Diehard Tottenham fan Sam Gilley hoping to avoid 'Spursy' tag on Eubank Jr.-Benn undercard
LONDON, England - In February 2019, the Collins Dictionary received an official request for the inclusion of a new term suddenly rife in the world of football: ‘Spursy’.
It means to be within touching distance of success but ultimately end up with nothing, to have a chronic inability to maintain a high-level performance or the habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
The word is in reference to Tottenham Hotspur and was primarily used by supporters of other clubs, particularly their north London rivals Arsenal, and it has proven almost impossible to budge.
Now lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool Tottenham fan Sam Gilley has admitted that the word has actually helped motivate him during training camp as he prepares for his dream outing at the stadium on November 15.
Commonwealth champion Gilley (18-1-1. 9 KOs) faces Ishmael Davis (14-3, 6 KOs) for the vacant British junior-middleweight title at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as part of the undercard for Chris Eubank Jr’s rematch with Conor Benn live on DAZN. After two frustrating years for the 31-year-old, failing to clinch the titles at the stadium he attends every week would be about as Spursy as you could get.
“Imagine getting beat and the Spursy tag goes to me,” Gilley told The Ring.
“I don’t want that every week. Going over to the stadium and thinking that I’m the Spursy one and that’s what I would end up getting called. I can’t have that.
“But with the reward of boxing at Tottenham obviously that’s the risk you run, but I’m happy to take that.”
It is now just over two years since Gilley claimed the most significant victory of his career, when he beat Louis Greene over 12 memorable rounds at York Hall, Bethnal Green. The win was supposed to propel him onto bigger and better opportunities but that has not been the case.
A rematch with Greene has been scheduled twice but Gilley has had to take on two late replacements instead. First, almost exactly a year after that first victory, Gilley stopped Jack McGann in four rounds back at York Hall.
Then, in June, he had been expecting to face Greene again in the chief support to Fabio Wardley’s clash with Justis Huni at Portman Road but he was eventually demoted to an eight-round undercard slot against stand-in Gideon Onyenani. The pair drew 76-76 in the pouring Suffolk rain on a miserable night at Portman Road.
“That was just one big lesson,” he adds. “I let outside factors affect me and I took my eye off the ball. I underestimated my opponent and I paid the price for it really.
“It just seemed like everything was getting smaller and smaller, even my money got dropped. I knew I was going to fight and then be skint after. I would have earned more money that camp if I had gone back on the tools on the building site than had the fight.
“It was deflating and I let it affect me in the ring. But I’m only human, sometimes it happens. Really I’ve had the worst luck over the last couple of years but for it all to result in a fight at Spurs means it has aligned to something really good.
“If you had told me back then that I’d have to put up with a couple of bad years but then I'd get the chance to fight for the British title at Spurs I’d have signed up straight away.”
There have been many British boxers who have aligned themselves with football clubs over the years in a bid to engage the fan base and shift tickets without ever really supporting the side. But, like Chris Billam-Smith with Bournemouth, Tony Bellew with Everton and Ricky Hatton with Manchester City, among a few others, Gilley is a man with deep links to the club he supports.
“I’ve supported them since I was born,” says Gilley, who will wear the club crest on his shorts against Davis.
“I’ve actually got a picture of me at my first game when I was three years old. My uncle Ricky took me and I think we played Newcastle.
“I’ve been going ever since and I rarely miss a game now. I go up at the top of the stand with the other scallywags so I’m making all the noise.”
While the idea of fighting at the home of your club seems like a good idea in principle, the reality is that it brings with it an intense and unique pressure. Win and the victory is sweeter than ever but a defeat could taint your relationship with the place for the rest of your life.
“I can see both sides of it,” Gilley says. “I actually went back to Ipswich for a game a few months after my fight.
“Walking back into that stadium made me feel sick. Honestly it wobbled me for about 20 minutes, that gaff absolutely did me in. I was fine eventually but at first I just thought ‘this was a horror show here, how am I back?’ And that was Ipswich, I don’t even support them!
“But on the flip side, this is my home, this is my place and I’m not losing at Spurs. You know when people say ‘I’d fight him in his back garden’? Well this is my back garden.
“So I will go hammer and tong to make sure that isn’t a thing and to make sure that stadium doesn’t change for me. I don’t want to dread going there every week. Instead, I will be able to say I won my dream belt at my stadium and that will never change. I will have completed boxing.”
The Collins Dictionary are currently ‘monitoring the usage’ of the word Spursy before they make their decision. Gilley will not want to help their cause.
Chris Eubank Jr. vs Conor Benn II will headline "The Ring: Unfinished Business" and stream live on DAZN PPV from 12pm ET/5pm GMT.
