Love Island winner Liam Reardon on Floyd Mayweather, Jake Paul, Misfits and a new life in pro boxing

EXCLUSIVE – Liam Reardon’s journey from winning Love Island to professional boxing, as the reality TV star unsurprisingly puts it, has been “a bit of a hurricane”.

After winning the show’s seventh season in 2021 – a feat that also catapulted his ex-girlfriend Millie Court into the celebrity world – the Merthyr Tydfil-born newcomer to the Matchroom Boxing Gym admits he’s “a bit off track”. to be.

“I’ve always been fit but I’ve lost a lot of weight since coming back from Love Island,” Reardon told The Sporting News. “I wasn’t exercising, I wasn’t getting up and I wasn’t in my usual routine. I’ve been everywhere

“As you can imagine, winning the show was crazy – even with my ex-girlfriend. I went from being a bricklayer in Wales to suddenly a lot more people who knew me.

“A lot has changed and I’m grateful for a lot of it. But then I settled into my new home after moving to Essex. Unfortunately my ex-girlfriend and I broke up but I stayed. Don’t get me Wrong, I love Wales – but there isn’t enough going on there for me right now.

Alongside “everything that’s going on in London,” the move made sense because Reardon is close to the gym he shares with the likes of Maiseyrose Courtney, the first woman to be part of Matchroom’s stable and a six-time British champion as an amateur .

In inspiring company, Reardon also began training under former lightweight world title challenger Kevin Mitchell. “I was planning on fighting back in 2021 but then I ended up on Love Island,” he explained.

“I’ve been training since I was about 13 – sometimes serious, sometimes not so serious, and I’ve never had any amateur fights. I want to pursue my passion, which is boxing.

“I gave it full steam and jumped into the deep end. It’s been brilliant – I’ve been there about 18 months now so it’s been quite a while and I’m at my best for learning.

“Some of the guys there are some of the best from all over Europe and the world, so I can learn a lot from them. I want to tackle myself and keep going.”

Reardon could join Misfits Boxing, the promotion co-run by YouTuber and boxer KSI and Wasserman Boxing that specializes in fights between celebrities and fighters, who often have little experience in the sport or come from other disciplines.

He passionately defends the validity and growing popularity of crossover events such as reality TV star Aaron Chalmers’ fight against boxer great Floyd Mayweather and YouTuber Jake Paul’s fight with Tommy Fury, half-brother of world heavyweight champion Tyson.

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“He’s earned his stars,” Reardon said, discussing Mayweather’s series appearances in unlikely show fights over the past several years.

“He will go down as the best of all time. And now if he wants to win and keep making money fighting guys, he knows he’ll beat, that’s up to Mayweather. He gets a lot of criticism, but if you don’t want to see it, don’t watch it.

“There are millions of people who will see it, so I say fair game to him. He gives some of these guys a chance to fight on a big stage and make life changing money. People criticize the way boxing is at the moment, but if you don’t like it, don’t watch it.

“The same goes for Jake Paul – I think he’s done incredible things. The guy was on YouTube and Disney Channel a few years ago and now he’s a big name in boxing. Criticizing that is a bit unbelievable. The guy has done so many things. I know Jake Paul isn’t part of Misfits, but he changed celebrity boxing and gave a lot of people the opportunity to fight.

Boxing purists believe the events can damage the integrity of the sport and even be dangerous, but Reardon agrees with the counter-argument that they attract large new audiences and reward novices who embark on the grueling journey of entering the ring.

“Armchair fans say, ‘I can’t watch boxing anymore, it’s a mess,'” he said. “All you have to do is go somewhere like DAZN or iFL TV and look at the comments, people just plan it.

“The world is evolving and you must evolve with it. People are now making millions of pounds from home. Kids are making millions from home and people aren’t working nine to five anymore, but some don’t want to change with it.

“People like Jake Paul and KSI brought another fan base with them. You have kids who never supported boxing and were never fans who now love the sport. They look at other fighters and I think it’s great. As long as they’re serious, if you train hard and give it your all, you can’t beat them.

“When guys train seven days a week and give 100%, who are you when you look back to criticize them? People say to me, ‘Oh, another Love Islander goes boxing.’ I am passionate about boxing and have been doing it for years. If I’m working out every day and I’m serious about it, who are you to tell me I can’t? The sport evolves and people need to evolve with it. “

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Fame, fortune and an Instagram following of nearly a million have given Reardon plenty of time to train instead of a day job. “It’s very, very tough physically,” he admitted. “I train six days a week, box three or four days and do my strength and conditioning. It only gets harder when I’m in training camps.

“I don’t want to say, ‘I’m going to do this and that,’ and it might not work. I have plans in my head – you have to have a plan – but it’s about going in and showing people my skills, that I can box and seeing where that takes me.

“If things go well with Misfits, maybe that opens the door for other things. I know I’ll take it seriously and give it my all, 100%.”

Reardon hopes to fight in the summer of 2023. His buddies, meanwhile, still find the level of public acclaim he’s receiving “amazing”.

“The fact that you go everywhere and people know who you are is crazy,” he added. “I’m used to it and they’re used to it, but I’m on a new chapter and a new journey now and that’s making progress in boxing, showing my skills and seeing where it can take me. It is exciting.”