'Noble can learn from ex-wild child Mills'

The wily mentor at St Vincent's gym, Wincobank, Sheffield, is trying to work on Lee Noble, a promising recruit who has had more than his fair share of setbacks.

Noble, once a self-confessed Barnsley football hooligan with a troubled background, is regarded as a "gym fighter" by Ingle.

He says: "He does everything right in the gym – but it sometimes goes out of his head when he is in a proper fight."

An obvious example was Noble's British Masters Middleweight Title defeat against Mexborugh's Stuart Brookes at Don Valley Stadium in May.

Noble froze that evening, barely landing a meaningful punch in some rounds.

Ingle says: "Lee reminds me a bit of a Rotherham fighter Mick Mills (Retired 1985; Record won 33 (KO 23) Lost 15.)

"Like Lee, he was a bit of a wild child from a hard environment who should have listened more to what people were telling him.

"I'm going to get the two of them together so Mick can tell him the value of training and getting your head right when you go into the ring.

"Mick was good in the gym, if he hit you on the shoulder he'd break it. But he was also as mad as a March hare, then. He now realises the value of what we used to tell him about using his brain and it would be useful for him to pass things on to a young kid like Lee."

Ingle said Noble was asking "every day" to have a re-match with Hobson, but said he thought his fighter needed a couple more bouts before then.