For Viddal Riley, a Tottenham Hotspur fan about to fight at his beloved team’s stadium, West Ham Boys Amateur Boxing Club is an ironic place to prepare. Yet here he is, in the gym that has been his boxing home for well over a decade, surrounded by claret and blue.
On a wooden board down one end of the historic building, a haven for young boxers for more than a century, Riley’s name can be found in several places – evidence of his amateur success. But while his pedigree is undeniable, the wider boxing world came to know the 27-year-old through endeavours far removed from the amateur game. When Riley began training YouTuber KSI in 2017, his name reached an audience outside of visitors and pupils at West Ham Boys Club.
“It was clearly supposed to be part of my journey, it hasn’t happened to anyone else,” Riley, sat on a ring apron, tells The Independent. “It was documented on a large scale, allowed me to develop a brand. As much as my name is on the board here, nobody outside the boxing world knew who I was. That opportunity allowed me to put my name out there; now it’s about putting it out there for the reason I want it to be.
“I’m never gonna shy away or be ashamed of coaching a YouTuber, but that can’t be the end of my story. All stories have chapters, and now we’re at the stage of me being a professional boxing champion.”
Indeed, the unbeaten cruiserweight holds the English Championship, and he will vie for the British crown on 26 April, as he fights Cheavon Clarke on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn. The bout, on paper, will be Riley’s toughest so far.
The same was said about his clash with Mikael Lawal last March, however, and Riley eased to a decision win. Except the scorecards did not tell the story of Riley’s internal battle at the O2 Arena; in round one, he suffered three fractured ribs.
“It was just a matter of, ‘We’re here now, we’ve come here to win, so how do we win in this circumstance?’” he says. “There’s a couple rounds where you’re thinking: ‘Alright, cool, maybe this isn’t as bad as it felt when it had just happened.’ Then, as it’s getting worse, you realise you have an issue. But it’s just about finding a way to win by any means necessary.
“The mentality I’ve always had is: once I’m in the fight, I’ve signed up to win. If I can manoeuvre around it and find that avenue, I’m gonna find it. It [gives] me so much [confidence] to know that, under those circumstances, I can still pretty much not lose a round. Most people wouldn’t be able to do that, so I know I’m in the right game. I don’t know what that final destination looks like, but I’ve definitely been put here to fight.”
While Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will not be the final destination on Riley’s journey, it would be easy for the Spurs fan to see this occasion as an endpoint.
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Still, “I’ve visualised it, but I haven’t really taken in that side of things,” he admits. “It was on my bucket list of venues to fight in, but I really just focus on Cheav. Afterwards, I’ll take it in, but all those elements and factors… you realise they’re not important when someone’s trying to knock your head off.
“I didn’t care I was in the O2 Arena when my ribs broke, I swear – and I’m gassed to have boxed in the O2 now. But at the time, I could’ve been in a garden; I’m just thinking: ‘My ribs are broken.’”
Riley will naturally hope for no broken ribs on his side come fight night, but he is aiming to break something else in Clarke.
“Someone’s will will have to be broken, because he’s very stubborn and I’m very stubborn,” Riley says. “He’s definitely got the most credentials of my opponents: very high-level amateur, Olympian, fought some good names and veterans as a pro and has picked up some high world rankings with multiple governing bodies.
“It’s a step up, [but] how am I ever gonna be able to put my name among the bigger names if I don’t take them on? I’m not really looking for credit, but this is where my own validation starts to get ticked off.”
Yet Riley is familiar with validation out of the ring, courtesy of his endeavours in music. He has seen success under the artist name RIL in recent years, but needs a certain silence as he approaches fights like this one.
“When I’m in camp and in my routine, I don’t make a lot of music,” Riley says. “I normally make it in bulk, so when the fight’s done and I’m getting back into my creative writing, I might get six or seven songs made. [But] you can’t give your opponent that advantage; if he’s doing his sit-ups or going for a run, and I’m rhyming, I’m gonna be at a disadvantage. Sometimes you just have to drop it, you can’t record content and stuff. You’ve got to say: ‘The camera’s going dark.’”
On 26 April, however, the lights and cameras will be on Riley at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. All that’s left is the action.
