Prosper vows to come back even stronger after first pro loss

The former Hockwell Ring boxer was beaten on points by champion Noble in his bid to the win the Southern Area super lightweight belt at the Goodwin Promotions ‘Fight Night’ on October 29.

After going into the bout with a record of nine straight wins, Prosper said: “I honestly feel like I will be a better fighter in my next fights due to this loss, because I’m going to work twice as hard, going to be twice as prepared and not going to leave anything to chance.

“Had I got the win, I might not have the same motivation going into this next fight, so everything happens for a reason, every cloud has a silver lining and I’m staying positive.

“I’ve still got all my support, it’s just down to me now to rest my body and get back to where I was.”

Prosper was hampered badly from early on in his bout after breaking his hand in the third round.

He has since had an operation and will be out for eight to 10 weeks, but on how the injury occurred, he continued: “As I’ve gone to punch him, he’s bent his head down and I’ve hit him on the top of his head.

“I’ve hit him with an open palm rather than with the knuckle and then I’ve had multiple fractures on my hand.

“I can actually remember the pain that was shooting down my arm, as I was doing well up until that point.

“I was in control, I was landing my shots, then when I felt it, all I could do was cover up

“After the first punch, it’s damaged it, then as I’ve still had to try and use it, it’s just made it worse.

“Come the sixth round it was almost unbearable to really punch him with it.”

The pain was so bad, that Prosper had considered throwing the towel in, but personal pride prevented that from happening.

He said: “My trainer said ‘do you want me to stop it?’

“And I said ‘don’t stop it, the ref’s going to have to stop it or he’s going to have to knock me out.’

“As that’s one thing I’d like to be able to pride myself by the end of my career that I’ve never been stopped, never been knocked out, that would be an achievement.

“Sometimes you’ve got to tough it out too. I remember seeing a guy called Danny Williams, he fought with a dislocated shoulder and went on to win the fight, so it’s not like something happens and you can’t win a fight.

“I was still in there, still could have won the fight, landed a punch, so I was always going to stick in it to the end and see how it was going to finish.”

Although admitting Noble was a worthy winner on points, Prosper did feel with a fully functioning hand, it might have been a different outcome.

He said: “I have no issues with the decision, he was throwing so many punches, his work-rate too.

“I knew he had really good energy and was really fit, but I never actually expected him to be as fit as he was.

“I was ready for a certain kind of fitness, but he was probably above what I was expecting.

“I didn’t underestimate him though and where I was letting him work a bit too much, I was almost hoping he would run out of gas a little bit and I could come on stronger down the stretch, but he was getting stronger and stronger.

“Once I injured my hand, plan B was to try and box on the back foot, maybe switch to southpaw, but he kept me on the ropes and after the third, fourth time, it started to drain me.

“As the fight wore on, when I needed to step it up with my hand and with me being worked over, I kind of just faded away.

“He won the fight fair and square, I would never argue that, but if I had both hands and was fully fit, I think it would have been a different fight.”

For more on Prosper and who he hopes to come up against next, see next week’s News/Gazette.