Jordan Gill believes that moving up in weight was the difference between struggling in the ring and becoming a much more dangerous fighter.
Gill next fights on April 13 against Zelfa Barrett, on DAZN, at junior lightweight.
That represents a continued stay at 130lbs after he started to struggle at 126lbs.
In 2022 he scraped past Karim Guerfi to win the European featherweight championship, and then came up against Kiko Martinez, losing via knockout in the fourth round.
That led him to call time on his featherweight career, and in 2023 he met Michael Conlan in Belfast with an extra four pounds on the scales.
A much-improved performance was rewarded with a seventh-round stoppage, and speaking to BoxingScene.com, Gill described the sea change.
“It was such a nice experience to go to super feather and feel like myself again,” he said.
“For probably three years I should have gone up. It was just too hard to make feather. You can make it but there’s a difference between making a weight and performing at it.
“It was probably my best performance since Ryan Doyle [who Gill beat back in 2018] or maybe Emmanuel Dominguez in Peterborough. Since then it’s been downhill really, and it’s frustrating because I could have done a lot more in my career, but we’re here now and looking forward to getting this fight done and won and moving on to bigger ones.”
He continued: “It’s a period that I’m enjoying – I’m happy in myself. Happy at my new weight. Happy with my performance last time even though it wasn’t perfect. I’m happy to be back in a big fight.
“Your career is always at the forefront of your mind and boxing has always been my life. To be back on track is a nice feeling. It brings you peace outside of boxing as well. Everything in life is going smoothly and I want it to continue.”
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