After his fifth round stoppage defeat to Daniel Dubois at the O2 in July, Nathan Gorman has had time out to rebuild and consider his next move. At 23, Gorman firmly has time on his side, but he may be forced down several alternative routes in the near future, as the domestic Heavyweight scene begins to become increasingly congested.
The Ricky Hatton trained Nantwich man has had a much needed rest from the sport, after squeezing in 17 fights in just under four years in the paid ranks. Gorman has since admitted that he paid the price for looking to take Dubois out in their meeting for the vacant British Title in London, and instead of using his movement and boxing skills, he decided to engage with Dubois. This was a tactic that proved costly, as Gorman was dropped in the third, before being eventually being halted two rounds later.
Gorman has since been travelling around the country with his young family, and taking stock after such a demanding build up to his last contest, and will return refreshed, and ready for a new assault at various belts.
In the immediate future, you would expect Gorman to take a tune up fight, as he looks to shake off his first career setback. He has stated on Twitter that he will look to box in an eight rounder to begin with. When this will be remains to be seen, but he returned to training last month, so could be ready with decent notice.
Beyond this, Gorman will look to build on the form that saw him collect Central Area and WBC International Silver Titles, and also widely outscore former World Title challengers, Razvan Cojanu and Kevin Johnson in the last twelve months.
Dubois is the current Lonsdale Belt holder, and he and Joe Joyce look on a collision course with each other, but it remains to be seen whether “Triple D” will choose to vacate or make defences of the Title. A vacation would give Gorman an ideal opportunity to get back into contention. With Dubois recently picking up the Commonwealth belt, he could choose to vacate this also, leaving Gorman a chance to compete for it.
Domestically, BoxRec have Gorman at number ten, with six of the men above him promoted by Eddie Hearn, and two of them Gorman’s relations in Tyson and Hughie Fury.
Nathan is still in the early beginnings of his career, and doesn’t need to be rushed, so the rebuild may be gradual.
The likelihood though is that Gorman will go down the continental route going forward if a crack at the British or Commonwealth belts aren’t available. Fights for international belts could be the sensible way to go, as these could give Gorman rounds, as well as valuable experience.
It’s a case of watch this space for the likeable Gorman, and we could well see him on a Frank Warren show before the year is out.
