HENRY TURNER’S fight career better be a rollercoaster after he quit the family funfair empire to pursue his dream.
The 19-year-old super-lightweight will feature on Frank Warren’s Saturday night show from the crowd-free BT Studios in Stratford, after the Wycombe ace took the fight on just 48 hours notice after a last-minute cancellation.
But the decorated amateur lived up to his nickname by jumping onto centre stage to make sure that the show goes on.
Moments after his painful Covid-19 test, ‘The Showman’ told SunSport: “I am not a showboater but I come from a funfair background, that’s what my family have done for years, we are showmen.
“Funnily enough, my sister’s fiance is running a funfair in Stratford this weekend just down the round from the venue.
“When I was growing up I always had my own stall where you had to shoot sweets off the shelf to win them.
“As I got older and concentrated on boxing and my sister went to university, my parents settled down and didn’t take us out on them as much, they sacrificed that for us.
“These days funfairs are dying out, big rides cost around £500,000, they are more expensive to run and people have so many more entertainment options.
“So it looks like I have made the right call and now I can be the main attraction.”
Turner expects to be the first fight on the five-bout card in East London and has his eyes on a social-distanced celebratory drink with friends and family if he can dash across town to make last orders.
But he’s a drop worried his favourite drink might floor his macho image among his pals and team-mates in the iBox gym in Bromley.
The talented teen said: “As soon as I made the announcement my friends and family, who all love boxing, organised to meet in a big pub in London.
“I will have spent two nights in quarantine then, after I box I Saturday, I think we are let out the arena and free to go home but, if I am first on, I still might make last orders.
“I might be able to call the boys ahead and order a drink before I arrive but I only really like pink gin and lemonade. It’s a bit more healthy than beer but I will probably get a lot of stick for it.”
Turner needs to be the hottest ticket in town now his local football club have been promoted.
Gareth Ainsworth’s Wanderers just reached the second-tier for the first time in their history and Turner fears his only chance of getting a cheap seat at Adams Park is to headline a show there.
The red-hot 2-0 prospect said: “I’d love to box at Wycombe’s ground, to put it on the map as a boxing town as well as football.
“I remember when I was a kid I used to be able to get in to see them in friendlies and cup games against good sides for about £12 but I bet those days are gone.
“I have got too old and they have got too good.”
Watch Joyce v Wallisch live on BT Sport 1 from 7.15pm on Saturday night
