Callum Beardow: “Boxing changed my life, and I owe my life to the sport, and that’s why I will be going back to the gym and doing some coaching.”

Callum Beardow: “Boxing changed my life, and I owe my life to the sport, and that’s why I will be going back to the gym and doing some coaching.”

By Matthew Elliott

Boxers get involved in the sport for a variety of reasons. It is a question I often pose to fighters, and the answers I get back are wide-ranging. The most common response is that boxing acted as a form of escapism, a chance to deviate from a path that the individual didn’t want to follow; a chance to instil some discipline and structure in their lives. For others, it was the influence of family members, often spanning several generations, who passed down their enthusiasm from an early age. For Callum Beardow, the reason was simple. It was an opportunity to lose weight and gain fitness. Whatever that initial catalyst is, the result is often the same. Once a fighter gets the buzz of pulling on the gloves, they rarely look back.

As I caught up with Beardow via Zoom this past week, there was plenty of time for reflection, but also for looking forward, and for the first time that involves contemplating a life outside of the ring. Having first entered the world of boxing as an overweight twelve-year-old, Beardow went on to turn professional in late 2018, amassing a record of 5-0, before finally succumbing to a shoulder injury that has plagued him since his amateur days. Earlier this month, having been sidelined for almost two years after undergoing further surgeries in an attempt to continue his career, he officially announced his retirement. With that decision still fresh in his mind, I wondered how difficult it had been to arrive at that conclusion and to acknowledge that there was no way back.

“It’s been really tough. After my latest surgery, I came back the fittest I have ever been. I was fitter than I was before my fifth professional fight back in May 2022. I was beating all of my testing scores, and I was in unbelievable shape. In the past, with my injuries, I’ve sometimes gone off the rails a bit, but this time, I said to myself, I’m going to give it my best shot. I got my sleep right, I checked my weight every day, my running was really good, I didn’t rush my recovery, and even after all of that, my shoulder’s still not right. I spoke with my team, and they were gutted for me, but I sat down with Danny Wilson, my strength and conditioning coach, and he’s not one to sugarcoat anything. I thought that was going to be a harder conversation than it was, but after over two hours of explaining everything to him, we were thinking the same thing, so collectively we decided it was the right decision. I had a fight pencilled in for the 21st of April, and I could’ve possibly got through that with steroid injections but my aim when I turned professional was always to win a British title, and I knew when I got up to eight and ten round fights, my body just couldn’t cope, so I thought what is the point of getting through another fight just to put some money in my back pocket, only to have deal with the recovery all over again. I’m gutted, but I had no other choice. I was in the sport to win a title, not for the money or the fame, and so now that’s not going to happen, it was the right decision to make.”

To understand the journey Beardow has been on with his injuries, it is important to provide some background about his early days in boxing. In his words, he was a fat kid when he first walked through the doors of Woodseats ABC, which would later become Sheffield City boxing club, and at that point, he had no intention of competing but as his fitness improved and the weight began to fall off, he started attending more sessions and that all changed. Under the guidance of lead coach Brendan Warburton, whom Beardow has been with throughout his career, and with the influence of Mick Scott and Mark Howard, he recalls his first fight, which came when he was around the age of sixteen.

“I boxed in Mansfield, and to this day, that was the hardest fight I’ve ever had in terms of what it took out of me. Not skill-wise, but it was matched well like amateur bouts generally are, and I remember coming out thinking that was the hardest six minutes of my life. I won, though, and I boxed him again on a rematch straight after and stopped him. I won my first six on the bounce, and I thought this is amazing, I’m getting fights, and I’m winning and then I got to a national final in my sixth contest. I’d boxed three times, and in the boy’s clubs you are meant to have had five fights to qualify, but they snuck me in as there was no one in Yorkshire at my weight (80kgs). I won the pre-quarters, quarters, and then the semi-final. In the final, I boxed James Branch and got hammered. He’d already won, I think, two or three national titles at that point and had fifteen to twenty fights under his belt, and I lost 26-1 on the old scoring system and got a pasting for three rounds. At that point, I thought maybe this won’t be as easy as I’ve had it so far.”

That experience didn’t deter him, and Beardow went on to win the junior ABA’s, before losing to Branch again in the national finals. It was around this time, though, at the age of seventeen, that the injuries that would go on to plague, and ultimately end, his career first started to surface, as he explains.

“I hurt my left shoulder in a bout one time and afterwards I carried on training for about nine months, and I remember thinking that in training it felt alright, then after sparring I’d be in agony for a week, and I didn’t have a clue what was going on, so I went private so I could get a diagnosis, and they said it was repeated dislocation which had caused a tear in my labrum, which is a tissue around the socket. I had keyhole surgery on my left shoulder, did all the recovery, which was around twelve weeks, came back, and in my first spar after getting the all-clear, it just went again. I went back to the surgeon and he pretty much apologised that he’d not realised how much load I was putting through my shoulder and he operated again, but this time it was a bone graft, where they took bone out of another part of my shoulder and put two screws across it and essentially fused the shoulder. Once that was done and I’d recovered, I came back and boxed in the novices, and had two or three fights, but even after sparring, I had to back off for a few days to recover. Then I had a third operation, where they took one of the screws out and did a bit of a clean-up, and that seemed to sort it until about two years ago. I was around nineteen or twenty when I had that third operation, so for about six years I was ok, but they did tell me I would always have trouble, and in honesty, I’ve been playing catch up ever since it first went.” 

After recovering from that third surgery, Beardow moved up to 86kgs and won an English title which he successfully defended, before he competed in the senior ABA’s, reaching the final where he lost to Bryce Goodridge. The only achievement remaining was to box for England, but that opportunity never presented itself, so after around forty-three amateur contests, he decided to turn professional, initially signing with Dave Coldwell, fighting twice before the COVID pandemic, and then having three fights under Stefy Bull promotions, before injury struck again.

“My left one started going again after COVID. I started feeling it and I boxed my third, fourth and fifth pro fights in the space of twelve months, and I had six steroid injections just to get me through, just because I’d already had almost eighteen months out due to the pandemic, and I didn’t want to take any more time out at that point, so I kept going and the injections got me through. Then, I was supposed to be fighting on the Dalton Smith undercard in my sixth fight, and both shoulders started hurting, so I had an injection in them both. It solved the right one for a bit, but it didn’t do anything for my left, so I had to have another operation that took part of my clavicle away. Then it was about April last year, I was just getting back into sparring, training levels going up, and my right one started hurting again. I ended up back with the surgeon, and in October, I had that one done. They told me, though, that it wasn’t guaranteed to work because it wasn’t a full repair, but I had it done and did the recovery. Then as I started picking up the training again, I had trouble and it just got worse and worse, and when I’m working, I help my dad doing steel fabrication, even just drilling a screw, or driving the van I’m in pain. That’s when I’m boxing regularly, but if I reduce that, it gets better, but as soon as I spar for four to six rounds or do six to eight on the heavy bag it’s unmanageable and I’m struggling to even sleep.” 

At this point, the injuries weren’t just impacting Beardow’s progress inside the ring. They were having a detrimental impact outside of it. When he first turned professional, he was able to do so in a full-time capacity thanks to sponsorship from a number of local firms. With his extended break from the ring, some of those sponsors had fallen away, meaning he knew when he was fit enough to return to training, he would have to juggle this with working part-time in order to pay the bills. Whilst he holds no ill feelings whatsoever towards any of those sponsors, acknowledging they had stuck by him for longer than they might have, the fact that his shoulder pain was now impacting his ability to work, only contributed to the thoughts of retirement. With that fight on the 21st of April on the horizon, his mind was made up. 

With the decision to retire still very raw, Beardow isn’t currently in a position where he can look back and reflect on what he achieved with any kind of pride, instead, he is currently at a point where it’s a case of thinking about what might have been.

“I do have a lot of good memories, and I’ll probably think about them in twenty years and be proud of what I did achieve; now is not that moment, though. At the moment, it’s fresh and, of course, time heals, but right now, all I can think of is that my dream of being a British champion has been taken away from me. Throughout my career, I’ve always achieved more than I’ve aimed for. When I turned professional the aim was to win the British title and that’s not going to happen now, so all of the other stuff, at the moment, in my head, doesn’t mean too much to me. In time, though, I will think about what an amazing journey I’ve had. Boxing changed my life, and I owe my life to the sport, and that’s why I will be going back to the gym and doing some coaching. I went back into the gym last week, and I thought that was going to be difficult, but I loved it, so that’s what I’m going to do now.” 

Coaching is not something that is new to Beardow. He has been involved in that side of boxing since he was sixteen, helping to run sessions at Sheffield Hallam University and assisting within the Sheffield City gym. It’s part of the sport he has always enjoyed, although in recent times, when he was battling with his injuries, he admits it’s something he actively avoided. 

“I’ve coached since I was sixteen, and I’ve always been a really good coach, but ever since I turned professional, because the amount of training I was doing increased, I took a backwards step. Then, when I got injured, I found the coaching tough, not skill-wise, but I found it hard to be around mentally. I used to think I was jealous of the other lads because they were competing and I couldn’t, but it wasn’t jealousy, I was envious of them. I want the other lads to do well, but when I’m taking someone on the pads, or teaching them something, or even just watching them train, I was thinking, this should be me and I almost felt hard done by and I’d go home feeling wound up. That’s not my personality though, it’s not how I see myself, so I took a backwards step because I didn’t want to be coming to the gym frustrated and be selfish and allow that to rub off on other people. I went down the gym the other week, though, and I enjoyed it, and I probably did the best coaching I’ve done in years.” 

Looking to the future, Beardow will continue to work in steel fabrications with his dad, but he acknowledges that is not his passion in life, his passion was and remains boxing as well as health and fitness in general. So, can we expect a full-time transition into coaching at some point?

“First and foremost, I’ve got to pay the bills, but that’s something I want to get into. I’m passionate about it, as well as helping people, especially the lads in my gym, who I’ve seen from the age of seven and eight, coming through and now boxing in the juniors. So, I’ll always help out, and hopefully, once I start to do some one-to-one training, I can go full-time, but for now, I just need to build that up. I’ve got my level 3 personal training qualification as well, and I’ve also been around boxing science since it started, so I can apply that knowledge and put into practice what I’ve learnt through having my injuries and how to deal with them and teaching people about how your body changes as you get older. I’m also looking into doing some online coaching, not just personal training and boxing coaching but something that everyone can get involved in, regardless of their background and fitness levels. So, I think I have a lot to offer.”  

As we finished our chat, Beardow was keen to take the time to thank everyone who has helped him over the years, and to send a message to those people who have reached out to him over the last few weeks, admitting he had been overwhelmed by the level of support he has received.

“I just want to say thank you to every single person that has ever supported me along the way, or who has taken the time out to send me a message, because I’ve had more messages than I ever expected. Not just comments on my social media posts but direct messages from people who have written paragraphs. I wasn’t expecting that, but it was nice to see. People were saying thanks for the memories and stuff like that, and I never thought about memories I might have made for other people. So, just a huge thank you to everyone, and hopefully, people will read this and understand the context behind why I’ve had to make this decision.”