Jimmy Sains capped another year of growth by stopping Troy Coleman in four rounds last October, breezing beyond the seven-year pro to claim the vacant English middleweight title.

Pleased for a return to familiar finishing ways, the Romford puncher (11-0, 10 KOs) has been ticking over in the gym braced for fight news while embracing commentary duty last month.

He and divisional gymmate George Liddard (13-0, 8 KOs) were both on Matchroom's December 17 broadcast topped by Giorgio Visioli-Joe Howarth from London's indigo at the O2.

"It was a bit of a new thing for me, my first time. Only one swear word on the livestream, Darren Barker said I did okay and I quite enjoyed it," Sains tells The Ring.

Sains began the year becoming the first man to stop France's Pierre Rosadini, who has since moved up to super middleweight, and ended it with more hardware on his ledger. English and Commonwealth silver titles sound nice, but the southpaw isn't satisfied - nor should he be.

Tony Sims, who coaches both Sains and Liddard, has continuously stressed Sains is two or three fights behind the British champion as far as individual development is concerned, meaning they're internally not worried about a potential in-house bout between them.

Liddard has spoken about finally being given his due as a world-level prospect after the Kieron Conway scalp, while Sains will have been enthused by the company he's keeping -- Conor Benn and John Ryder -- as well as the increasingly big nights he's having.

"It [doing commentary, providing analysis] does help my boxing because, just like with the Visioli-Howarth fight, you can pick up and learn little things from both guys.

"I thought Giorgio had a brilliant performance, gave it 100% and was nonstop from the first bell to the last in what people forget was his first 10-rounder."

Sains, who turned 25 in December, is already looking ahead to what's next.

"I did what I needed to [against Coleman] but just want more titles now. I'll be back out in March, have an English defence and then we'll go on from there. We need to sit down with Tony and the team, they'll let me know in the coming days what the plan is."

As far as lessons learned, he cited the 10-round points win over Gideon Onyenani as something that stands out in 2025.

"Even though it wasn't what I wanted at the time, it put me in good stead for the future, having to deal with that and coming through it," he adds, having admitted at the time he dealt with niggling injuries and disruption during training camp in the build-up to that May 17 bout.