• Inside Boxing

Butler rejected Liverpool for the ring - and has no regrets

Paul Butler has not ruled out a return to bantamweight © Getty Images

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"It was a big decision for a 10-year-old to make, but I went with boxing."

As a child, Paul Butler had the chance of a trial with Liverpool, the club he loved, but he turned it down to carry on boxing ... and insists he made the right choice.

"I wasn't too far away from having my first amateur fight and I used to love football as well," Butler tells Inside Boxing.

"I got asked to go down to the Liverpool Academy to give it a go. Because they didn't like you getting injured my dad said they might ask me to stop boxing.

"Every kid dreams of playing for a big club, especially the one you support and it was a big decision to make for a 10-year-old, but I went with boxing and never tried out for the Liverpool Academy.

"I was just starting to love my boxing and had my first fight coming up and I've not regretted the decision since."

Butler made his sporting choice just before his first amateur bout and money was not the driving force. Far from it, in fact, as the earning potential from a successful football career was far greater than that for someone fighting their way around the lighter weight divisions.

But the Ellesmere Port fighter has no regrets. He went on to become an accomplished amateur boxer yet rather than go for the 2012 London Olympics, he turned professional in 2010. That decision was also one he remains convinced was right.

Butler made rapid progress, winning the British super-flyweight title in his ninth fight and out-pointing fellow Briton Stuart Hall for the IBF world bantamweight title last June.

Now, the 26-year-old is bidding to become a two-weight world champion when he takes on South African Zolani Tete for the IBF super-flyweight at the Liverpool Echo Arena on Friday night. Winning his second world title within a year in front of his home crowd would mean more to him than anything he could have got playing for Liverpool.

"Top footballers earn a lot of money - more than most world champion boxers - but I don't think what could have been. I didn't know where football or boxing would lead me," Butler says.

"I don't think footballers get the same buzz that you can get from boxing, whether it's having your arm raised as an amateur or winning titles as a pro.

"If I can win another world title, this time in front of my home fans in Liverpool, there is not a better feeling in the world."

Unbeaten Butler can become the first Briton since Bob Fitzsimmons in 1903 to win a second world title at a lighter weight division. However, he believes Tete is his toughest test yet and has not ruled out a return to bantamweight.

"I would say he's the best opponent I've faced - he's different from Stuey Hall or anyone else I've boxed," Butler says.

"He's tall, rangy and a southpaw and if I don't put pressure on him early it could be a nightmare fight for me.

"I want to win this title and defend it for a year or so and then I'll go back up to bantamweight."

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