By James Harte

On Aug 1 at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, on the undercard of Leonard Bundu’s successful European title defence against Birmingham’s Frankie Gavin, the Brummie’s Hall Green gym-mate Tommy Langford took his record to 10-0 (2 KOs) with an impressive second round stoppage over Brighton’s Nicky Jenman. It was Langford’s second time in front of the television cameras and under the bright lights and already felt more comfortable.

Back in May, the honorary Brummie from Bideford travelled to the Olympia in Liverpool for a five round technical decision over Huddersfield’s Alistair Warren in his first appearance for promoter Frank Warren and it was his first time before the rolling cameras.

“There was a lot more nerves that time,” Langford told BoxingScene. “It was my first time with a day before weigh-in, first time staying away in a hotel for a fight – I felt more comfortable this time, a lot calmer!”

Langford puts it down to the work him and Hall Green head-honcho Tom Chaney have been putting in behind the scenes at the amateur club in the Birmingham suburbs.

“I’m known for throwing a lot of punches – and it looks great, but me and Tom have been practicing on wasting less, pinpointing opportunities more. Being calmer and punishing any mistakes.”

Entering the pro scene as a light-middle, the now 6ft 1in qualified nutritionist moved up to middleweight last year and sees his foreseeable future there in his pursuit for professional titles.

“Me and Tom want to step up to eight rounders soon (Langford has never been beyond six, and has reached that distance five times) – a couple more fights and then I want to fight for titles. Any one I can get my hands on. It helps that middleweight is a stacked division domestically, when you’re big chance comes, you want it in a big fight”

Langford who had a four-fight series with world ranked Liverpudlian amateur Anthony Fowler in the amateur code (Fowler forged a 3-1 lead in a high quality set of bouts) now awaits his next date from Warren and is not sitting idly, silently continuing to improve his craft and sharpen his tools under the watchful eye of Tom Chaney and the expert guidance of his manager Jon Pegg.