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New coach jumped at the chance to train the Upton Brothers

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The three Upton Brothers have recently changed trainers.

The Belfast trio have left Ricky Hatton and are now fighting out of the West Ham Gym under Barry Smith. Their new trainer is a sought-after man with a busy stable of prospects and swathes of new fighters looking to link up, but Smith had no hesitation in taking on the Uptons.

The Londoner explained to IFL TV that “”I’m very busy at the minute.”

“My inbox on my Facebook doesn’t stop, every week I probably get about two to three fighters inboxing me asking what’s going on down here, can they come down, can they talk to me.”

English light welter champ Anto, Irish light middle champ Pauly, and upcoming English light middleweight title challenger Sonny are managed by MGM, and when the Spanish-based outfit got in touch with Smith they didn’t have to ask twice.

Smith recalled how “MGM phoned me up, I was on my holidays, they asked me if I was interested in taking on any more talented fighters, I said yes because I’m always looking for good talent.”

“They went ‘we have the three Upton Brothers’ and I said right away ‘yeah, I’ll have all three of them,’ straight away, I didn’t even hesitate.”

The three brothers will now look to have something of a get-to-know-you bout under Smith before moving onto bigger fights. The skillful siblings are contenders to appear on the Belfast Boxnation show at the Titanic Exhibition Centre on November 5th.

Watch Barry Smith’s interview with IFL TV in full below:

Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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