Derrick Riley almost never speaks publicly. Ahead of his son’s European title defence against Seydi Coupe at Wembley on Saturday, father and son sat down together to talk about trust, tough love, Joe and Enzo Calzaghe, and why Oleksandr Usyk returning to cruiserweight is ‘a little bit greedy’.
But to understand where Viddal is going, you first have to understand the man in his corner.
Derrick Riley has been watching his son get punched since he was a little boy. He still can’t put into words what it does to him.
‘It’s strange,’ he exclusively tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘I’ve been doing it for a long time. But you have to try and separate it. You have to shut off the emotion and the sentiment. If you let that sentiment in, I think that’s a bad thing. That’s your boy in there. He’s getting hit and he’s getting hurt. I would say it’s not easy, and some people can’t separate it.’
It’s rare to hear Derrick say anything at all. He stays out of the spotlight, and he leaves the talking to his son. Sitting beside Viddal days before the biggest night of his career, when the unbeaten Londoner headlines OVO Arena Wembley against Frenchman Coupe, you quickly see how their relationship works.
‘Only my dad would be able to speak to me the way he does,’ Viddal says. ‘But it comes from a place of genuine care. It’s not a job. Someone can only care so much when it’s a job. It’s like being an employee at a company and having your own business. It’s a completely different mentality. This is my business, so he cares and I care.’
WATCH THE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW ON THE DAILY MAIL BOXING YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Derrick Riley (R), the father and trainer of son Viddal Riley (L), almost never speaks publicly
Viddal is set to take on Seydi Coupe at Wembley on Saturday evening, headlining the event
Derrick added: ‘Part of caring too is the fact it’s the same brain you’ve got now that you’re going to need after boxing. You can’t go to the shop and buy a new one, so you need to protect it. That’s why it’s difficult to separate the two.’
Viddal grins and says: ‘It’s the same brain I need for the grandkids.’
The partnership was not always a given. At 21, Viddal went looking for something of his own.
‘I was at a stage where I was trying to find some independence. That’s the truth,’ he says. ‘I was presented with the opportunity to go to Vegas, train with a Mayweather and work with Jeff Mayweather. I was thinking, “Yeah, I’m doing this my way. I’m doing things differently.”
‘But the truth is, I knew my ceiling was getting lower. And I knew the only person who could push that ceiling higher, and continue to do so, was my dad.
‘So when I came back to the UK, I said, “Dad, can you train me?” He was like, “Nah, I’m alright. I’m not doing it.” And I was like, “Nah, I need you to do it, because that’s the only way this dream we’ve been talking about is going to be fulfilled.”
Derrick’s refusal was not stubbornness. It was self-preservation.
When asked why he initially said no, Derrick admitted: ‘I know what the game is about. I know what boxing involves, and I thought to myself, do I want that in my life? It’s a good question when you’re in your 50s. I’ve lived life. There are no rose-coloured glasses. I know what boxing is. But I had to think about it.’
Derrick Riley has been watching his son get punched since Viddal was a little boy
The irony was that he was already qualified for the job. ‘By this point I already had a British Boxing Board of Control licence, because I was in the corner with Viddal in Dubai,’ he laughs. ‘So, funnily enough, I already had the licence.
‘He looked at me with those puppy-dog eyes, and I thought, you know what? We’ve got to do this. But I did say to him, “It’s not going to be easy, son. We’re going to have to do this properly. You’re going to get no ranking belts, no intercontinental belt, nothing like that. You’re going to have to do it the old-school way, with the British, Commonwealth, European, and it’s going to be hard.” And we’ve done it, man.’
The record backs him up. Viddal is 14-0 with seven knockouts. He won the European title in April with a wide points win over the vastly experienced Pole Mateusz Masternak at The O2, a fight that also served as an IBF world title eliminator. Saturday is his first defence, and it’s a mandatory one against a challenger who is also unbeaten in 14.
For a template of what father and son can achieve together, Derrick points to Wales.
‘I appreciate Enzo [Calzaghe] more now than I did before,’ he says. ‘I’ve always appreciated him, but I appreciate him even more now because I’m doing it myself. People have no idea what it takes, and for him to do what he did with Joe was absolutely amazing. I take my hat off to him.
‘Don’t get me wrong, I had a boxing background. I wasn’t great, I wasn’t pulling up trees, but I had a boxing background. Enzo had no boxing background whatsoever, yet he managed to do what he did with Joe. That is amazing.
‘It’s funny. During the fight with Bernard Hopkins, I think Enzo was saying something to Joe, and Joe gave Enzo a look. I know that look. I give Viddal that same look.’
Viddal and his father have become a force to be reckoned with but they’ve faced criticism
Joe Calzaghe has described his own brief split from his father, and how he came back because he realised he wanted those highs to be shared with Enzo. Viddal sees the same story in his own.
‘We relate to that story because we were severely doubted,’ he says. ‘It wasn’t celebrated. The partnership is only now starting to get some recognition, with people acknowledging that it works. It wasn’t like that at the beginning.
‘It’s been suggested to me that my dad shouldn’t train me and that there are people better suited to the job. That’s what we walked into. It wasn’t accepted as, “Oh yeah, this is a nice family dynamic, let’s get it going.” It was challenged. The aim was to separate us.
‘When we’re up against it, we just keep proving ourselves, time and time again. That’s what I take from Enzo and Joe. It wasn’t celebrated either. They had to keep doing what they were doing, and he turned his son into a 46-0 fighter and one of the best to have ever done it.’
Fathers who train their sons are often accused of living through them. John Fury, so often more visible than Tyson, is the obvious example. Derrick, a former boxer himself, rejects the comparison.
‘I don’t live vicariously through Viddal. I don’t want that,’ he says. ‘I’m not hogging the camera. It’s not about me. It’s about Viddal. He asked me to help him, and I’ll help him.’
Viddal is just as clear about who he fights for. ‘I do it primarily, first and foremost, for me,’ he says. ‘And very quickly after that, it’s for everyone around me that’s put work into me achieving it, because it couldn’t be done by myself.
Derrick has said he resonates with Enzo (pictured right) and Joe Calzaghe (pictured left)
‘When I became British champion, it made me give my dad the belt. We sat down at home for years watching people pick up the Lonsdale belt and hold the Lonsdale belt. So I heard the announcement, “British champion”, and I’m like, “Dad, hold this.” That’s something he’s always deserved.’
By rights, Viddal should already have fought for a world title. When Jai Opetaia was stripped of the IBF belt after signing with Zuffa Boxing, the Masternak win put Viddal in line for a shot at the vacant title against New Zealand’s David Nyika. Then Opetaia sued the IBF, the governing body held off sanctioning the fight, and Viddal was left waiting.
At the same time, the division has been turned upside down. Opetaia is moving up to heavyweight to face Deontay Wilder on the Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua card in Cardiff on December 11. David Benavidez holds the WBA and WBO belts and faces WBC champion Michal Cieslak next month. And now Oleksandr Usyk wants to come back down.
‘As I have been saying, it’s messy, but I’m trying to get in the mess,’ Viddal says. ‘I don’t want to be on the outskirts of that mess. I’m trying to be in it.
‘Right now, I’m just on the outside of the door. I can hear the music in the club, I can hear the bassline. I know there’s a vibe in there. I’ve been seeing the people getting in the door, walking past me. I want to get in there. And Coupe this weekend is another step towards that.’
The most famous person trying to get through that door is Usyk. The Ukrainian became undisputed at cruiserweight, moved up to become undisputed twice at heavyweight, and his team says he now plans to return to 200lbs to chase Benavidez and become undisputed at cruiserweight again. He hasn’t fought at the weight since knocking out Tony Bellew in November 2018, and he turns 40 in January.
Viddal admires him. But he isn’t convinced.
‘It’s a bit greedy. It’s a little bit greedy,’ he says. ‘He’s completed the level here. He’s gone up, he’s completed it there, and I think he’s just needing that challenge. He’s a guy you can tell lives for challenge. All he does is take challenges. “If I’m fighting for a world title, I’m going to go to your country and I’ll beat you there.” He’s that character. That’s what makes him a GOAT. That’s what makes him a legend.
Viddal has said Oleksandr Usyk is ‘greedy’ for returning to the cruiserweight division
‘But it’s dangerous too. Forty years old, dropping all that weight. He hasn’t been a cruiserweight since 2018. If I’m in his circle, I’m saying, “Bro, you ain’t got to do this. Why? There’s no need to.” It’s not going to be financial. It’s just that craving for a challenge.’
Regardless, Viddal is happy with where he is at.
‘What I like is that if I’d done this interview four or five years ago, everyone would have asked me, “Do you want to fight Tommy Fury or Jake Paul?” he says. ‘Now people ask me, “Would I fight Usyk?”
‘Clearly, I’m doing something right.’
