Charlie Edwards’ fight column: Stephen Smith link-up will help me give my career serious shot in the arm

Over the past five weeks, I have been asked countless times and I will be asked again this week, when I face the media. But I’ll keep giving the same answer – I cannot afford to look beyond my opponent on Friday night.

In boxing, we love nothing more than to speculate and look ahead at what – and who – might be next, as we indulge in playing promoter.

And while a win on Friday night against Georges Ory, live on Channel 5 at York Hall, will give my career a serious shot in the arm, I would be a fool to allow my focus to slip.

A fool.

I have been through too much, and overcome so many difficulties in the past two years, to let this one slip by letting my mind wander to fights that might happen down the line.

Yes, the goal is to become a two-weight world champion, adding a bantamweight belt to my flyweight title, but Ory is dangerous and is flying over from France on Wednesday morning, intent on one thing – ruining my homecoming.

You might say it’s the biggest fight of my life, given where I’ve come from and what I’ve been through, and I have prepared as such.

The man in my corner this week, has helped get me, physically and mentally, into a brilliant place.

People raised eyebrows when I teamed up with Stephen Smith in Liverpool.

Stephen, one quarter of the famous fighting Smith family, is a young coach and this will be our first time working together, but I know I have made the perfect choice in linking up with ‘Swifty’.

He has experienced so much in his career, twice fighting for the world title, but also travelling around the world, working in corners and being at ringside, as his brothers took on some of the best of their generation, including Canelo and Andre Ward.

Stephen thinks about boxing, about tactics and fights, the same way I do.  From our first session together, out in Portugal, I just knew he was the right coach to guide this next phase of my career.

I believe Stephen can have a similar impact on my career, as Andy Lee has had on heavyweight Joseph Parker’s, who has rebounded with some of the best wins of late.

I can’t wait to show you all what Stephen and I have been working on.

But before it’s lights, cameras and action on Friday, I’m travelling back down to London for the media day on Wednesday and weigh-in on Thursday.

There I will see Ory for the first time, in the flesh.  We will go head-to-head and trust me when I say, I will be thinking of nothing else from that point on.

PICTURE: WASSERMAN