Age: 17
From: Dagenham
Been boxing for: 8 years, 48 fights
Hero: Ricky Hatton
Music entering the ring:
“Ignition,” R. Kelly “I wanta achieve. I wanta get famous, I wanta have the money, I want all that first. And then, once I’ve got all that and I quit boxing, then I’ll start drinking ‘n’ stuff like that. “When you know you’ve hurt someone, it’s very relieving. Like when you’re in there, you’re thinking like, ‘Am I behind on points? Am I winnin?’. There’s a lot going through your mind. But then when you hit him, when you see him go down, your confidence just goes sky-high. “Getting slugged in the face don’t hurt. Bang! Everything goes black and then, all of a sudden, you’re back. It’s a twitch or summing. It feels like an electric shock that shakes yer head and goes all the way through your body. Its like, wurgh!”
ΔΙΑΦΗΜΙΣΗ
Age: 16
From: Ireland (now based in Brentwood)
Been boxing for: 7 years
Hero: Mohammad Ali
Music entering the ring: “Fast music.” “When you’re winning, like, and when you’re going places, there’s no better feeling. Drinking pints and eating kebabs can’t even come into it. I love the sport and I want to do well at this sport. So I gotta train hard. “I haven’t been knocked out but I’ve been shook up a couple of times. If you take a hard shot, it’s painful, to say the least. You get stung for a minute. You know where you are, like, but you kinda black out for a second.” RYAN “THE LION” PICKARD (bottom) Age: 17
Been boxing for: 10 years. 40 fights/10 KOs.
Hero: Sugar Ray Leonard
Music entering the ring: “Bad Boy for Life,” Puff Daddy. “If I weren’t boxing I’d be getting stoned with my mates, wudn’t I? But I ain’t interested in none of that. I’ve got no intentions of going out and getting drugged up. Boxing teaches me to have manners. It teaches us to have respect for our health. No one else has to say don’t do this, don’t do that. I think to myself: ‘I don’t wanna smoke, I don’t wanna drink.’ “You don’t really feel pain when you’re in the ring. You shouldn’t be in there if you’re thinking about getting hurt. You should be in the zone. When you’re in the zone, you’re just completely focused. There’s no other thought in your mind. “Before a fight, I listen to some hip hop and fink about my opponent—how I’m gonna win the fight and how I’m gonna go about it. Say I’m fighting someone that goes on their back foot. I’d have to get in and cut the ring off. I just go over it in my brain.”
Age: 17 From: Leyton Been boxing for: 5 years Hero: Mohammad Ali Music entering the ring: 50 Cent “I’m an aggressive person. I use boxing as a way of taking it out. Punching the bag, skipping, boxing techniques, and training. I’m not less aggressive now, but I am more focused. I keep motivated by knowing that one day I can become something from it. It’s more than just social. It’s not something I just do in my spare time. Getting hit hard? Sometimes you get dizzy and you don’t know how to deal wiv’ it. It varies. It depends what type of hit it is.” JOHN (bottom left)
Age: 11 Been boxing for: 3 years From: Essex Hero: Mike Tyson “My school is rough. There’s a fight every day. They’re nutcases, basically. Once this bigger boy called Derek threw my ball on the roof so I started pushing him. He pushed me back so I broke his nose. I got suspended for three days. I’d like to be a boxer or a football player. But when I’m older I’d like to be a bank manager.” AITCH (bottom right)
Age: 11 Been boxing for: 1 year From: Chelmsford Hero: Audley Harrison. “I gave this boy a black eye cos he called me a Paki.”
Age: 16 From: Barnet Been boxing for: 4 years Hero: Mike Tyson Music entering the ring: Any hip hop “I do a lot of starvin’ [to pass the pre-fight weigh-in]. Sometimes I have to lose, I dunno, say 2 kilos or sumfink. The days before the fight, I can’t really eat much. So I think about the other boxer. I think about what that boxer has put me through. I’ll be watching all my family eat and I’ve gotta have beans on toast. “When you’re in the fight and you punch someone, only for a split second do you think about that shot, and then it’s back on your guard again. But later, when you watch it on the video, you will be replaying it for a long time. “I can only see me boxing until I’m 28, 29 at the most. So my mates ain’t gonna change that much. They’re all gonna be doing the same thing, going up the pub. So I’m not missing out. I ain’t smoking, I ain’t drinking. I ain’t doing what all my mates like to do or anything. Boxing keeps me nice and healthy.”