Wiseman: Everyone is back believing in Joel McIntyre

The Leigh Park light heavyweight saw his hopes of winning the eight-man event at London's 02 ended when Dec Spelman sealed a majority decision victory in the last-four bout.

Both McIntyre and his team had high hopes heading into the competition but came up just short on the night as he was unable to build on his quarter-final unanimous decision triumph over Darrell Church.

However the Leigh Park fighter's coach, Wiseman, was far from downbeat after his elimination.

The man nicknamed El Toro now turns his attentions to an English light heavyweight title fight against Miles Shinkwin at York Hall on December 1.

And coach Wiseman is full of confidence heading into that one.

He said: 'I really think this is the new and improved Joel. 

'This competition has got everyone back believing in Joel again, which is brilliant.

'Joel is boxing with his hands up now, he's not getting caught and he looks like a nice neat boxer as well as a puncher.

'The messages I had on social media of the improvement Joel has made were unbelievable.

'I think this is just the start of Joel, I really do.

'It's going to be the third fight for Joel and Miles Shinkwin, it's one apiece at the minute.

'There is a new Joel now, everyone is coming up to me and saying "you done amazing with Joel".

'In all honesty, we've come away winning still.

'We got up the next morning, Joel felt like he did himself proud and I felt like I did myself proud.

'Joel's boxing was really on point, which was the main thing from my point of view. Has he improved as a boxer? I'd certainly say yes.

'We thought we won the fight. It was close going into the second round, we thought it was 50/50.

'Joel scored a knockdown then his opponent scored a knockdown. In the last round we thought we'd just done enough with the double jab.

'There were ups and downs, we felt like we'd done enough to win it.

'It's onto the next one now, which is Joel's English title fight on December 1.'