Boxing: The Doc is back, and he’s on the glory trail

Feb 16 2008 by Gareth Jones, South Wales Echo

TONY Doherty has come back home to Wales. And he wants to win titles, something underlined by his decision to link up with top trainer Enzo Calzaghe.

The Pontypool product lost his unbeaten record and his Celtic championship belt when he dropped a controversial points decision to Scot Kevin McIntyre at Cardiff International Arena last July.

He returns to the same venue on the Gavin Rees-Andreas Kotelnik bill on March 22 to face unbeaten Rhondda southpaw Barrie Jones for the vacant Welsh welter crown, determined to get his career back on track.

“Nothing went right in the last fight, in or out of the ring,” admits ‘The Doc’, still only 24. “Hopefully, this will be a much better performance.

“I can’t wait to get the Welsh title and then move on to the British or Commonwealth.”

Not that he is dismissing Ferndale stylist Jones, who has won all 15 as a professional, following an amateur career in which, like Doherty, he was a Welsh ABA champion.

“He’s stepping up in class, but he’s taken the fight, so he must be confident,” said Doherty. “It’s a crossroads fight for both of us. I can’t afford to lose and I’m not going to.”

Cwmbran middleweight Gary Lockett, who, like Doherty, was trained in Manchester by Brian Hughes before moving back to Wales and joining Team Calzaghe, is adamant that his friend has finally made the right move, after disappearing to London and working with former European feather king Jim McDonnell for a year.

“Tony should have come to Enzo when he left Brian,” said Lockett. “He needs a disciplinarian, like he had with Tony Williams when he was an amateur.

“He’s got awesome talent and it’s time he showed it.”

Doherty is glad to be home, both domestically and from a boxing standpoint.

“I left after my brother died, because I just needed to get away,” he said. “Now I’m back and it feels great.

“And to be part of the Calzaghe gym is fantastic. It’s not just Enzo, it’s being part of a winning team and having people like Gavin Rees, Bradley Pryce and the others to spar with.”

For much of his five-year pro career, ‘The Doc’ has seemed to be treading water. Now, with the backing of his new colleagues, it is time to move on to the next level.

echo.sport@mediawales.co.uk