Frankie Gavin is loving boxing again

Birmingham's Frankie Gavin believes he's got his love for boxing back as he looks to prove his troubles are behind him in the ring.

Gavin will be in with former British champion Kevin McIntyre over eight rounds at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, live on BoxNation tomorrow night.

Britain's only world amateur champion hasn't boxed in seven months and famously walked out before his last fight in October.

'Funtime' Frankie had been due to defend his WBO Inter-Continental title against Frenchman Frank Haroche Horta in Manchester.

But Gavin vanished from his hotel the day before the show and didn't compete, a decision his promoter Frank Warren branded "total madness."

Since then, the 26-year-old has moved back into his family home in Birmingham and gone back to his old amateur coach, Tom Chaney.

Chaney - his third trainer in less than a year - was the man in the corner when Gavin was conquering the world as an amateur.

The two are now back together again and, after insisting his immediate future lies at welterweight, Gavin feels "at home."

He said: "I am just happy to be back in the ring, I feel good again and I want to get this fight over with and get Horta in the ring.

"Tom's the best trainer I have ever had, we have both had to learn a lot but this is the right time for us to be back together.

"I have been back with him about three months now, I am enjoying training again and it's given me my love for the sport back.

"I am living back at my mum's and I have got good people around me, I have got nothing on my mind but boxing."

Going back to his roots also made it the third city Gavin has called home in the past year, after leaving Birmingham for Manchester.

A split with trainer Anthony Farnell because of "personal reasons" saw him move to London in September, to be coached by Jimmy Tibbs.

Their alliance ended when Gavin pulled out of the Horta fight, with the undefeated Brummie today giving his own explanation of his troubles.

He said: "I stopped improving in Manchester, my jab went to pot and my defence went out of the window.

"Training wise, London was good but, again, I was on my own and living in a bedsit, I just wasn't happy there.

"An unhappy fighter isn't happy in the gym and the problems I had in Manchester just doubled in London.

"The night before the fight, I was 2lb over, if I had a glass of lemon juice before I went to bed I would have woken up on the weight.

"But, mentally, I wasn't up for it and I went into the Curtis Woodhouse fight feeling similar.

"This was twice as bad, against a more difficult opponent."