitting on that for so many years, man. I’ve always been passionate about helping out young people in the community, when I was 15 I started as a volunteer football coach and in my second year at university I came together with a friend about starting a youth organization. I’ve worked in some before but there has always seemed to be something missing so we drafted up plans for how it would run, that was when I was 19. Six years later, just a couple months ago, we started it properly.
I go into schools and give motivational talks, I mentor a lot of young people and run interventional schemes so this is a way of making it more official and being able to reach more people within schools. A lot of young people are missing that first bit of our statement, we’re seeking to inspire people to have aspirations, to give themselves goals, and then help them on the journey to achieving those aspirations.”
The immediate aspiration for Derrick is firmly on May 10th and winning Ultimate Boxxer would, he says, “be the perfect example to these young kids”. Just before I finished speaking to him he flipped the interview on it’s head and asked my why he thought he could win the tournament before giving me a prediction of his own.
“You will see the best version ever of Derrick DelBoy Osaze, I’ll be in tip-top shape, and I don’t even know how I’m going to win yet. I’ll be brutally honest with you, I don’t know how I’m going to box because that depends on what my opponent tries to do. Like I told you earlier, it will not be what they’re expecting so to keep them on their toes I’m not going to make my mind up until I’m in there.”