ZAK CHELLI has tried to calm his furiously devoted father but knows his father was the key to his success.
In January – when the 26-year-old super-middleweight won the British and Commonwealth titles – his post-fight interview was hijacked by former fighter Zakaria and left fans binging on attention.
Chelli Sr has been the focus of a few viral boxing videos over the years, raving about his son’s promise and rowing with his rivals.
But the second-generation slugger appointed a new coach, Barry O’Connell, and left his father the easier role of being his inspiration and No. 1 supporter.
When SunSport touched on the tricky subject ahead of Saturday’s defense against Callum Simpson, Chelli said: “I wouldn’t be where I am without my dad and who he is.
“When I started I was unknown, the big promoters weren’t very interested.
“But my dad trained me in the beginning, he had me train with stars like George Groves, James DeGale and Chris Eubank Jr.
“And when I started winning my own fights on TV people would see him remember us.
“Some people might not like everything.
“But it’s true that I wouldn’t have reached this point and achieved these titles with my father.
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“Now that I’m British champion and headlining Sky Sports, I don’t really need his help with publicity or promotion, which has calmed him down a bit.”
Fulham QPR fan Chelli – a former substitute teacher – is traveling to Simpson’s backyard in Barnsley to fight at the football club’s Oakwell stadium.
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And he dreams of bringing a show back to his Loftus Road home in RS, which hasn’t hosted major boxing events since Barry McGuigan’s legendary 1985 world title victory over Eusebio Pedroza.
He explained: “Boxxer and Sky Sports have taken recent fights to Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and now Barnsley… so why not QPR?
“Loftus Road is a brilliant stadium, it creates a great atmosphere, it’s a working class area that loves boxing and there are lots of great gyms close by.
“I’m taking 150 fans there, he’ll have around 7,000, but when I get the win I’ll be pushing for a show at the Loft, with lots of local West London talent to build my own legacy.”
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
