Road to the title
Jimmy the First aka James First
I was recently invited to shoot some sport portraits and documentary images for professional boxer James First (@jimmythefist1981) as he prepared for an upcoming title fight.
James, better known by his boxing moniker ‘Jimmy the Fist’, has a compelling story having started boxing aged 29 and turning professional at 36, an age where most boxers have long since hung up their gloves. This story alone is enough to inspire, but after spending time with Jimmy and observing the relentless energy, focus and discipline he brings to his passion, I have a whole new appreciation for the incredible sacrifices it takes to ‘make it’ as a professional boxer.
A whole new world
Not a cheap tie-in to Aladdin, but the song that was going around in my head as I went to meet Jimmy for the first time at the Ultra Flex Gym in Farsley. Thankfully, I arrived early for our first session which saved me the embarrassment of being seen as I emerged from a thicket after taking a questionable shortcut to save a bit of time. As I watched a room full of gym goers ‘clang and bang’ their way around the weight room and soaked up the smell of ageing deep heat, it wasn’t lost on me that beyond watching the big fights on TV, I knew very little about the world of boxing.
This first shoot together, a sparring session with rising star Hamed Ghaz (@hamedghaz), proved to be a perfect introduction. A bit of warm-up, stretching and shadow boxing before the rounds began. How many? I didn’t know. I shot, I filmed, I shot some more. At several points I assumed things were about to wind-up before the buzzer would sound and they would go at it again. I was dangerously close to breaking a sweat, which I knew to mean both me and Jimmy had worked equally as hard.
When the sparring did finish, I spent some time talking with Jimmy about his regime so we could identify further opportunities to capture his journey before the big title fight. As he talked me through his training, which included another session later that same day, I was caught in the assumption that as a professional fighter, fighting and training was Jimmy’s only job. It blew my mind to learn he was (at the time) fitting this all in around a full-time day job as well.
Intense sacrifice
It’s well known that boxing can be an unyielding sport that exacts a physical toll on even the most blessed of fighters, but for a boxer like Jimmy, that risk is almost palpable.
His hunger to be the best version of himself is weighed heavily against the knowledge that he is only ever one injury away from the end of his career. At his age, adding the title of champion shouldn’t be possible, but knowing Jimmy as I am now lucky enough to be able to say I do, ‘possibility’ just doesn’t factor into it. He’s doing it.
Sadly, in the days running up to the bout, the title was taken off the line as Jimmy’s opponent had to withdraw after a medical complication. Jimmy still put his unbeaten record on the line against an incredible fighter in Brian Phillips (@brianphillips93) and secured a narrow points victory in what was easily the fight of the night. We went to watch and I’ve genuinely never felt as nervous in my life - gruelling and exhilarating in equal measure. I also caught covid that night, but the less said about that the better.
Jimmy’s title fight has now been rescheduled and he fights for the Central Area Lightweight Title against fellow unbeaten boxer, Justin Newell (@justinnewell1989), on 25th February this year. I don’t know if my heart can take watching him again, but I’ll let you know!
The technical stuff
I had a loose plan going in to the first shoot with Jimmy and was quite happy to see what unfolded. Not knowing the space we would be working in and availability of light, I brought some lighting options so I wouldn’t be caught short. Thankfully, the gym was lined with huge windows which cast a beautiful light across the room that created some great contrast. For the second shoot, I had a much clearer idea of what I wanted to shoot and so brought equipment I need to create a more stylised and controlled look.
Behind the scenes video from the shoot with Jimmy the Fist aka boxer James First
The posed portraits were largely shot using my 85mm Batis lens on a Sony A7RIII body. I used a mixture of natural light and off camera flash with a series of modifiers, diffusers and a healthy amount of atmosphere (smoke machine) to give the images some depth and provide texture to the light. For the action/documentary shots I used either my 25mm or 50mm lenses.
As I unwisely committed to a dying line of cameras a few year ago, the 50mm was stuck on my second camera (A99 Mk II), affectionately named ‘Boxer’ after the Animal Farm character (Orwell, not the other one). It performed admirably for its age but it’s definitely time to put it out to pasture.
