A DECADE ago, Jake Jon Cleary was one of the presenters on a podcast about Barnsley FC and hoping to become a broadcast journalist, but now he is a professional boxer and due to headline a show at the Metrodome on Friday night.

The 28-year-old from Wombwell is unbeaten in five professional contests as a welterweight, including a stunning victory over favourite Ellis Ward at Leeds Arena live on the BBC in December on the undercard of Callum Simpson’s title bout.

In his late teens, Cleary was doing a media studies course and part of the Football Report podcast at Barnsley Radio then We Are Barnsley – watching the Reds home and away.

The 28-year-old said: “They were very good times. We went to Wembley twice with it.

“We interviewed the likes of Bobby Hassell and Martin Devaney who I grew up watching and Conor Hourihane when he was captain.

“It never entered my mind that I would be a professional sportsman.”

In 2018, after stopping playing amateur football, Jake followed his younger brother into boxing and started training at Millennium Gym in Rotherham where he remains.

He got a degree and became a sports coach and personal trainer before going into professional boxing in 2024 and taking his current job at Royal Mail to fit around his training.

He said: “I used to watch boxing a lot anyway. I thought I’d try it myself.

“After stopping football, it was a sport where I could just focus on myself.

“I got the bug for it and the rest is history.

“It’s crazy. It’s been a quick rise in a short time.

“Within three years, I have gone from fighting unlicensed in small hall shows to Leeds Arena in front of thousands if not millions on the BBC.

“It’s getting the right opportunity at the right time, and knowing the right people, but I have put a lot of graft in as well.”

Jake has also earned a new nickname, even if it isn’t quite accurate.

“People have started calling me the punching postman which has got a ring to it. I am not actually a postman but people assume I am because I work for Royal Mail. But I don’t really want to stop them and tell them I am actually on collections and don’t post anything.

“I am the middle man who gets the post to the delivery officers.

“It’s just stuck now.

“It’s good that the community see I work hard in and outside the ring and I am the same as everybody else.”

Jake worked the Monday after winning at Leeds Arena on December 20 and says it took him weeks to respond to all the people who messaged him after that victory.

“It couldn’t have gone any better.

“The ripple effect is the opportunity to headline a big show at the Metrodome which I am really looking forward to.”

Jake is due to fight Luke Thomas who has lost seven of his eight fights.

“I was due to fight him the fight before the show in Leeds but he had to pull due to an eye problem. So we got a replacement in.

“I have done some research into him and watched bits of his fights on YouTube. He has a specific style. I am looking forward to another six-rounder.

“I am looking to bring another high-intensity performance.

“I am willing to win by any means but I want another improved performance.”

Jake was hoping to be selected for an eight-man GBM tournament with promoter BOXXER in April but the show fell through.

He said: “It goes to show the impact from the last fight on a massive platform. I have put myself out there.

“If something like that comes again, I am willing to take it. But I just want to be as active as possible.

“At the end of this year or the beginning of next year, we could be looking at the Central Area title.”

Although Cleary and fellow Barnsley man Cory Sagar both won in Leeds, headliner Callum Simpson was defeated for the first time in his professional career. Jake said: “It would have topped the night off perfectly if Callum had got the victory.

“But so many champions have come back from losses.

“We were together the morning after the fight and the first thing he said when he saw me was how proud he was of me and how buzzing he was of what I achieved. That shows his character.

“He will come back stronger, no doubt. That result doesn’t define who he is as a boxer or a person.”