On Friday night, Tommy Hyde recorded his 10th professional victory by stopping Germany’s Aro Schwartz in Boston. The picture-perfect right hand that dropped Schwartz in the third round gave the Irishman his third knockout win of the year and got his relationship with his new trainer, Lee Beard, off to a flying start.
Ten days earlier, the unbeaten super middleweight spent a cold Thursday morning in Manchester finishing up his preparations by sparring six rounds with his new gym mate, the unbeaten English light-heavyweight champion Troy Jones.
As exciting a time as this is for Hyde, 10-0 (7 KOs), it is just as stimulating for Beard. Hyde is clearly talented and dedicated, and his arrival means that Beard suddenly has two competitive, talented fighters who can work together and help each other to improve.
For a trainer with as firm a grasp on the details as Beard, Hyde’s arrival offers a multitude of options and ideas.
“He's doing a lot of good things in there that I've been working with him on and he's trying out,” Beard told BoxingScene after the sparring had finished. “Today he was doing well with locking on with the stiff arms and stuff which will add to his game, especially with him being a big, tall, rangy fighter, so I think them two blend well together
“Troy can mix things up. He can go from back foot to front foot. He goes for a walk; slows it down; speeds it up. He knows how to create momentum. If he’s not feeling it, he just has a little walk around and regathers things.
“Just trying new things has got to be a process of thought for Tommy – not just for me as a coach. Obviously, I'm there to help guide him through things, but you want your boxers to be able to see things themselves and pick up on that themselves. He’s got lovely footwork. He’s very fluid; he's got loose hands; he can punch and he’s got nice head movement.”
Integrating a fighter into a gym isn’t always straightforward. Boxers are generally friendly and welcoming towards new arrivals but the trainer has to work out how to dedicate enough time to them without taking time away from his existing fighters, and also has to figure out if and how the whole gym can benefit from the qualities the new fighter can bring.
Beard didn’t have any issues whatsoever in slotting Hyde in alongside Jones.
Jones, 11-0 (6 KOs), is the type of big confident character that every gym needs, whereas Hyde is the quieter of the two, but is clearly growing more and more comfortable in his new set-up.
Hyde stands 6ft 4in tall and is a technically correct fighter who does the fundamentals very well. Jones has a style of his own. The 26 year old is more than happy to stand and trade but is still desperate to learn and improve himself and likes to try things during sparring, constantly giving different looks and posing different problems.
Both fighters quickly realised that they can benefit immeasurably from working together and hit it off from the start.
Beard sees the potential Hyde possesses and is looking forward to opening up his arsenal and seeing exactly what he is capable of.
“Tommy can box and fight,” Beard said. “He’s very correct, isn't he? That is kind of a good thing, but you don't want to be trying to be too correct because you end up sitting and waiting on a lot of things instead of making it happen
“As Tommy has said, Troy's a big presence in the ring. He’s busy; long; he throws his jab really well; he closes the space quickly. He’s physically very strong; mentally very strong; so you've got your work cut out anyway.
“Tommy's got that bite about him. He's had a trainer before where he was trying to be more on the front foot and one of his other coaches was more on the back foot, so he said he felt a bit confused with that. I said it's not a bad thing though, because that's my sort of system anyway – to be good at everything.
“Nothing that he does is bad.”
Tommy’s father Gary is a well-known manager who famously spent years working with top-level Cuban fighters. The great Guillermo Rigondeaux was his most notable success story, but Hyde’s well documented travels and travails resulted in him looking after some quality fighters.
Back in 2010 Beard began working with a group of those fighters – Alexei Acosta, Mike Perez and Luis Garcia – and his efforts clearly left a mark on the Hyde family. When Hyde decided to leave his training base in California and move back closer to his hometown of Cork in south-west Ireland, the Mancunian’s name sprang immediately to mind.
Not every fighter clicks with every trainer and both parties agreed to have a look at each other before committing to any relationship. It didn’t take long for both to realise that the partnership held plenty of potential.
“I've known Gary for years,” Beard said. “I remember Tommy being in the amateurs, because I was living in Cork for a while and then Tommy was only a kid himself at the time.
“I used to see Gary on the shows and on the circuit in America and sometimes we had lads on the same shows. I’d always go over and say hello and that type of thing. We were just doing our thing and then he just messaged me out of the blue. He knows I've been around a little bit.
“It's got to work for the fighter as well, doesn't it? But, for me, I can tell in a day. You’ve got to see a few things. As a coach you have a few little things that you touch base upon when you're first working with them. You put them on certain little things. Shadow boxing to watch how they move or on the pads or on the bags but just general talking as well. You can click on to their IQs and the way that they've thinking and look at things and assess things. He came over initially for a couple of days and we just clicked quickly.
“I can see a lot in him. It’s early doors and some kids just need to be brought out of the shell, you know what I mean? He's a lovely kid but I think he's a bit reserved. He’s very correct; very precise; very disciplined, but I know he can punch a bit harder than he does as well.”
It is early days but the team’s trip across the Atlantic will have taught Beard lots about Hyde.
Having been due to box an aggressive orthodox fighter, Hyde ended up fighting a tall southpaw, but he took a late change of opponent in his stride and did his job calmly and cleanly.
John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X