Today Dave Lovell joined the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. We all know Dave Lovell from the legendary speech he gave Leon Edwards in the corner before he knocked out the former welterweight champ Kamaru Usman and becoming the new welterweight champ.
Lovell talked about how he met Edwards about 8 years at UTC (Ultimate Training Centre UK) in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham where he was a boxing coach. After Lovell applied their as a boxing coach he started doing a couple days a week. Being a good fit, he started working their everyday.
Lovell and Edwards never use to cross paths at the gym because he was training boxers and Edwards was training in mixed martial arts. Lovell explains how he saw a “young black kid in the cage” and that he looked “special“.
Eventually Lovell approached Edwards as he saw that he could help him with a few things in his game. Developping a deeper relationship. This followed by Leon training with Lovell’s son, Aaron, who was a boxer, to sharpen eachothers talent.
Edwards, who was seeking advice from the experienced Lovell in his first fights, as Leon only had other trainers on the same level (debutants) as him as corners. Lovell took Leon under his wing, as he puts it and started cornering Leon in his 3rd professional bout after Leon came to him about being his cornerman.
Lovell says that him calling Leon “son” is something that he has never referred to him as before. But he says that Leon and his brother Fabian are like family and are very tight with Lovell and his sons. He also states that he looks out for them like they are his sons.
Dave Lovell was a professional boxer!
There isn’t much information about the life of Dave Lovell online, but here is what we know. Lovell was a professional boxer with a record of 5-11-0 with 2 of those losses by KO. Lovell debuted his professional career in 1992-03-25 and boxed until 1995 in the welterweight division. Lovell was born in Birmingham, England. Lovell has two sons. One named Aaron and the other we do not know.
Lovell started out hating MMA because there was no rules in the beginning. He thought it was a brutal sport. Working with fighters, Lovell started to respect the sport, after understanding wrestling and ground game. He says that he has now been working in the sport for 13 years.
Lovell is the kind of coach any athlete desires when they don’t have the motivation to push through tough spots. Even if Lovell doesn’t corner another fight before the end of the year. He is a contender for the coach of the year candidate.
