Amateur
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 05:06
Written by Danny Lawley

---

Well the dust has finally settled, the blood has dried and the ring has been packed safely away after another great night of amateur boxing in Shanghai on June 13.

The atmosphere inside the Sheraton Ballroom (what a venue!) was absolutely magnetic on Saturday as the 16 novice fighters taking part slugged it out in front of an electrified audience. Punches flew, noses bled and grunts of pain filled the air as boxers who had been the best of friends for the last four months suddenly tried to take off each other’s heads in the name of charity.

This was the 22nd boxing smoker I have trained the fighters for, although with the exception of last December’s ‘Brawl on the Bund’ all the rest were in Hong Kong. It’s somewhat agonizing to have to judge a fight when you have trained all the pugs in the ring and extremely difficult not to let your personal preferences influence your decision, no matter how professional you like to think you are.

I can hardly tell you how much my heart swelled with pride as the evening went on and I got to see all the fighters perform so well. Considering that 4 months ago most of them had never laced on a pair of boxing gloves, the standard of boxing on the night was truly excellent. The other judges and referees all commented they had seldom seen novice boxers fight so well on their first outing and that is certainly a sentiment I wholeheartedly endorse!

Danny Lawley was one of the trainers for The Sheraton Showdown in June. For all the information go to www.urbanatomy.com/boxing

It was not something that happened overnight or by magic however. For the last 16 weeks we have trooped down to Mao Ming Lu gym three times a week to go through exhausting fitness regimens and repetitive basic boxing skill drills. I have been tremendously impressed by the dedication and grit demonstrated by all the fighters who took part, even if some of them later told me they wanted to come up and punch me hard in the face during every single session. Charmed, I’m sure...

For those of you that were at the Sheraton last Saturday night, I don’t need to remind you here how hard they all fought. I know it sounds a little corny to say it, but truly there were only winners on the night. It is extremely hard to train for a boxing competition and to have to go from absolute beginner to your first fight in just four months is a tough call indeed. I salute all of you for having risen to that challenge and having performed so admirably on the night. 

One person who does require special mention however is Noel Lennon. We did not expect at first that Noel would be fighting on this show and he had to step up to the plate with just one week’s notice. Although he dropped a close decision on the night, the size of his testicles were certainly never in question. A brave and game Celtic warrior indeed.

I love training fighters and so the last four months have been a great deal of fun for me. I have to point out however that I was very ably assisted by two extremely motivated and generous individuals in Greg Hallahan and Ivo Kavelj, All the fighters benefitted tremendously from the enthusiasm and spirit they added to the training and I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to both of you without whom this show could not have gone on.

Likewise, it is a very big hats-off to Ross McGregor and all the team at Rapid Offshore. Few folks know how difficult it is to plan for and then put on a large scale boxing event like this and no one can argue that Saturday wasn’t about as smooth and perfectly executed an event as one could ask for.

I am proud to have played a small part in bringing amateur boxing fights to this fabulous city... I’m even more proud however to have met and trained such a great bunch of individuals who were prepared to suffer so much to raise money for those less privileged than themselves. The fact that you were able to get the audience to fork out RMB 215,000 on the night shows that your efforts were all very worthwhile and there are more than a few young kids at Half the Sky who will be in your debt for some time to come…

The Half-term Report (April 22, 2009)

Here we are at half way point through our training program for the upcoming Sheraton Showdown. I'm pleased to report that we continue to make steady progress.

Two months ago, when 25 eager young boys and girls turned up for first day of training, I could see that we had an interesting bunch on our hands. We are down to just 18 fighters now, having lost of few to injury along the way, but as we transition from basic skill training into more advanced techniques and full on sparring, for many of them the real test is yet to come. The mental stress every fighter needs to learn how to handle is growing in them every day and the training will only keep getting harder. Add to this the heat of the coming months plus the injuries they are bound to pick up along the way, and you can begin to appreciate the kind of ordeal the boxers have to go through to get themselves ready for a fight in just four short months of training.

We still plan to put on 8 bouts on the night and there are some truly mouth watering match ups among them. Big Inusa Duwa will be a real crowd favourite, but he has his work cut out for him if he is to beat a very smooth and fit looking Nick Herbert from America whose previous boxing experience puts him a little ahead of the pack at the moment. Jim Yuan and Hening Strandas will certainly be a highlight of the night and both will have to battle hard if they hope to run out a winner. Dave Ghani will be returning to the ring after his success at last year's event and is already looking mean at training. His opponent, Paul Grey, is also looking good however his fitness is an area he still needs to work on. Amongst the ladies, keep your eye on Fanny Fanny whose right hand is beginning to terrorise even the male fighters and the fighting kangaroo, Erin O'Brien, who cant stop grinning even when she smashes a big left hook into her sparring partner's head...

All the fighters have been pushed hard over the last 8 weeks and it is difficult sometimes to keep boxers motivated at such a high level for such a long period of time. We are going through a consolidation phase right now, but in a couple of weeks time we will really start to ramp things up again as we go into the final stretch before they climb into the ring on 13th June.

Getting novice boxers ready to fight in just 4 months is not an easy task and is not something I even fully endorse. I much prefer to take 9 months to a year before putting a green fighter up for his first big test. This is white collar boxing however and very few folks in Shanghai would have the time to commit to such a lengthy training program. I am tremendously proud at the effort that all the fighters are putting into their training, particularly those who have demonstrated real commitment by turning up to nearly all the training sessions I have run to date. If the old adage, "the more you sweat, the less you bleed" is true, then those of you who are working the hardest will see it all pay off on the night. For those of you who prefer sleeping off your hangovers during the Sunday morning sessions, it is going to be a desperately cruel blow to you when you dont have your arm raised in victory on the night... I know, I have been there too often myself !

As always, it has been a real privilege to travel along this road with the all the fighters who have taken part so far. We are all working really hard and there has been a fair bit of suffering along the way. There has been a lot of fun too though, particularly when you have the likes of Greg Hallihan and Ivo Kajelli helping out so diligently with the training. We have a wee way to go yet, but as I promised you all at the beginning of this journey, it will all be worth it on the night!

Danny Lawley is one of the trainers for The Sheraton Showdown in June. For all the latest information go to www.urbanatomy.com/boxing

< Prev		Next >