Newly-minted British cruiserweight champion Viddal Riley delivered a career-best performance to hand for Team GB Olympian Cheavon Clarke his second defeat.
Riley, a glowing success away from boxing on YouTube and social media, admitted winning the Lonsdale Belt had been a dream since he was six.
“I told you I’d do it,” he said to Sky Sports after his 12-round victory over Clarke. “Unanimous. Shout out to Cheav. Tough. Game. Kept coming. That’s the worst canvas to ever box on by the way, I was slipping everywhere, but I showed again that I can box, I can go a bit rough in there and I rode it out in there.”
Asked where he would like to go next, Riley said he would leave that down to his promoter, Ben Shalom.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Now I’m British champion, I’m on a very good pedestal. Ben will obviously direct me where to go next. We want to keep climbing. Could win the British title outright [which means winning three fights with the belt at stake], I really don’t know. I’ve dreamt about having this belt since I was six years old and to finally have it, it’s surreal.”
His father and trainer, Derrick, added that they had been motivated by studying classic fights for the British title in the modern era.
“We were watching Alex Arthur and Michael Gomez, Ricky Hatton and Jon Thaxton, Jamie Moore-Matthew Macklin and he said, ‘Dad, I’m gonna be British champion,’” Derrick said. “People laughed at us. But he’s in his home [winning his belt at Tottenham’s football stadium, near where he lives]. He’s British champion, and I’m proud of him.”
