Joké Amechi is starting again in Sussex in a bid to relaunch his bid for major titles - but admits there are a few things he is still getting used to since leaving London, writes Matt Nash.

The super-bantamweight star has put the big smoke behind him and recently swapped the city for the country, following his first ever professional defeat against Jack England on points in March.

Amechi, 34, has an incredible back story, having been stabbed three times in Lewisham as a teenager after witnessing a fight at the college he was attending.

That set him on a path to better himself, a process which incorporated the sweet science, the sport which fascinated him from an early age.

He has gone full-time under the tutelage of highly-rated coach Larry Ekundayo in Kidbrooke but, with partner Leah, decided a move to somewhere completely different was needed for both work and family life.

“Leah loves it and wants to go for walks on the South Downs,” Amechi beams from his new home in Mid Sussex.

“At the time, when we first thought about Sussex I was imagining shops closing at 5pm and that was an ignorant view!

“It might have been unexpected and it’s a bit of a change but we are looking forward to life in Sussex and for the first time we’re not hearing sirens all the time!”

Now that the Amechis are all moved in, the former Double Jab ABC amateur is working on his new regime, some distance from Ekundayo’s camp and the world he knows.

But a return to the ring is needed, and soon.

Amechi added: “Moving house, painting and decorating the new place, took a lot out of me. I will for the most part try to carry on as I have been and I have to make that work, without Larry babysitting me!

“If you don’t put in that work, you get found out in the ring. So I’ve been in and out of training and had a date of June 1 but now it’s going to be September or October.”

After winning the first three of his outings in the paid ranks, Amechi came up short against England at London’s York Hall, the first setback to his plan to demonstrate age is merely a number when it comes to boxing.

He still has his eyes on the English and then British belts and has had time to reflect and reset before going again.

“It spurred me on. As cliched as it sounds, I learnt a lot from that,” he says of losing his “0”.

“I knew exactly where I went wrong and what to work on and where that’s going to take me going forward. Three months on, I don’t feel bad about it, I’m not sulking. It’s gone. Get over it.”

In the immediate aftermath of defeat, Amechi felt hard done by and called for a rematch but that talk has died off and he expects to take a different path now.

Perhaps the country air and a new gym - he is looking for somewhere to train in Sussex too - will give him a new perspective.

He adds: “If my promoter Steve Goodwin came to me and said: ‘This is the only opponent we’ve got for you’, I’d take it. It would have to be at an agreed weight.

“He couldn’t make the previous weight and some people think I can fight heavier but you do feel it.

“In terms of his gameplan, he was hugging me a lot, holding me a lot and you feel it.

“I’d take it again if that’s the only option.”