The next time I blog I will hopefully be a fully-licensed boxing trainer.

My application has been on for a while now and Sunday I will be sitting in front of the board up here in the north east, ready for their questions and after it all, a new chapter in my boxing life will start.

McCrory: on the pads

I've held a fighter's licence obviously, a promoter's license and have had my own gym - in various locations around Newcastle - since 1986, so this is the next logical step.

Boxing has been my life for 32 years, I've been in and around the gym for the last 22 and I just love it. Nowadays I have the Glenn McCrory Gym up here and I am still the first in of a morning and still the last one out, turning off the lights at the end of the day.

My work at Sky has, for the last 19 years, kept me involved with the big fights; I've got to meet some great fighters and in that time I've worked the pads with Lennox Lewis and been in the gym with Evander Holyfield and Julio Cesar Chavez amongst others.

Add to that that I sparred my way across America as a kid and have been in with no fewer than NINE world champions - Lennox (who I also fought of course), Mike Tyson, Henry Akinwande, Jerry Coetzee, Trevor Berbick, Bonecrusher Smith, Tony Tucker, Tony Tubbs and Oliver McCall - I think I have a hell of a lot to pass on.

Those of you who read this blog regularly might think I have been a bit disparaging about the role of the trainer, particularly when it comes to the new man in Ricky Hatton's corner and the irony of it all is that I didn't really have a trainer of my own when I was fighting.

Written off

My manager Doug Bidwell used to help out, even though he didn't know how to use the pads and just held the medicine ball for me. But Doug was always there, as was my old amateur coach Alan Walker.

When I came back to Newcastle with my career in tatters having lost five out of six as a heavyweight and being written off at 20, Alan would meet me off my runs, always have the towel ready, that sort of thing.

I also learned so much sparring with James 'Quick' Tillis and picked so much up off the likes of Lennox and Tyson, that now it is time to share that.

But I have said recently it has to come from within the fighter and that won't change. If you've got a really good fighter it's a trainer's job to bring that out. I managed it by training myself, but there are so many boxers who have it in them, but are lazy, bone idol so-and-so's, who just disappear and do nothing.

The trick to being a good trainer is knowing what makes your man tick and how to make them tick a little bit better - that is the sort of relationship Ricky and Billy Graham had.

The great thing about working for Sky Sports is that you get to sit there analysing the fights and that has taught me to cut off and not get too emotional and I hope that will stay with me in the corner.

I'm expecting to bring a calmness, an authority and the knowledge of those years of training myself, sparring with all those names and watching fights closely.

Whispering

Ray Arcel is the trainer I most admire, the guy that worked with Roberto Duran for all those years. He was just part of the furniture when it came to Hands of Stone and I remember watching him closely.

Duran was a ferocious man, a real tough guy and full of machismo, which is what boxing's all about. But thanks to Ray, he was also a great, great technician.

He could make you miss by a millimetre, he could slide punches, he could draw your head in and basically make you butt yourself, and all the while Ray was there whispering in his ear.

He would pick him up off the stool in the corner to save his legs, which was vital in the days of 15-rounders, just little things that are so important in giving your fighter every advantage.

It's also about saying the right thing at the right time. I think Teddy Atlas comes out with some rubbish these days, but will never forget the Michael Moorer-Evander Holyfield fight back in 1994.

Moorer was a lazy so-and-so but Teddy managed to get the best out of him and he won a decision. One speech at the end of a round went on for the full minute and was more like the Gettysburg Address. It sent shivers down my spine - and still does.

I've had a great time in boxing in my various roles, but it's nice to be a proper, proper part of it, have a licence and work with the kids, with the fighters in the gym. I am staying at Sky and also think it might be beneficial to bring more than an ex-fighter's view to our excellent coverage, to see a fight as someone that is still in the front line.

I was a world champion and I want to be the best cornerman in the business. There is also a big, barren, boxing wasteland called the north east that I want to bring the best out of.

And like most things in life, if you want to do something, you have to do it yourself. I want to put Newcastle on the map.

I am starting off on a Frank Warren show in a few weeks with a young local lad called George Watson. I am not sure whether we will be showing it on Sky, but keep an eye out - or read it here first next week!

Until then, I've got some training to do...

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