I WANTED to dislike Prince Patel. I needed him to reside up (or down) to the status that preceded him. I hoped to return away with a file full of controversial quotes, outrageous self-promotion and uncalled-for insults.
But one thing surprising occurred. A pair of hours in the Prince’s firm left me truly liking a person who has upset so many members of the British boxing fraternity, from his fellow contenders to confirmed champions to ex-pros to journalists and to followers of their 1000’s.
Maybe it’s as a result of our dialog was performed with out an viewers. Maybe it’s as a result of it was not completed over social media, nor in entrance of a tv digital camera. Or perhaps it’s simply because he’s older and wiser, and at 30 Patel realises the clock is ticking on his dream to change into a ‘world’ champion; that he must construct bridges reasonably than burn them; and that many individuals don’t admire the histrionics of professional wrestling, from the place Patel says he took his cues as a younger professional.
“In wrestling, I always prefer the heels,” he says. “Look at [WWE champion] Roman Reigns – he’s good as a heel. As a face [good guy], he was boring.
“I used to observe ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin disrespecting his boss reside on TV; it introduced in large viewing figures. D-Generation X [a rebellious wrestling faction] had been my heroes rising up. So [when I turned pro], I needed to be the dangerous man.
“The thought in professional boxing is to get folks speaking. It’s showbusiness. The issues I mentioned had been simply to spark a response; I needed to have folks discuss me. Let’s face it, as a flyweight/bantamweight, no one would have cared in any other case.
“I believed I used to be doing a very good factor. I believed it was apparent it was tongue in cheek. Muhammad Ali didn’t go residence to his household and shout at them ‘I’m the Greatest!’.
“I’m simply an unusual man. I do so much of charity work. If there’s a means I will help any individual, I’ll. Charity has been ingrained in me by my mum.
“But people looked at that persona, thought that was the real me, and disliked it. It must have been an Oscar-worthy performance! But yeah, it backfired.”
Patel turned professional in October 2015 following a largely profitable novice profession, profitable schoolboy Golden Gloves, two CYP tournaments (now the NABCs) and two Tri Nations, in addition to twice reaching ABA finals, however claimed to dislike the unpaid code as he “wasn’t allowed to express myself”.
He wasted no time entering into character as soon as he’d ditched the vest, with an interview following his professional debut garnering extra consideration than something he’d completed in the 53 novice bouts that preceded it.
Talking with IFL’s Kugan Cassius, Patel offered himself with the swagger and sense of entitlement of somebody who’d proved a complete lot extra than simply beat a winless journeyman in 90 seconds. He was prickly with Cassius, insulted then-English champion Charlie Edwards and his father, predicted greatness for himself, claimed to “like inflicting pain”, and made a number of crude references to his sexual prowess and physique components.
If it was a deliberate attention-seeking tactic, it labored. “Everyone wanted to sign me after that,” says Patel, who went with Frank Warren, anticipating the mixture of his bombast and Warren’s affect to be an ideal partnership.
Following Patel’s second win, he was invited on to Bunce’s Boxing Hour on BoxNation, a platform hardly ever afforded to novices. If anybody tuned in anticipating the Prince’s behaviour to disappoint, effectively… he didn’t disappoint.
He launched an unprovoked verbal assault on fellow visitor Barry Jones, claiming “you don’t want to be in fights like Barry where no one wants to watch you … no one remembers him as a great champion; no one goes ‘Barry Jones, let’s talk about he’s an incredible fighter’. He’s a forgotten champion.”
Jones, want it’s identified, was already, as a former WBO title-holder, vastly extra completed than Patel (and nonetheless is), and broadly thought to be one of the nicest guys in British boxing. He held his tongue whereas the pouting Prince lasciviously flicked his and proclaimed himself “superhuman” and “the future of this industry”.
Eight years later, that future has but to eventuate, and whereas Patel might have been proper that villainous soundbites make for good social media numbers and wrestling storylines, they’re much less helpful in a sport by which progress typically relies on siding with the proper folks. He was given simply three low-key fights in the subsequent two years earlier than his contract with Warren expired.
“I never had Warren’s number, so I called his office every day for six months straight and they always said ‘oh, you’ve just missed him’, and he never called me back,” says Patel. “He wasn’t preserving me lively. Lesser guys than me – no disrespect to them – had been getting alternatives whereas I used to be on the shelf.
“Even the Vijender [Singh] show in India [in July 2017, televised by BoxNation in what was the first major pro boxing event in the country]. it would have made perfect sense to take me, but they just said no.”
After leaving Warren later that 12 months, Patel dropped off the British boxing map, however the Londoner traversed the globe as a self-managed boxer. The 24 bouts that adopted over the subsequent six years had been contested in 10 nations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
“I got so depressed with boxing after leaving Warren, I went travelling with my missus at the time, just visiting different cities abroad,” he says. “I noticed a [fight] poster in Budapest and thought ‘I could box on that’, so I known as the promoter, acquired myself licensed, and boxed.
“It was the same in other countries. I just contacted promoters and said ‘give me a list of guys I can fight for this budget’. I just jumped on shows and started building the record up. Now I’m well known in those places; ask any boxing fan in West or East Africa or Eastern Europe and they know Prince Patel.”
If certainly Patel is understood, most of his opponents weren’t, but he introduced again from his travels a number of caseloads of souvenirs in the kind of no fewer than 20 belts. They included the completely unknown (BBU Youth? No, me neither) the superfluous regional straps of the large 4 sanctioning our bodies (WBO European, IBF African), the ‘world’ titles of minnow our bodies (WBFed, UBO) and, one way or the other, regardless of Patel being a British citizen of Indian descent, the nationwide championships of Hungary, Egypt and Tanzania.
Such a haul would possibly make for good imagery, however the belts additionally present a possibility for self-deprecation – one thing no one would beforehand have related to Prince Patel. While he boasts on social media of being “buried in gold”, in particular person Patel admits the actual value of his assortment. “I love that picture of Floyd Mayweather with all his belts laid out,” he says. “I could recreate that picture, but with a pile of shit!”
But there’s one crown the Prince has worn which has real value, and in profitable it Patel claimed an actual piece of historical past. In March 2021, by beating Tanzania’s Julias Thomas Kisaware in Ghana, he gained a Commonwealth championship (at 115lbs), making him the first Indian to take action.
Regrettably, it was a end result missed by Boxing News. It was an sincere omission, with BN, blinded by all the bling Patel had amassed, assuming the Kisaware struggle was for extra of the identical. Indeed, there have been 4 items of idiot’s gold up for grabs too, maybe obscuring the well-known rainbow belt, one of the few really significant championships in the sport.
Missing what was, and stays, the excessive level of Patel’s profession added to his perception he was being intentionally snubbed. “I used to buy Boxing News every week, but I stopped because they never wrote about me. I don’t get how certain boxers get write-ups, yet I’m British and winning recognised titles, and I don’t get even get a mention.”
Prince Patel draped in the Indian flag
This article might be the greatest conventional media publicity Patel has acquired since July 12, 2019. That was the night time of his greatest struggle, in entrance of an enormous terrestrial TV viewers on Channel 5, supporting Amir Khan in Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately for Patel, the highlight he craved got here when he suffered the first and up to now solely defeat in a 28-1-2 profession; a unanimous choice to Venezuela’s Michell Banquez.
He presents none of the excuses you usually hear from extra outspoken boxers after being overwhelmed: “I didn’t really feel myself, but I’m not taking anything away from him – I lost to a better man.”
Patel will hope this BN publicity – and his repackaging as a extra humble man – results in a return to TV, particularly as he’s now again boxing in the UK, having scored wins in London in April and September. Patel continues to be self-promoted, although in affiliation with Mo Prior, however understands his ‘world’ title dream probably relies on big-name backing – and that he has a higher probability of securing this if he doesn’t upset the fallacious folks.
But he’s discovering it exhausting to shed the ‘heel’ persona. A public apology to Barry Jones in 2021 didn’t placate the amiable ex-champ. In a video on YouTube channel Boominator TV, Patel admitted he “verbally assaulted him [Jones] for no reason” and mentioned “I was stupid, I was immature, I was naïve as to how I thought boxing worked… I’m sorry; I should never, ever be insulting people, let alone a ‘world’ champion… I’m sorry to him; I’m sorry if any of his family members watched that… I wanna apologise to my mum as well, ‘cause I wasn’t raised that way.”
Forgiveness has not been forthcoming. “It wasn’t personal; he just happened to be there. But attacking Barry kinda makes sense if I wanted to have people talk about me, as he’s such a likeable guy. But he achieved my dream of being a ‘world’ champion so, if anything, he laughed last, and still is laughing. We’ve exchanged a couple of inbox messages, but he hasn’t accepted my apology, really. Mud sticks, and I accept that.”
And, like mud, reputations may be simply as exhausting to shake off. Controversy nonetheless follows Patel, and there’ll at all times be others able to press his buttons, realizing his response will generate on-line consideration.
The feuds with Charlie and Sunny Edwards have continued for years. There’s been a row with ex-pro turned YouTube host Tyan Booth. Even heavyweight Frazer Clarke has been wound up by this 118lbs man. And there’s a working beef with Isaac Lowe – and, by extension, the wider Fury household (Lowe is Tyson’s cousin), none of whom have ever been identified to again down from a petty squabble.
“I was doing an interview with TV and Lowe commented on my Facebook, ‘your bum give in’,” says Patel. “I took a screenshot, put it on Twitter and said, ‘instead of trying to bully me, why don’t we box?’. They offered a figure, we offered the same, he went back on it. That was in March.”
Foul-mouthed movies and trash-talking tweets have gone again and forth since then, however any struggle between the two would require cautious negotiations about weight, with Lowe a featherweight who’s boxed as excessive as 139lbs and Patel feeling he’s greatest at super-fly.
“I’m confident I’d beat him, but boxing is a dangerous sport; you shouldn’t fight guys who are a lot bigger,” he says. “I’d box him at bantamweight with a rehydration clause or super-bantam with a rehydration clause and same-day weigh-in. He won’t agree, though.”
If they did struggle, it could create the sort of social media buzz each thrive on, however given how BN usually frowns on grudges, it wouldn’t additional a extra healthful merchandise on Patel’s wishlist. “I’ve always wanted to be on the cover of Boxing News,” he says. “Will I be on the cover for this?”
I let him down gently. Starring on the entrance web page, if ever it occurs, would rely much less on views and chatter than on the Prince delivering on guarantees made greater than eight years in the past.
“I’m only still in boxing to be a ‘world’ champion,” he says. “I hate boxing. The only depression I get is through boxing. I only feel rejected through boxing. I’ve sacrificed my whole childhood, the best years of my adult life, for that goal. I want that status of being the first Indian ‘world’ champion.”
Again, that may most likely depend upon Patel signing with a giant promoter, and whereas he might not want to play the heel, he reminds any would-be backers of the energy of a showman.
“I can shift a lot of tickets,” he claims. “My movies get naked views. I don’t consider in followers and haters – they’re all supporters in the event that they’re shopping for tickets.
“I’m back in the UK by popular demand, and a lot of Indians are getting behind me. You can’t have a country of 1.5 billion people and not have a ‘world’ champion; it’s about who’s gonna get there first – and I hope to.”
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