Boxing man Jamie Sheldon steps out of the shadows to forge a new future in the fight game

Swinton-born Jamie Sheldon has been the unobtrusive but essential team-man supporting the likes of Tyson Fury and Dalton Smith, and a generation of lesser-known pugilists.

Now, though, Jamie's career is blossoming in professional boxing and UFC. He is promoting shows, managing athletes and all the while learning on the job, hoping eventually to be seen in the same category as some of the nation's better-known promoters.

"It is madness how things have snowballed," said Jamie (43), the managing director of One Empire MGMT management company and sales director at EMPIRE Fight Store who works out of an office in Manvers.

"I have always been around gyms and got my trainer's license, but things then evolved when Empire, the tape company, asked me to come on board. We developed a tape over months, and it flew."

The company brand increased its reach when it became involved in a boxing video game. And suddenly Jamie, a former Swinton Fitzwilliam Junior and Swinton Comp school pupil, started to attract interest from boxers in the north east who were looking for a manager.

"My first boxer to manage was Thomas Hodgson, then word of mouth spread and I accumulated more fighters. I have seven at the moment. When you have plenty of fighters it helps to put on your own show. If you're not a promoter you have to squeeze your lads or women on other people's shows, so getting a promoter's license became another option." Jamie, eager to learn the ropes of show management, also collaborated with Sheffield's Ryan Rhodes.

"I am not here to say I am the next Eddie Hearn, I am learning the trade. The end goal is to do the big, all-singing, all-dancing show, but we're not going to do that from the off. We learn as we go along, making sure we do everything proper."

There's a lot of red tape to deal with, but Jamie says: "I want to look after boxers. I have been in the game for a long time and seen too many of them have to come out of the sport either through financial or mismanagement.

"You see what a great job Izzy Asif is doing in Sheffield, with GBM Sports, he is a great salesman.

"He made small hall shows have a big hall feel. I am not one of those who want to copy what anyone else is doing.

"I want our shows to have their own identity, maybe try a new venue that has not been used before, while looking after boxers and maybe make it more affordable for fans."

Jamie's upwards trajectory has met a sniffy response from others who weren't happy to see him rise up the ranks.

"Some promoters or managers wish you had stayed doing what you were doing. Some people don't like competition.

"You see people in their true colours, but you can't please everybody.

"If everybody in boxing just got on, like Eddie and Frank Warren do now, it would be a better place."