David Jamieson sat inside a London hospital, blood dripping from his mouth into a sick bucket, and told wife Kayla that it was time for him to call it a day. An hour or so earlier he had been on his way to becoming British cruiserweight champion only for opponent Mikael Lawal to catch him with a left hook late in the eighth round. It stung more than a normal punch ought to and the East Kilbride fighter knew immediately that something was amiss. The instant verdict was that he had broken his jaw. His fight was over, perhaps his career too.
Feeling tender, frustrated and somewhat sorry for himself, Jamieson decided enough was enough. At the age of 31 there would be no coming back from this. And then manager Sam Kynoch and coach Gerry Higgins arrived to check on how he was doing and it was immediately back to making plans. It must rank as the quickest any athlete has come out of retirement.
“It’s funny,” he starts. “My wife was there in this big spangly jumpsuit and I’m sitting there with this sick bowl in front of me, blood pouring out my mouth. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and she’s there all done up to the nines. 'Sorry for putting you through all this, doll,' I told her. 'This will be the last crack of the whip. That’s me done.' I basically retired there and then on the hospital bed, still in my boxing shorts after getting blue-lighted [in the ambulance] to London Royal Hospital.
“Next thing Sam comes in with Gerry and right away I’m asking, 'right, when are we getting the rematch on?' and talking about big things off the back of it. So I retired for about four or five minutes in the hospital. But the fire still burns inside. And there’s serious work that I can capitalise on. It would be mad to walk away at this point. I want to push on.”
Jamieson will return to the ring on March 10 on the undercard of Nathaniel Collins’ double title fight in Glasgow, inspired rather than deterred by how that previous contest finished. And there will now forever be a part of that fight with him.
“There’s a titanium plate in my jaw,” he explained. “It wasn’t a conventional break that happens when your jaw is open. But mine was shut at the time and he caught me with a left hook and caved in the back. So it didn’t break in the normal way. They put in a wee titanium plate. You see the x-ray and you’re thinking it’s going to be like the Six Million Dollar Man with this big plate. But it’s minute, like a tiny bit of bike chain. And that stays in forever.
“I was asking the surgeon daft things like about airport security and whether it was going to be magnetic. I was thinking of doing party tricks with a fridge magnet! But he said no.
“Everything seems to have healed fine. They spoke about the 10-week mark for the jaw and it does still feel very strange and tight. But I’ve been in to see the surgeon and had it X-rayed and it’s all healed up. There’s still some scar tissue there and it does feel strange. I’m not in the practice of getting my jaw broken so I don’t know how it’s meant to feel!
“But I’ve been back sparring and if it was going to go it would have gone by now. The first couple of times I was a bit gun-shy and wondering how it was going to be. And after a few clatters I was fine.”
Jamieson doesn’t have to look far for inspiration to know this needn’t be the end. Ricky Burns suffered a broken jaw in his contest with Raymundo Beltran and still went on to become world champion again a few years later.
“I was at that fight that night and Ricky went on to win another world title down the line. I spoke to the surgeon and he told me my jaw will be stronger than it was. There’s no danger that will break once it’s calcified and the plate is in. There’s no worries, especially when you hear it from the doctors. You just dust yourself down and go again.”
He remains philosophical about seeing his chance to become British champion taken away with one swipe from Lawal.
“It was just one of those things. You don’t get lucky shots in boxing but I knew Mikael was a one-trick pony. That was what worked, one shot. That shows you the power that the man carries. He just caved my face in.
“It was the end of the eighth round and that had been the tactic, to take him late into the fight. Everyone thought I was going to blow a gasket but he was starting to feel the pace and I was thinking about trying to force the stoppage in the championship rounds. But it wasn’t to be.”
