IT’S the marketing and self-promotion that goes with the professional game that has taken wildly popular Dylan Clift by surprise.
The Inga Zulyte enjoys it, is good at it, but didn’t realise selling your own brand was such a significant part of the sport.
Closed mouths do not get fed and boxers have to beat their own drum to sell tickets.
“It’s a business,” Clift said. “Marketing myself and getting out there – I’m at all the events. The marketing side of boxing, I love that part, I love making opportunities for myself. I just want to do the hard work and reap the rewards.”
Thanks to his graft, the Dylan Clift brand is growing. He is currently pushing official Dylan Clift trucker caps, produced by fight fashion company Egyptian Collections and sporting his DC logo.
There will be quite a few on display at Birmingham’s Eastside Rooms on Saturday night when the 22-year-old prospect looks to notch-up his fourth straight win.
On a bill staged by his manager Anthony Manning, Clift will face Sheffield’s Owen Durnan who has won only three of 21 (one draw), but is handy. He gave Dylan’s stablemate, Mykey Lee Broughton, a good scrap in December and holds a win over Birmingham’s Elliott Sowe.
Preparation for this four rounder has been tougher than the others. Dylan is currently spinning a lot of plates and he would be forgiven if his focus has wandered. In less than two weeks, he becomes a dad for the first time.
“I’ve had to renew my licence, head scan, look after the missus, shop for the baby and make weight because this lad is no pushover,” he said. “After this one, I’ll take a couple of weeks off with the family.
“It was going to be a six rounder, but that’s out of my hands. I’ll step-up to six rounds in May and I’m hoping, if everything goes to plan, I’ll be pushing for a title by the end of the year. I couldn’t fight in December because of injury, but I’m pleased with the way things have gone so far.”
Clift, who made the Midlands prospect of the year shortlist for 2024, believes he has the talent to reach the top, but there are still things to learn in the gym.
“I’ve just been concentrating on producing clean, good boxing – looking forward and pushing on,” he said.
“The stoppages will come when the journeymen give me something to work with. They are on the back foot, they tuck up. It’s hard to get someone out of there when they are not throwing anything back.”
Soon Clift will face an opponent who burns with same ambition. That’s when we’ll discover what he is truly made of.
And he cannot let concentration wander against Durnan – the lad comes to fight.
