English title fights are usually grueling, hard fought battles between hungry fighters who know that the outcome will affect their career positively or negatively. A win generally assures them of a slot on a major show, a defeat sends them back down to the area title level grind.

Last November, Josh Holmes, 16-0 (6 KOs) turned his English super featherweight title fight with Lewis Wood into an exhibition.

It was a breakout performance from Holmes who quickly busted up Woods’ eye and landed almost everything in his arsenal over the course of the three and a half rounds the fight lasted.

The quality of his showing has been a regular topic of conversation on the circuit since.

“Really?” Holmes said when told by The Ring that his performance had been so well received. The 29 year-old hasn’t had too many compliments.

“No, I haven't to be honest. I haven't really heard much about it afterwards. I mean, not many people come up to me telling me it was a good performance. Well, a few have, but not that many to be honest. It's a shame it weren't on a big card or on a big TV show, really. Definitely worthy of it, wasn't it?”

It definitely was.

Hardcore fans of small hall boxing were intrigued by the match-up between the battle hardened body puncher, Wood, and the skilful, quick fisted Holmes.

Holmes has served a relatively long apprenticeship but very, very quickly realised that his first real step up was going to go well.

“I think after the first 10 seconds,” he said.

“Yeah, literally. You kind of get a feel for it straight away, what sort of fight you're going to be in. As soon as the first right hand landed I knew it was too easy, if you get me. It just landed. The jabs were landing straight away.

“I started fast, I don't think they were expecting me to start that fast. I landed the big shots very early and I could see his face marking up.

“I knew it was going to be an easy night.”

In the fight before he beat Wood, Holmes went ten rounds with journeyman, Darryl Tapfuma. He won a close decision but it was a flat, uninspiring performance.

Although he was disappointed in both his performance and preparation, the whole affair came at the perfect time.

Agreeing to fight an aggressive, ambitious opponent for a recognised title shook him out of his comfort zone and he took the lessons he took from the fight with Tapfuma into preparations for the battle with Wood.

“I think I'd taken my eye off the ball the previous couple of fights before this. Just going through the motions a little bit in training because you're not really getting the big fights and you're just fighting but then Lewis Wood, he'd come off two good wins, beating two unbeaten kids so, I knew I had to be on my game,” he said.

“It was a different feeling completely. In a good way, though. It's something to get out of bed for and you go to bed thinking about the fight. You're waking up and straight to the gym thinking about the fight. Even when you're in the gym, you're thinking, 'What's he doing? Is he training as hard?’ So it just gives you that extra little edge.”

Holmes is 29 years old and has been known as a talent for some time. He has, however, remained a fixture on small hall shows around the North West.

His manager, Kevin Maree, has a tried and tested method of producing championship level fighters. British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion, Callum Simpson, English 168lbs champion, Mark Jeffers, and British super featherweight title challenger, Michael Gomez Jnr, are just three recent graduates of Maree’s production line.

Maree brings fighters through on his own small shows and once they have accumulated enough experience, built a fan base and headlined, he is happy to turn them loose on television shows.

Holmes has been a slow burner but, once again, Maree’s timing looks to have been perfect. Holmes looked to be beyond English title level against Wood and the lessons he has learned over the past couple of years should help him do whatever it takes to avoid falling back out of the spotlight.

“I've had plenty of setbacks,” he reasoned.

“I've been boxing, what, five years but I've probably been out for two and a half years with injuries.

“So in the time that I've had, I've boxed like four or five times a year but I've been out for two and a half years with two hand operations and a failed brain scan and then COVID as well.

“I just feel like I've always had setback after setback but I've finally got the momentum going now.

“I feel like my full career has just been constantly building again, building again, setback and then try to build again so I think that's probably haven't had the opportunities.

“Kevin's maybe held me back just to wait until I've got that good momentum behind me and I feel like now I've got that momentum, I can push through that door.”

Another factor in Holmes’ rise has been linking up with Joe Gallagher at Manchester’s famous Champs Camp. Holmes has been training with Gallagher since early 2023 and seeing just how an elite operation works and finding out exactly what goes into training like a champion was an eye opening experience.

“Yeah, it was, really,” he said.

“Just the experience Joe's got and the fighters that he's had. They’ve all been there, they've all done it so it's good to be alongside people like that. Obviously, Scott Quigg's sometimes in the gym and then when I first went there, Anthony Crolla was still about.

“It's footsteps to follow in.”

Zelfa Barrett leads the Britain’s 130lb pack but there are a group of young, ambitious fighters vying for position behind him.

Holding the English title ensures that Holmes is a legitimate contender for the British title that Reece Bellotti is scheduled to defend against Michael Gomez Jnr on February 15th and he is also blocking the path of young, hyped prospects like Royston Barney-Smith and Ibraheem Sulaimann as they make their way through the rankings.

Holmes has no qualms about mixing with anybody in the super featherweight division.

“No. If I perform like that again I think I'm a handful and I'd be very hard to beat for any top super featherweight. All it is now is just repeating what I did in that camp and just trying to still make more improvements,” he said.

“Loads of good fights. Gomez and Belotti are fighting so I'd like to see myself fighting for that British, hopefully this year or maybe at the back end of the year, you know what I mean? Kevin's saying I can't wait around for the British so I just want to fight the best, don't you?

“I don’t want to be waiting around any longer.

“I just want to get the foot down and see how far I can go in it.”