Jamie Ball's big help for title fight

Coseley light middleweight Jamie Ball is glad he has an understanding boss ahead of his Midlands title showdown with Kieron Gray on December 20.

Ball has been training three times a day ever since the fight was made in September which, combined with his day job as a tarmaccer, put his body under severe physical strain.

But 'the Black Country Bully' found a sympathetic ear in the office at Daneways in Dudley, who have now become his sponsors for the big fight.

That's because his boss is none other than Dean Hiscox, a former professional boxer himself in the late 1980's and early 1990's who once fought former British champion Jonathan Thaxton.

Hiscox used to work as a tarmaccer himself when he was boxing and knows only too well how difficult juggling the two can be.

And Ball has been glad of the help as he prepares for the biggest fight of his career at Birmingham's Holiday Inn.

He said: "Dean had to give up boxing in the end, because there wasn't enough money in boxing to support his family.

"Now I am a professional, he's putting it into me because he knows what I have to go through, he's gave me no end of support.

"I have been able to do my weights in the morning, my boxing at lunch time and my running in the evening ever since the fight was made.

"I am training full time now and, as my sponsors, I am still on full pay from work."

Ball has racked up 10 straight wins since turning pro in 2008 but faces his sternest test yet in Gray, the tough brawler from Telford who was unbeaten himself until this year.

It's an intriguing clash of styles between Ball's skills and Gray's brawn, to decide the new area champion in the Black Country boxer's first fight for six months.

He was last in action beating Lester Walsh on June 6 at Wolverhampton Civic Hall – on the same bill Gray lost his undefeated record to Kevin McCauley.

But the 26-year-old has already got over 56 rounds of sparring under his belt in preparations designed to cope with the co-challenger's physical threat.

When it comes to fight night, Ball believes that by stepping up in the later rounds his opponent will run out of ideas.

He said: "I know that up until halfway through the fight he's going to be on me, we have worked out a gameplan for that.

"I have been working on my defence, with solid jabs and breaking him down with the body shots.

"After the fifth round, I reckon that the fight will be wide open, that will be time to pick my work rate up and see what happens.

"He's a raw, pressure fighter, that is what I have had drummed into me.

"It's the biggest fight of my career so far and I am super confident I can do it."