Breakfast with Bristol24/7: Lee Haskins

He’s arguably Bristol’s most successful sportsman or woman today, having climbed to the top of every boxing division he’s fought in and currently holding the bantamweight world title. But what’s driving boxer Lee Haskins? Louis Emanuel finds out over waffles and crepes.

Lee Haskins trains frenetically in his Easton gym which lies just 350 metres – or four minute’s walk – from Coco’s Gelato & Desserts on Stapleton Road where we plan on sharing breakfast.

Fit as a fiddle, slim in his baggy Adidas tracksuit, and itching to defend his boxing world title which he captured in an emphatic knock-out last summer, you’d think it would be a short hop and skip around the corner to wolf down some waffles and knock back a coffee after a typical morning’s session on the pads.

But instead we hop straight into his BMW X3 and take what turns out to be the longer route.

“I’m knackered,” he says on the way, wriggling deep into his seat. “This is it for me. Finish at the gym and then usually straight back home on the sofa waiting for the kids to come home.”

I use the phrase “hop” into to the four-by-four, because – without wanting to offend a man with a left hand that has sent countless boxers crashing to the mats – the seat of the car comes up a little higher than most on the 5ft 5in fighter.

But Lee’s height has never been something which has held him back. On the contrary, it has made him the success he is today.

Forever in and out of detention and with a poor attendance record at school in Lockleaze where he grew up and now lives with his family, the young Lee was, he admits, a “menace”. “I was getting into fights, messing about a lot when I was young. But I was quite little in school, so I would always be defending myself in fights.

“I think that’s part of the reason why I wanted to get into boxing – to defend myself. I was the smaller one but I was always holding my own,” he says, with a little pride poking through his steely boxer persona.

It’s a rare moment during our interview where for the most part Lee seems to find it tricky to break out of his regular boxer-in-a-post-match-interview mode. He’s always keen to bring it back to working hard in the gym and achieving goals, but, in fairness, when he does switch off from Lee the professional he is both frank and warm. A true Bristolian, he’s friendly, talks in turbo-speed and has a cheeky streak hiding somewhere behind the darting eyes and creeping smile.

Brought up by his mum as an only child, Lee had no shortage of ambition from a very young age. “I want to be a world champion boxer,” he would reply in primary school when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up.

His career went to plan, and so far has gone by in a flash, he says (“I’m getting to the position now when I’m thinking ‘wow, did I really do all that’”). He counts just three losses in 35 fights and has won every competition he has fought in – twice. At the age of 32 he is in no doubt that he is still in his “prime” following his IBF bantamweight world title victory in his hometown last year, and he is aching to arrange his first defence.

So what does it feel like, in the ring, when the lights and cameras are on you and thousands are cheering you on? “You feel great in yourself, you feel dangerous, you‘ve got so much energy in you, you could just knock ’em out at any time, you know?,” he says, bursting to life.

As much as his career is whizzing by, the night in Whitchurch will stick with him forever, he says. “To win it like I did in front of all the family and friends and in Bristol was a buzz. I remember the knock out shot, I remember everybody storming the ring after, it was incredible. Everyone was crying. It was a time you take to your grave, you know?”

In our short time together chowing down white chocolate crepes and Belgian chocolate waffles, it’s not too hard to work out what is the driving force behind Lee’s success and dedication: his children.

His first came at the tender age of 17 and was a “godsend”, making him knuckle down and be the successful father he never had. “A big part of what I do is for my kids. For me, if I had a dad and he was doing great in life, I’d want to be better than him. I’d want to live up to him so he’d be proud of me and I want my kids to think the same, you know?” he says, moving his strawberry around his half-finished crepe with his fork.

Lee’s eldest son, 15, is already a Weston Counties Amateur Boxing Association champion and regularly teases his dad that he could knock him out in a couple of years. “I say to him, that’s what I want, I hope you can, I hope you can,” Lee says, happy to see his kids take after him with big ambitions from a young age.

“I give him a little dig now and then to let him know I’m still his dad and I’m his boss – it’s with the gloves on so I can’t get in trouble,” he laughs. “But it’s a pleasure to train with him and to go through things together like that for me is an achievement alone.”

His children, he says, love to watch him fight, as does his wife – a childhood sweetheart who he’s been with since the age of 15. “She loves it. She loves dressing up and being there. My mum though, will come, but she won’t watch it.”

Living in Lockleaze, Lee has his extended family all around him and has resisted a move out to the country for a quiet life. He sees Bristol as an “up-and-coming” city and he’s passionate about where he lives and where he grew up.

The only thing the city is missing in his view: a world class venue that the planned arena behind Temple Meads would bring. “A proper venue is what gets on my nerves – but it’s probably the only thing to be honest,” he says.

Before we leave the rest of our desserts on the table and head back towards the gym, there’s time to dwell briefly on perhaps the most disappointing moment in his career when his title challenger backed out of a “life-changing” big money title fight in Vegas last November as he failed to meet the correct weight. “I had done all the work, but he let me down,” Lee spits out, high-speed. “It was such a big show it could have changed my life. It was devastating to miss out on a big purse but I always take the positive from it and I took a belt and now I need to defend it,” he says, switching back to professional boxer mode.

Climbing into the 2005 car, muddy on the inside from kids days out, we fall into chat about the flashy side of being a sports star. Despite his “Playboy” nickname, he’s not interested anymore and “prefers to do the talking in the ring these days”. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy a bit of fame on the side, regularly agreeing to selfies and pictures on his trips around town.

As he drives out of the car park home he’s engaged in some banter with two guys parking up who can spot the interviewer in me. “You want to talk to his coach, that’s me,” one says jumping out of the car. “And I’m his hitman,” the other says, chest out, before breaking into laughter as I get on my bike and leave the stomping ground of Bristol’s very own world champion.

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