Making a Comeback

This episode talks about 'Making a Comeback'. Why do boxers retire and then feel the need to get back in the ring. Well - that's just what I did. Was it a successful comeback? Also, had anything changed in the system around coaching and what about those dreaded training camps.    

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In the Ring with Trevor Shaler, episode three, the comeback. So episode two, I covered, actually finished episode two with the the whole notion around regret, making that decision, you know, in anger and haste around throwing in the towel to uh go on to the 96 games after the interchange exchange with the national coach at the time. So this uh episode talks about the comeback. What is it about boxers who always seem to need a comeback? Now I know a comeback you know takes place in all sports, but comebacks for boxing always have an interest for the the wider public. I mean, you you've given up the hours and hours of training, the hard work that's required, the the making weight, all of that good stuff, as well as you know, retiring from you know punches to the head, you know, the build-up, the the amount of pressure that's required to actually just hop into the ring, and getting back in the ring at a high level really makes it a a challenge. So, what is it about boxes that attracts them back into back into the ring? I recently heard on the news that Tyson Fury is gonna make uh make his comeback. I'm not sure how many comebacks he's made to date. I think it's more than one, but this time he's a man after my own heart because this time he is making the comeback and he's not having a team. He's gonna get rid of a lot of his entourage, and he is just gonna need himself. Oh no, he's gonna need himself and one other to help give him a drink of water. Now, my thinking in that space is not as extreme as his, but certainly he is taking ownership for when the bell goes, it's just you in the ring. Sorry, that was my cat just spanging the mic. So still very inexperienced at this game. But hang in there, people. Anyway, so oh, and also Floyd Mayweather is making it making a comeback after nine years. He's unbeaten. So obviously he may maybe maybe he wants to be beaten. Maybe he wants uh something different for his record. I doubt that. I mean, he he's the he's the winner through and through. But why risk it? Why risk coming back? What what is it that's drawing him back to the ring? Is it what what is he missing? Is the you know missing the the rum rug and tumble? Or is he missing being punched in the ring? That's a joke, by the way. But anyway, so if I jump back into the comeback, so the whole notion here around the comeback is after I made the decision to retire abruptly, at the at the peak of my boxing career, I decided a comeback was on the cards, and I wanted I wanted to have a go at uh making the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. So, you know, back to the gym I went. I started at um the Hiratonga Boxing Club with Grant Scaife, also Alan Scaife. Alan was uh stalwart of New Zealand boxing as a national coach. He was uh national coach while I was in the intermediate, well, when I was in the sort of junior New Zealand squad, we had a couple of uh tournaments against Australia and so forth. But anyway, uh I went back to the gym, got straight back into it. Didn't seem like I'd missed a beat. I I think I'm talking it up. I probably missed a few beats, but it was good to be back into it. But the funniest thing, well, it wasn't funny at the time, but the funniest thing was my first fight back after a long retirement well, you know, a few years off, the uh Heritonga Boxing Club were holding a boxing tournament in Upper Hutt, and I was going to be the headline act, and they decided that I would fight a guy by the name of Miles Dine, who was a national champion, but he was a weight division above. And normally I do three three-minute rounds is the the normal sort of requirement, but they decided that we'd do six rounds as a sort of a feature fight. And yeah, I I didn't know what they I I definitely thought they were throwing me, throwing me under the bus, you know, because uh your first fight back should should really be one to really give you a test, but not to throw you in the fire. So um I knew Miles was a tough fighter. The other thing that was really against me was the the uh the fight or the tournament was taking place within the smallest ring possible. So the sizes of boxing rings go from 16, 16 by 16 up to 24 by 24. Now, when you're a boxer like me who likes space, who likes to, you know, think about what what I'm doing, getting some range, getting my reach, you know, thinking through things, you need space. You need space to move around, to give different angles, to, you know, just to just to create or just to have the space, first and foremost. 16 by 16 doesn't give you the space, right? You have to make quick decisions and you know, a couple of steps back, then you're on the ropes before you know it. So that was also against me. So they were putting me in against a tough fighter, and I use the word fighter because he he was tough, and he just came forward. So, anyway, when I did all the training, I was I was up for it. I said to all my work colleagues, uh I was working in Wellington at the time, working for the Health Sponsorship Council, which uh otherwise no one, you know, they did smoke-free awahe cutie, all of the different uh Sun Smart Bikewise, different social brands. So I said to them, Oh, you know, you should all come down and watch me, you know, because I don't I don't know if I remember whether or not I was that confident. But anyway, they all all came down. And anyway, I was warming up out of the back, all the rest of it. Cut a long story short, ding ding, bell goes. Round number one, and I'm into it, and it all came flooding back like you wouldn't believe. So round one was all good. I pretty much got on top of him in the in the first round, just in terms of feeling. I'm all actually, I wouldn't say got on top of him. I was going okay, even with the small ring, I was getting all the movement sorted, looking pretty good. Second round. I dropped him in the second round with uh uppercut to the to the body, and uh down he went. And I thought to myself, this is it. I should, you know, I'm not known to be a puncher or somebody that you know um stops, knocks out anybody necessarily, and I've probably had a couple of stoppages in my whole time, whole boxing career. But anyway, I dropped him in the second round, and I thought why not? He's the I think light middleweight champion, New Zealand champion, and I'm uh weight division below, been out of action for a number of years. Why don't I finish it? So uh yeah, I I just hooked into it. I went all out, which was unusual for me. But guess what? I didn't knock him out, I didn't stop the fight, I didn't what I did do though was when I got back to the corner, I realized that I had I'd punched myself out, meaning that um my arms were heavy, my legs were heavy, you know, I'd basically got away from what I normally do and I'd changed tact and I blamed the the years out of the sport. But anyway, you know, so I got up, you know, third round, got a hiding, fourth round, got a hiding, fifth round started to get my my ri rhythm back, did okay in the fifth, did okay in the sixth, and as luck would have it, I won, but only just one. But let's say uh afterwards, you know, it was it was just such a battle. And uh afterwards, you know, I got changed and everything and came out, catch up with my colleagues just to see see what they thought. Admittedly, I had quite a few bruising because it was a battle, a fight, and I wasn't doing my normal boxing. Uh I had a I think I had a black eye and a couple other things. Anyway, my boss at the time said, Look, if you want to have Monday off, you're more than welcome to. Because I think he could see that, you know, it wouldn't be a good look, me being in the office with all my bruises. So yeah, that that was my my return, my my comeback. And I actually went on and had another fight against Miles Dyne again. This time it was in bulls of all places. A much bigger ring, and it was for the Dick Dunn belt, actually, and much bigger ring, and it it was it was a walk in the park second time around. Actually, I don't think I got hit at all. So anyway, so that was that was me getting back into the ring, getting back into it, getting ready for the Olympics in 2000, or or getting ready to qualify, because that that's the that's really the the task here. And I got to the national uh championships yet again, and as a welterweight, and there was a guy in my division by the name of Daniel Codling. Uh he was pretty good. Admittedly, he was everybody talked of him as the the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I was having a bit of a chuckle to myself, thinking, yep, you know, it's great to have good new talent, hard, you know, good boxer, comes forward, it should be a a good test. Uh so we made the finals of the uh 2000 1999, 2000 national champs. I can't remember which, to be honest. It's actually on my YouTube channel that that fight. It was pretty, I thought it was a pretty close fight. He was came forward all the time, cut down my space. I'd I got much better in the in the later rounds and in the second and third round with uh giving him a standing eight count with a left hook. Not the David II a left hook, of course, but a left hook nonetheless. And I just put together better combinations and more more shots that were easy for the judges to score because I was able to get some really clean shots off. Yeah, so then I won the national title again. I think it was my third time as a well to weight. I also won the Jamison belt again. So that was the uh fourth time, and yeah, so I I I was basically, you know, doing all the right things. Uh certainly, you know, having the tough fights, you know, doing what needed to be done to to be in consideration. But this is where the the rubber's uh Farno. And we're invited to a training camp. Now I I'm pretty sure I've mentioned the training camps in in previous episodes that you know I have a I had a real allergic reaction to training camps. You know, the whole notion that we'll just run us run you through the machine, you all do the same stuff, even though you're all different. So I contacted um New Zealand Boxing in advance and said to them, Look, you know that I've got some issues with um how we how training camps are organized. How about you send me your program so I can build it in, I can look at some of the exercises, I can make sure that I'm on top of everything so that you know I can be a proactive part of the the squad and and the training camp on to the 2000 games. Oh sorry, onto the Oceania Games, but there was a pre-Olympic tournament in Sydney where they were testing the venue, and so we were heading to this you know pre-Olympic tournament. So anyway, I I contact contacted them. Lo and behold, nothing arrived. I didn't receive anything, and I just thought, well, here we go. So I get up there, we have a big meeting, we have an A and a B squad. Shane Cameron was coming through at that point. I'm on the you know, I'm 29, I'm on the, you know, I'm at the still in the the mature state to fight, you know, in terms of peaking. And they handed out the program, three training, three sessions a day. It was just an absolute I I couldn't believe it. And so I put my hand up, questioned them in front of all the boys, which didn't go down well, questioning authority. I got pulled aside, and in no uncertain terms, I was uh given a bit of a rev up. I fired back naturally and said to them, look, I'd written to you in advance, I had told you that, you know, I'm keen, I would be keen to incorporate some of the training in, yet none of it was forthcoming. So I just said, Look, I'm not gonna go through this rigmarole again. I've got my own program and I'll I'll be doing my own own training. I'll fit in the best I can, but by and large, that that's what you're gonna see. And it's interesting because uh I had a referee, one of the referees from yesteryear, obviously heard my one, you know, heard my previous episodes, and he texted me as a reminder and said, you know, he acknowledged my uh podcasting and said that he remembers being in Sydney at the pre-Olympic tournament and had come to our training and he said he couldn't figure it out. He said he looked across the at the training and everybody was on the bag except me. Trevor was in the corner all by himself skipping. And Jack, uh Jack Ploughman is his name. Jack said to Henry Schuster, who was uh one of uh New Zealand coaches, said to Henry Schuster, What's going on here? And Henry said to Jack, oh, Trevor does his own thing. And that pretty much sums it up. You know, I I was seen as an outlier and you know that I I do my own thing. And at the train uh prior to that, or at the training camp, you know, the the training was you know three times a day, which just didn't make sense. None of us had trained three times a day, so I don't know who came up with with that plan or theory. Anyway, I had a knock on my door in the camp, and a few of the the boys had come to see me and said, Look, we'd like you to be the captain of the team. And I said to him, Look, I'm happy to be the captain. It's not like I haven't done it before. So I said, I'm happy to be the captain, but I said, Look, I have baggage, you know, not a fan of how they're running things, I'm not a fan, and I'm you know, A, I'm articulate and I'm able to stand up for myself because I I don't I don't I wasn't running the risk of being, you know, I didn't care if really if they decided to drop me because I I'd fight it anyway. So anyway, they said, no, no, we'd like you to be the captain. And my first order of business was that um all of the fighters, or the majority of the fighters, asked me to go and talk to John and the coaching team about making some changes to the training program, i.e., dropping it down to two so that they got enough rest and recovery throughout the set, you know, and based on the sessions. So that's what I did when I knocked on uh uh John's door, told John that the the uh boys have made me the captain, which I mean he was just so happy for me, not and I said, Look, that we we need we need to make some adjustments with the training, and again, that that was pretty hard to take. But anyway, uh it went down. We we the changes were made, we're getting on with it. But an incident happened in training where I was sparring and was matched with Lance Bryant, and Lance is uh from Pahiatua, not far from where I grew up, and uh Lance is a good fighter, he was a hard fighter, big puncher, wasn't very good in sparring, you know. Sparring is critical in terms of you've got to know how far to push without you know being you know World War III sort of scenario, and also the the balance between you know the heavier fighter fighting a smaller fighter, you know, the issue there is you know maintaining that uh balance of not using too much power, you know, heavy versus light. And I I look I to be honest, I don't know if this was a planned move, but I was surprised that I was sparring Lance, knowing that Lance was a difficult to spar against, and I wouldn't normally be up against Lance with the the weight difference anyway. Lance and his typical self, you know, he was in amongst it, so I ended up getting in amongst it, ended up starting throwing bombs, you know, not not playing the game that I should be playing. You know, I'm supposed to be wise and know to just move around and box, but you know, I just you know was grumpy that here I am again in the situation where the the coaching team have thrown me in with Lance. Woop and I wouldn't say loose cannon, but you know, he he he didn't take any prisoners, so you you know, so naturally I didn't take a step back. I threw threw my own fair share of bombs. But I actually I ended up um second best because he cracked a rib of mine, which in effect put a put a stop to the trialling for the Olympics. I still went away on the trip over to Sydney to the pre-Olympic tournament. I was hoping that, you know, the it wasn't gonna come right, but I was hoping that I could box in a way that I could protect my my uh rib. The issue there was, you know, the issue that they have is that it, you know, if you break, if you if it breaks your rib, you can punch your lung or something along those lines. But this was the first kind of thing that I had. So I was pretty grumpy about the coaching staff. Um not looking for somebody to blame. You know, I was throwing bombs too, but the coaching staff should have been on top of the the the sparring, should have been on top of how, you know, you know, the w weight differences and making sure that you know we we stayed, well, you know, stayed at that level where we're we're boxing together in a in a constructive way. Anyway, Lance went on, he did really well. He knocked, I think he knocked uh three of his fighters out clean. He just had an awesome tournament. I was so happy for him. I didn't have the greatest tournament, and it was clear that that and I I didn't qualify for the games. But it was a it was a pre-Olympic tournament, so there still was one more tournament to go, but that's a it was a pretty important step on the on the road to get there. On the way uh on the bus on the way back, Lance was pretty happy, and I remember thinking to myself just how pleased I was for him, but I thought to myself, you know, he might struggle to qualify for the games, even though he just cleaned up the number one and number two Aussie, who were the the main threats. And I just knew that when they came up against him again in the Oceania Champs, which is actually the Olympic qualifying tournament, they wouldn't stand around and let Lance unload some of those big shots. And sure enough, you know, they they that adjusted by the time uh Lance got to meet them at the the pre-Olympic tournament at the Oceania Champs. So yeah, I I I lost I went to the Oceania Champs, lost in that and uh Yeah, and that was that was it. That was my last time to hang up the gloves. I was pretty fit. I'd done a half marathon. I think oh I think I finished tw I finished 20th in the Wellington round the bays. I did a an hour 26, 28, some something like that. You know, I was I was really, really fit. But yeah, it was a bit of a come down, you know. Obviously, the if you could think about chasing a goal, doing all the the years of work to get there, and you know, you get to a qualifying tournament and you're not able to to get the job done. So yeah, I was yeah, so that was it. Boxing. I never had uh another competitive boxing fight after that. Came home. My partner at the time had got a rollover in in the UK, so she went over to work there for three months. We'd just bought a house in Wellington. I stayed back to to pay the mortgage and while while she went over and had somewhat of an OE. But on the way back from her OE, she got a job at the at the Sydney Olympics. And I thought that could be me. So um, yeah, I um contacted a friend who was working over there, and he got me a job as an early start supervisor for the mountain biking event and the equestrian event, and so I went over it on a paid role as an early start supervisor for those two events, helping to set up. I did a range of talks to volunteers around you know the opportunity at the Olympics. They thought it was quite unique that, you know, being an Olympian myself, that here I was helping out at the games. And it was it just it gave me a a totally different perspective. And and my my partner at the time, Karen, she was working in the hospitality and she was checking accreditations for VIPs as they came into the uh into the VIP lounge, and she thought she had met uh Lionel Ritchie when it was actual actually Mike Tyson. So uh yeah, I've never really let her down on that one. Imagine that met Mike Tyson, but she thought it was Lionel Ritchie. Hmm. Interesting. Anyway, back to uh the wrapping up this episode. Yeah, that that's where my boxing came to an end. But I'd I'd still got to the Olympics, uh, you know, just you know, in the in a paid role as an early start supervisor, you know, for the Australian Olympic Committee. Uh it sort of took me into another space where I was still part of the Olympic movement. And yeah, it it actually ended up, I ended up also being involved with athlete at the athletes commission and starting to work with the Olympic committee around in we were early adopters in that process around how do we create the right conditions, the right environment for athletes to operate in a high performance environment. And that's really where building the cultural stuff really come to the fore in Athens 2004. So I'm going to talk more about that, which I'll link it back to the the latest Winter Olympics, and we'll talk a little bit about how I I was part of working with uh the late Amster Reedy, bringing in the cultural stuff into the games environment. And yeah, so I've got some really interesting views on that. I wrote my master's thesis on the influence of Maori culture on the Olympic and Commonwealth Games experience. And yeah, I I think it's had a huge impact. That said, it still doesn't mean that New Zealand boxing's on the right track. I note in the in the uh papers that they've made some changes with the president and the vice president. And really, guys, I just don't I can't see that changing the chairs around on the deck is going to make any difference. They've all been complicit as part of the existing culture, and I think the best thing they should do is give themselves an up uppercut, give themselves an uppercut, and no come no comebacks are required. Anyway, hope you hope you enjoy this podcast. Again, I'm not sure I'm getting any better at podcasting, but I am gonna spend some time finessing things to to to get a bit better and a bit more succinct and onto it. But um awesome. That's it from me in the ring with Trevor Shaler, Gelder.