“James Gillen Jets out to Germany”

James Gillen to fight for a European title in Germany this Saturday 3rd February”
Craigavon man James Gillen fights today (Saturday Feb 3rd) after pounding the roads for the past two months for the biggest challenge of his life.
The 30-year-old lorry driver is training for a war as he faces Andy Schadenberg of Germany, a two time world amateur champion with over 40 fights to his credit. James trained every day at Billy Murray’s famous ProKick Gym in east Belfast. He put in at least two hours a day of punishing work and 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 19 stone just through his normal training at the gym.
“For the last eight weeks, I have put James through the mill. Every morning before he headed to work he was with me at the gym and stuck to my diet-plan which brought me through a dozen or more of my own title bouts. His target was 18 stone - a mammoth task but he done it. The Atkins Diet and Weight Watchers have nothing on this regime.”
“I beat the scales and now I stand a good chance of beating Schadenberg,” said Gillen. “It was very hard trying to make the weight, but I knew I could 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 my new weight is best for me.”
Gillen a former double Irish champion took the Celtic Nations title from Scotland’s Gary McCleary in a second round 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 Falls Leisure Centre club and will run a show there for other budding kickboxing enthusiasts at the end of March – check back here later for more...

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