TOM LITTLE could no longer live with the idea of his son and dad watching him become a bloated and battered punchbag.
The Hatfield giant has just taken on four of the planet’s most dangerous heavyweights in Filip Hrgovic, Daniel Dubois, David Price and Mahammadrasul Majidov – without barely a decent training session.
When the 33-year-old father-of-three walked in to the Wembley hotel ahead of Saturday’s fight with Alen Babic, he joked the huge poster of his 19st former self on the wall looked more like a man waiting for a bus than a fight.
That sort of joke is why the fearless Traveller has always landed primetime fights in the blue riband division.
But he is deadly serious when talking about why he has shed over four stone to finally make a serious go of his dangerous career.
“I couldn’t carry on lying to myself and my dad, who put so much into my career as a boxer,” Little said.
“After that Majidov fight, on the Anthony Joshua undercard in Saudi Arabia, something finally clicked and I sat there thinking ‘what the hell have you done?’
“The crazy thing is, and I shouldn’t say it because people lose their lives doing this job, but I make my peace with everyone before I go into these fights.
“I have had the blind commitment and courage to go into these fights, with very dangerous men, but not to train properly for them and give myself a chance. It’s crazy.
“I don’t want to be a punchbag for these lunatics to batter anymore. In the past I have taken decent lumps of money for fights because, when you have three kids and it’s half an hour’s work, it’s handy.
“But I would give every penny of that back now to guarantee I can get out with my faculties intact and a domestic title so my dad and son, Big Tom and Little Tom, are able to say they are proud of me.”
‘Not So’ Little and Babic have been building this battle on social media since the summer.
From the second he sussed Babic, a social media sensation managed by Dillian Whyte, was gaining a following he decided to whip himself into shape.
And that meant the 10-8 slugger, who claims to have enjoyed eating HEDGEHOGS during his misspent youth, gave up another surprising footstuff.
He said: “I have been offered the last two fights he had, on short notice, as soon as I turned the first one down I told my coach that we had to start training for this to come around.
“When I saw that old photo of me, I was just reminded of how I had let everyone down again and I made the bus joke to cover that up.
“When I boxed in Saudi, they flew me halfway around the world and, then I got there, I was so out of shape I was sucking my belly and face in for photos.
“But I have not missed a training session or cheated my diet, the only thing I have really craved is a cheeseboard but I didn’t cave in, my missus just went and bought me one for when I get home.”
After a bright amateur career down at 11st, Little spent a decade away from the sport and only returned to the gym when he had to get fit for a straightener on the street.
Now he has gone full circle and wants to leave a legacy for the third generation to take up.
“My boy is 12 now and loves boxing, my only advice is ‘do it seriously or not at all’ but how could I preach that when I was little more than a glorified clown?” he said.
“I would stand in front of the devil unfit, without training a day, but I am on the back of a proper camp now and I want to make sure I take the win home.
“Now I can sit my boy down and tell him first hand, ‘acting up might get you fights but it also gets you battered’.
“Now I want to be able to show him the rewards for working hard and not taking shortcuts. I want to leave something behind.”
