BOSNIAN boxer Petar Nosic used to answer calls for an energy company – now he is fighting on Anthony Joshua’s undercard.
The super-middleweight faces rising British star Ben Whittaker, who last year won Olympic silver.
Nosic’s office for the night will be in the ring against Whittaker, before AJ headlines in a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
So it marks quite the journey from working in Ireland answering the phone at energy provider Green Star.
Nosic, 23, began boxing only in 2015 and after six months he was already representing Bosnia.
And it was in one European Championship bout that he actually boxed Whittaker, losing in the second round.
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Nosic told The42: “I had only been boxing for seven or eight months.
“I wasn’t really ready for that level; not ready physically and even less ready mentally.
“His team definitely know about that fight — but that was seven years ago, you know?
“I was a beginner, then. Now, I’m obviously more prepared. I know what I’ve come here to do.
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“But Ben has also improved. He took silver at the Olympics and is obviously a very, very good boxer.
“So, we’ve both improved in our own ways… and we’ll see what happens Saturday.
“It’s actually a good thing but I think they’re definitely underestimating me.
“See, I see this as an opportunity to show myself to the world, you know?”
Nosic moved to Cork in 2018 and before looking for an amateur boxing club to train at, he needed to first find a job.
He worked as a kitchen porter before switching to customer services for Green Star.
Nosic boxed in Ireland for three years but moved back home during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
He has remained there ever since, turning professional in 2021 and since going 6-0.
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Whittaker, 25, plans to use Saturday night’s Sky Sports Box Office event to further announce his name to the boxing world.
His promoters have high hopes and believe they have got the nation’s next star on their hands.
But for Nosic, he plans to rip up the script and derail 1-0 Whittaker’s hype train before it has even left the station.
He said: “I could never go in with the mentality just to stick around until you hear the last bell.
“That’s not the way I think. That’s not the way I process things.
“Every time I have ever been in the ring, I have gone in there to win. I go in there to try to finish the guy.
Whatever happens happens — but I’m always confident in my preparations, I know what I have to do.
“I’ve sacrificed the last, I don’t know, seven or eight years of my life training constantly to get an opportunity like this.
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“I’ve never had a training camp in my life: my whole career is training camp. Even when I’m on holiday, I train.
“So, that’s where the confidence comes from and I need to have that mentality.
“I can’t go into a fight just to put up a good fight, you know? I fight to win.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
