REAGAN Oliver, the Great Barr boxer with a mighty fanbase, returned from self-imposed exile on Saturday – fighting, he says, for a manager he does not want to be with.
Boxing at the Eastside Rooms, Birmingham, on a show – promoted by his manager – he would rather have no part of.
The super-feather is a reluctant warrior, but did not show it, blasting out Glasgow’s Andy Morton in one round.
Reagan, a 26-year-old who achieved an awful lot in the amateurs in a short space of time, is candid about his relationship with boss Anthony Manning.
He wants it to end. The rift between them is wide and deep, Reagan says. What is broken between them will not be fixed.
Manning, however, has stressed he has always acted in the boxer’s best interests, will continue to do so and the contract that binds them is fair, legal, scrutinised and deemed acceptable by the Boxing Board of Control.
“You do everything for someone and they think you do nothing,” he said.
“It has chewed me up,” father-of-three Oliver said. “You have to have the right energy around you and that’s why I want out.”
Reagan added: “Things have happened that I can’t forgive.”
Oliver has spent one-and-a-half years on the sidelines simply waiting for his contract to run its course. He has a long wait – that legally binding agreement does not run out until April, 2026.
For a fighter trying to build a championship career, that is a very, very long time. It is a near eternity.
Reagan returned in an undemanding four rounder against Morton, who has won only one of 17, because he needs activity. He cannot mothball his skills any longer.
The current cold climate is a far cry from Oliver’s debut in June, 2023, at Eastside Rooms. I was there and it was pure pandemonium with an army of Reagan fans near raising the hall’s roof.
Back then, I wrote: “This old man’s ears are still ringing following the noise – chanting, cheering, screaming – that greeted Reagan Oliver’s first professional debut.”
He told me on the night: “It felt like I was a world champ already.”
Oliver had another bout in September and since then the silence has been deafening.
He is a man who has found salvation through boxing after a troubled, turbulent early life which saw him handed a prison sentence for car theft.
A product of Aston ABC, Oliver was a fine amateur before progress was disrupted by his wayward lifestyle.
He began boxing aged 14 and within two years and just 12 bouts had collected four Midlands titles and was crowned national champ.
Reagan returned to the unpaid game in 2021 and reached a national final. “I did that after an eight week camp,” he told me. “I thought I won the final, but they gave it to the other kid – those things happen in amateur boxing.”
He has been tipped to reach the heights as a pro, but needs to keep busy.
“I am fitter than I was before,” he insisted before Saturday’s scrap. “I want to put on a clever performance. I’m better at boxing than head-hunting and I want to show it. I need to show people my level of skills. I’ve proved I’ve got the dog in me.
“Deep down, I know 100 per cent I can be British champion if I stay consistent – I’ve sparred people who are British champions.”
Manning insists there is no grounds for Oliver to be dissatisfied.
He said on the eve of the fight: “I have done everything I need to do for him and that is why the Board of Control have said he should stay with me. They are the sport’s governing body. I have not taken the full per centage (I’m entitled to take).”
And Manning said he was surprised by the timing of Oliver’s decision to go public. “I spoke to him only two hours ago and he said nothing about this. He is fighting in a fight he should win and he is being well paid for it. I am putting him on a platform.
“He will use my facilities on the night. One hundred per cent, I have done what is best for Reagan. One hundred per cent, I’ll continue to do that.”
He added: “Fighters need to understand things don’t happen overnight. They need to be developed.”
