“James Gillen to fight for a European title in Germany”

Craigavon man James Gillen has a double fight on his hands – to be crowned Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion of Europe and to lose more than four stone in weight.
Until just a few weeks ago, Gillen tipped the scales at 130kg (20 stone) - but he needs to get down to 96kg (15 stone) for his title fight on February 3.
The 30-year-old lorry driver is training for the battle, when he will face Andy Schadenberg of Germany a two time world amateur champion with over 40 fights to his credit. James can be found every day at Billy Murray’s famous ProKick Gym in east Belfast. He is putting in at least two hours a day of punishing work and has done so since before Christmas.
“When James first took up the sport at Prokick he was a thunderous 26 stone,” his coach Murray said. “But over the last three years he has dropped down to a slimmer 129kg just through his normal training at the gym.
“For the last four weeks, I have put James through the mill. Every morning before he heads to work he’s with me at the gym and he’s sticking to my diet-plan which has brought me through a dozen or more of my own title bouts. His target is 106kg - a mammoth task but he will do it. The Atkins Diet and Weight Watchers have nothing on this regime.”
“If I can beat the scales, then I stand a good chance of beating Schadenberg,” said Gillen. “It’s very hard trying to make the weight, but I know I can do it. I wanted to lose it for the challenge - I like to do things when people tell me I can’t. And also my coach and I think that heavyweight is my optimum weight.”
Gillen a former double Irish champion took the Celtic Nations title from Scotland’s Gary McCleary in a second knockout at the Hilton hotel in October last year. The heavy hitter Gillen had a total of six fights last year and won them all by knockout
Gillen is the current instructor at Prokick’s Fall’s Leisure Centre club and hopes to run a show there for other budding kickboxing enthusiasts at the end of March

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