JORDAN CALDER – RISING STAR OF SCOTLAND

Just over two years ago, at a Bad Company show in East End Park Club, Leeds, I first came across the remarkable Jordan Calder. On a bill of mainly good standard novice fighters, the boy taking the ITKBA British Junior Title stood out as the star of the show.

For one thing Jordan, with his flamboyant ring entrance and stylish Ram Muay, seemed a natural showman and, despite coming from distant Glasgow, had the Leeds crowd on his side from the start. Then again any youngster who dares to get in the ring in vivid pink shorts (decorated with his trademark cobra) has to be able to fight! No problem for Jordan. His opponent, Corey Sills, earned praise for courage and defensive resolve, but never came near to matching Jordan’s maturity, power or range of techniques.

	‘I’m not a show-off at all, my parents would never allow me to be like that. In fact I’ve toned down my entrance big time, now it’s quite mellow compared to what it used to be like. Away from the boxing ring I am really quite shy and quiet.’

Some of the impressions I formed that day were absolutely right: I was pretty sure that he was in a class of his own among UK fighters of his age and this has proved correct. In other respects I got it all wrong. Jordan points out, for instance, that Corey (who I thought was younger than his opponent) was 14 against Jordan’s 12 – which makes his dominance even more impressive. Also Jordan emerges as a shyer character than you might expect:

‘I’m not a show-off at all, my parents would never allow me to be like that. In fact I’ve toned down my entrance big time, now it’s quite mellow compared to what it used to be like. Away from the boxing ring I am really quite shy and quiet.’

'Jordan's first professional fight'

This is borne out when I ask Jordan about life at school. Now just 14, he attends Springburn Academy in Glasgow and lists PE and Art as his best and favourite subjects. How many multiple boxing champions (with five belts including two UK titles) could come up with such a modest answer to a question about his schoolmates’ response to his success?

‘My schoolmates don’t really know much about me being a Muay Thai boxer, I don’t really talk about it at all. The one person who does know about it at school is my girlfriend Emma Hamilton. We are very close and what I love doing the most after a hard week’s training is being with Emma at weekends. She understands what I do and all that goes with it and I love her to bits – she’s brilliant and a big part of what I do.’

Jordan is equally unassuming about his start in Muay Thai. Apparently (at the age of – I guess – 9) he was feeling left out because his little sister went dancing and his older brother played football whereas he’s ‘not into football at all’ – is this possible in Glasgow? Anyway he nagged his dad, who was already training for Muay Thai, to take him along to the Caledonian gym and the rest is history.

'Jordan v. Jack Aikenhead'

Interestingly, Jordan had a difficult start in Muay Thai. His record (currently 10 wins and 3 defeats) shows that he suffered two losses in the first few fights, surprising for such a great talent. I wondered if the rather lax approach to age differences in Muay Thai had had an effect:

‘I lost my very first fight on points. I was only 10 years old and the other boy was 14, and at that age that’s a huge difference. He was massive compared to me, but I gave as good as I got.’

At the age of 14 Jordan is proving even better at dealing with older opponents. In October for his first professional bout he took on a 17-year-old at the Power of Scotland show and knocked him out in the 3rd round. An unfortunate follow-up to this have been some spiteful website comments about Jordan by his opponent, not the first time this has happened. Jordan’s response is calm and measured, though the same can’t always be said for Brian, his father:

'Brian, Jordan and Guy Ramsay'

‘If people are envious of me, then I must be good at what I do because, if I was rubbish, they wouldn’t be envious, would they? It really doesn’t bother me at all, it’s my dad who gets angry about it.’

So how has Jordan got from the promising youngster of two years ago (still clearly a schoolboy, body protection and all) to the successful professional, upsetting his opponent in the ring and out of it? I was lucky enough to see his next two fights, both in the Manchester area, and finished up a committed fan.

First Jordan had the honour (unusual for a junior fighter) of appearing on one of Master Sken’s major shows. However, the unthinkable happened – he lost. Against Jackie Dings, a tough Dutch boxer, Jordan came up just short in his attempt at a European title. Jordan agreed with me that the verdict was correct, but was contemptuous of my suggestion that he’d been ‘terrific’:

'Jordan Calder, aged 12'

‘I wasn’t terrific, I was terrible. He outworked me and I didn’t do enough. My dad said I froze because of the big stage. I only showed about 30% of what I can do. My dad asked Jackie’s instructor for a re-match five minutes after I fought him, but we’re still chasing that fight to this day. If I fight Jackie again, I’ll beat him, I’ve no doubts about that – I’m a totally different fighter now and much much better.’

The next fighter to see just how good Jordan can be was Jack Aikenhead from Beastmasters. Jordan’s second British title fight saw an awesome display of power, control and technique, with his increasingly helpless opponent finished off in the 3rd round by a series of knees to the body. Back in Scotland Jordan then outpointed Danny Baker of Mersey Thai (‘the toughest fighter I have faced’) to become the Sportfight Scotland Junior Goldenbelt Champion before making his successful professional debut with that 3rd round knock-out.

Yet another sign of Jordan’s quality is the respect Britain’s best fighters have for him, notably Liam Harrison of Bad Company in Leeds, recently nominated as the best non-Thai fighter of last year. Liam has long been Jordan’s favourite fighter and Brian emailed the Leeds man to tell him his son was a fan:

‘From that day years ago until today Liam as always been great to me. I go down and train at Bad Company when I can and stay with either Liam or Andy Howson. Liam and Andy corner for me if they are there and they are now very good friends of the family.’

Asked who else he admires, Jordan mentions Tommy Young, his ‘brilliant’ clinch coach, Davy McIntosh, his sparring partner and close friend of the Calder family, and ‘last but not least’ his father. The comment Jordan makes about Brian shows something of the incredible dedication of both father and son: ‘for the last five years he’s taken me training every day’.

That is even more remarkable when you think of Jordan’s current dilemma. It’s now four months since his last fight and there’s no sign of another on the horizon. He’s become too successful and Brian and Guy Ramsay of Caledonian Muay Thai have tried in vain for matches within the UK. Jordan’s plans to spend five weeks in Thailand in the Summer should relieve the frustration of the months out of the ring and put him on course to achieve his ambitions to become a full-time fighter and eventually open his own gym – his third ambition, to become a World Champion, may be a bit more difficult, but only a fool would rule it out.

Special thanks to Jordan and Brian Calder
For information on Caledonian Muay Thai: http://www.caledonianmuaythai.co.uk/ or email guy_ramsay@hotmail.com