I fell out of love with boxing, so moved to the Maldives to train A-list celebs

Dan Morley’s boxing journey has been far from conventional.

The returning welterweight was involved in a thrilling clash with Louis Isaacs in 2021 and had built a record of 8-0 by mid-2022, but has not boxed in the almost two years since.

On Saturday night, Morley joined talkSPORT Fight Night to explain how he intends to return to boxing this year.

During his time away, he has built a significant social media following of around 400,000 fans across Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Morley has also spent time in the Maldives training A-list celebrities in recent years.

talkSPORT Fight Night presenter Gareth A Davies began by asking: “You’ve been out of the sport Dan, you’re 8-0, but you haven’t fought since 2022, falling out of love with the sport. What happened there?”

Morley replied: “To be honest with you, there was a whole multitude of things.

“So obviously boxing is an extremely tough sport anyway, the professional side of it is so tough.

“I was professional for five years, and for two of those years there was a global pandemic, but I was building my name on the small hall shows.

“I was just about to break through, I had those journeyman fights and I was pushing to the 50/50 fights.

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“I had a fight and two weeks out it got cancelled, so I lost all of my money there, and I wasn’t earning throughout lockdown, but I was training.”

During his break from the sport, Morley dedicated time to building a significant social media following, engaging with fans through voiceover and in-depth analyses of boxing.

Additionally, he seized the opportunity to share his knowledge overseas.

“It just came out of the blue,” Morley divulged, “I had just had my fifth or sixth pro fight.

“I had just boxed Fonz Alexander whose a very gained journeyman, I was very much at the start of my pro career.  

“A good friend of mine, a family friend, Marco, gave me a call and said, ‘Look I have an opportunity for you.’

“I thought it’d be a local sponsor, he just said to me that he used to work in the Maldives, he use to work on this island called Soneva Fushi, it’s been voted the best island in the Maldives.

“I was like, ‘Ah okay, what’s this about? Why are you talking to me about this?’

“And he just said, ‘They’ve never had a boxing instructor, would you like to go and teach boxing?'”  

Davies asked: “And who was there? Who did you meet, who did you train?

Morley answered: “There were lots of people there, I trained hundreds of people, but most notably it would be Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things.

“Millie Bobby Brown actually has boxed, I think she’s boxed as an amateur. Yeah she was good, very very good.

“Hand speed, yeah, she was only 15, she was very young.

“She had pop in her shots, she moved well and had a lovely family as well.”

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