Boxer has come a long way since he was a drugs mule who lost his cousin to knife crime – and he hopes to transform his life further when he fights for the European cruiserweight title on Saturday
“As soon as it gets into your head you have to block it,” Isaac Chamberlain says as he brushes aside a dark and brooding thought of what defeat might mean for either himself or Chris Billam-Smith when they meet in a Commonwealth and European cruiserweight title fight in Birmingham on Saturday night. It is one of the most intriguing British bouts of the year as Chamberlain steps into the champion’s home town for a contest fraught with risk and danger.
We sit on Chamberlain’s bed in the house he has rented for his small team in Birmingham. It feels a long way from Brixton, where he grew up amid poverty and strife, drug-running and knife crime, but Birmingham has been the site of Chamberlain’s fight-camp for six weeks. He is 28, a doting father to a little boy and perhaps the most thoughtful and generous boxer I know. Chamberlain also writes, voicing his doubts and fears with vivid eloquence , as he reflects deeply on life.