'I left school at 10 for boxing dream – now I want to follow in Tyson Fury’s footsteps'

'I left school at 10 for boxing dream – now I want to follow in Tyson Fury’s footsteps',EXCLUSIVE He may only be a youngster in the boxing world, but the wheels of Dennis McCann's world championship dream have been rolling since he was 10-years-old

‘I left school at 10 for boxing dream – now I want to follow in Tyson Fury’s footsteps’

Two minutes is all you need to realise you can't give Dennis McCann anything to work with.

Any opening, any mistake, any lack of confidence, and the 22-year-old boxing prodigy is on to you. Stoppages do not come in large supply in the lower-weight divisions of the boxing world, yet eight of the Commonwealth super-bantamweight champion's 14 victories have come via a stoppage.

Boxing colossus Frank Warren is already tipping McCann for the very top. Finding tough, durable opponents has proven to be arduous task for the legendary promoter, as ‘The Menace’ keeps blasting them away.

He will face his toughest challenge yet at the iconic York Hall, when he steps into the ring with experienced Romanian Ionut Baluta on Friday. McCann leaves no prisoners in the ring. His approach, on a fuzzy – and sometimes delayed – Zoom call is no different.

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“I think you look a lot older than me,” McCann laughed, in an exclusive interview with Daily Star Sport, after I mentioned we were around the same age. That was not the last time McCann’s cheeky sense of humour laid me flat out like one of his opponents.

Every jumble of words was punished with one of his trademark witty remarks. This is not to paint McCann as a know-it-all, smartypants – he is entertaining and fascinating company. McCann channels the same natural instincts, which have made him one of the most dangerous young boxers in the sport, into his interview answers.

He is fast, brutal, and, most importantly, accurate. In the ring, every slight drop of the guard or misstep is often brutally punished with power, rarely seen in his weight class. It was this power which saw him appear on Warren’s all-knowing radar.

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McCann has been relentless so far (Image: Photo by Alex Morton/Getty Images))

"I fought a guy called Dean Clancy who was a good fighter," McCann said. "He went to the Olympic Games – it was a big anticipated fight. He came over from the Ireland national team. I fought and beat him at my boxing club.

"Bradley Skeete was there and there's a few people who were spies there. He went straight back to Frank Warren and said, ‘you’ve got to sign his kid. This kid is unbelievable’.

“But everyone knew me from the amateurs. I was stopping kids at 12 years-old. Taking kids out the game which was never heard of for such a low weight at a young age.”

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McCann's record currently stands at 14 victories, eight knockouts, and zero losses (Image: Photo by Alex Morton/Getty Images)

In sporting and general terms, McCann is a youngster at 22-years-old. However, he has been fighting for more than ten years. He left school at the frighteningly young age of 10 to, as he admits himself, ‘put all his eggs’ into his boxing dream.

“I had to, to be a boxer,” he replied, when asked about his very early departure from the British education system. “It was too far away to get to. I used to get three and a half to four hour train journeys to the boxing gym. My dad would give me money for the train. But in the beginning, I used to sneak off and never used to tell them. I used to just sneak off, go to boxing, and come back late.

“I used to get a few whoppings, because they didn't have a clue where I was going. I used to get a few beatings. Travelling from Birmingham to Bethnal Green, and that’s how I used to box. I did that three to four days a week. Until I was 17.

"So I got my licence and I drove, and then we moved down here for my boxing. But every 20 quid my dad would give me or 40 quid was for the train fares. I used to try and keep that, hide under the seats and try to save that money for myself.”

McCann won the Commonwealth Super Bantamweight title by overcoming Joe Ham (Image: Photo by Alex Morton/Getty Images)

Of course, the earliest stages of his boxing career went on without his parents knowing. When asked how he managed to escape the gaze of his folks and the school, he said: “I had a TV I put in the loft. When it was time for school a taxi used to come pick me up.

“I used to go up the stairs in the loft and I used to plug the TV in, hide under my blanket and play the PlayStation. Then when it was time to leave and walk to the train station, I would pack my bag, sneak past when my mom didn't see me. I would wait for her to go into the kitchen, so I could see what she was doing, and ‘bang’ I would slip out. I done it there for a couple of months.”

As is often the case for the mischievous activities of youngsters, McCann’s craftiness was soon found out. “The school kept on ringing them and they couldn't work out what was going on,” he laughed. “I was half saying that ‘oh it's just the school’. But they clocked on and beat the s*** out of me.”

Tyson Fury has tipped McCann for huge things (Image: Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank Inc via Getty Images)

His long and difficult journeys to Bethnal Green have led him to the journey he is on now. McCann’s terrifying abilities have not gone unnoticed. He has already been touted as a future world champion by Tyson Fury, another fighter proud to have been shaped and moulded in the travelling communities.

“It makes you realise that it's possible for anyone to do anything,” McCann said, when asked about Fury’s lofty praise. “A lot of travellers, they don't go all the way. They're so gifted, but they don't go all the way.”

McCann is confident, aware of his ability, but there is no arrogance. He is the first to acknowledge he has a long way to go. Baluta will surely be his toughest test. The Romanian boasts 16 wins and only four losses, as well as victories over the likes of Andrew Cain and David Oliver Joyce.

The Brit has full respect for the Romanian. However, this does not mean the Eastern European is safe from his cheeky wit. “There has been a lot of talk about the fight in the boxing world especially,” McCann added.

“We've seen what he can do and the guys he has beaten.” While recreating the trademark grin which floored me at the start of the call, McCann clenched his fist and said: “He hasn’t met me. I have prepared really, really well. I am ready to smash him up.”

Baluta will need to be ready. The Menace is ready to cause even more havoc at York Hall.

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