2. OCTOBER 1 2015 Every week THE WORLD’S BEST FIGHT MAGAZINE
WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET
1909
£3.35VOL.71NO.40
Looking back on the Thrilla
in Manila, 40 years on
THEMOST
BRUTAL
FIGHT IN
HISTORY
‘SOMETHING
JUST
COMES
OVERME’
ONE
LAST
CHANCE
Ovill McKenzie
prepares to shock
the world
FURY!TYSONENRAGEDAS
KLITSCHKOWITHDRAWS
FROMHEAVYWEIGHT
SHOWDOWN
BALLSOFSTEEL
RINGSIDE REPORT
Brave Buglioni beaten but lasts the distance against Chudinov
We talk to the champion’s
camp for the latest on
the injury and new date
The animal
within Lee Selby
Roy Jones exclusively
reveals his exit plan
21st
CENTURY
CINDERELLA
MAN
BOXING NEWS
HEAVYWEIGHT SPECIAL
OCTOBER 20 2016 Every week THE WORLD’S BEST FIGHT MAGAZINE EST. 1909
WWW.BOXINGNEWSONLINE.NET
I T ’ S A L L G O IN G O F F !
JOSHUA
READY
AND
WAITING
Responds to critics &
his latest tormentor
Klitschko
Bellew
FURY
HAYE
Will he, won’t he?
Hughie speaks out
On why he wants
to join the chaos
£3.49 VOL. 72 NO. 42
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS AND INSIGHT FROM THE DIVISION THAT’S HOGGING THE LIMELIGHT
AJpreparedtotakeonthe
bestthedivisionhastooffer
12 l BOXING NEWS l OCTOBER 20, 2016 w w w . b o x i n g n e w s o n l i n e . n e t w w w . b o x i n g n e w s o n l i n e . n e t OCTOBER 20, 2016 l BOXING NEWS l 13
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
IT’S a trend of the social media age to harangue fighters,
yet even the harshest and loudest armchair bandits
would struggle to justify any criticism should this one
come off. Too often in big fights this year, one of the
combatants goes into the bout with ‘nothing to lose’, in
other words given no chance whatsoever – think Amir
Khan, Liam Smith and Kell Brook – but both Anthony
Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko would enter combat with
their reputations and careers in the balance. Perhaps
that’s the crux of why this showdown is struggling to
cross the line.
For Joshua, it’s a real chance it’s a step too far. Ten
months ago, following his rickety yet thrilling victory
over Dillian Whyte, stepping up to this level was ruled
out by his promoter Eddie Hearn. The faith in Boy
Wonder is clear, yet all the British superstar has done
since then is administer two one-sided drubbings to
opposition far below that of Klitschko’s standard.
Of course, Team Joshua’s desire is only part of the
reason why this bout is under discussion. Just before
Joshua defeated Whyte, the Ukrainian lost his world
titles to Tyson Fury in a huge upset, and has spent
much of the time since plotting his revenge. The IBF
quickly stripped Fury, who then endured a horrible
year, culminating in the relinquishment of his other
titles following much publicised battles with cocaine,
depression and VADA. Joshua has made the IBF belt his
own and, with Fury unable to carry out his promise of
a Klitschko rematch, reached out to the former king –
inactive for a year and 40 years old. There are easier
routes back for Wladimir, but he is fiercely dedicated,
determined to prove he is not finished yet, and victory
over Joshua would add a defining layer to his legend. At
the back of his mind, though, he will be acutely aware
that he might be about to lace up his gloves for
the final time – which could make him more
dangerous than ever. ➤
Matt Christie looks
closely at the best fight
to be made in the
heavyweight division
JOSHUA
KLITSCHKO
VS
CROSSROADS:
Joshua [facing page]
and Klitschko are at
the opposite ends of
their careers
Photos: ACTION IMAGES
Special
FEATURE

3. 34 l BOXING NEWS l OCTOBER 20, 2016 w w w . b o x i n g n e w s o n l i n e . n e t w w w . b o x i n g n e w s o n l i n e . n e t OCTOBER 20, 2016 l BOXING NEWS l 35
ONCENTRATION,
concentration…”
With four rounds to
go, the coach, Martin
Bowers, stands by the
corner and delivers
this instruction quietly,
thoughtfully. It’s not
an order barked, nor
is it a telling off. It’s more a reminder. A
gentle one. The boxer, light-middleweight
Ahmet Patterson, has heard the command
countless times before. He half expects it.
Concentration, a word said to him perhaps
more than any other, no longer needs to be
yelled.
The call for Patterson to concentrate
is today a call for him to control, not
necessarily stop, the quirks that have all
of a sudden emerged as a result of the fun
he’s having. OD’ing on self-belief, he chills
against the ropes, backside on the second
one, and invites a sparring partner to step
to him before wiggling his hips and shaking
his head and whooping and hollering like a
pro wrestler each and every time he then
makes him miss punches. There are pivots
and pirouettes and prods and pokes. He’s
shooting for Mayweather or Ward, but it’s
almost Chaplin-esque.
Whatever the style origin, the eyes of
Canning Town’s Peacock Gym are now fixed
on him; young men, their faces coated
in sweat, stop what they’re doing and
concentrate on the ring, for Ahmet Patterson
somehow makes the art they strive to
master, hit-and-not-get-hit, seem so simple
and enjoyable. In the danger zone, in the eye
of the storm, he remains utterly composed.
There’s a playful smile on his face. On his
black and white vest is the word Ballin’. And
he’s doing that, too. He’s playing a game. A
different one to the others.
“Ahmet looks good already but you can
make him look amazing,” says a gangly boxer
pulling up from his seat and snapping into
a fighting stance. From there he turns to
face his friend, a diminutive boxer with a
ponytail, and explains, in detail, what he’d
attempt to do in order to combat Patterson’s
style and solve the riddle. “If you just attack
him, you’re giving him the money to spend.”
“I saw him fight at Wembley against some
Georgian,” says the flyweight. “I swear the
Georgian took a dive. He didn’t want to be
there. I don’t blame him. Ahmet’s got a style
that breaks hearts.”
It’s a style that has won respect in a gym
chock-full of men and women practising
the same basic principles; jab, followed by a
straight back-hand, followed by a hook and
so on. Some punch heavy bags, others kick
them, but their ambition remains effectively
the same. They want to acquire a skill level
that allows them to enjoy themselves in the
heat of battle. Like Ahmet. And they want to
be relaxed enough to have to be reminded
to concentrate when in the heat of battle,
so low is their heart rate, so high is their
confidence, so polished are their moves, so
familiar are their surroundings. Like Ahmet.
“Concentration is key,” says Patterson,
undefeated in 17 professional fights.
“I know a lot of boxers struggle with nerves
but I’m not a lot of boxers. You just have to
concentrate for 36 minutes. If you switch off
for even one second, you can be in trouble.
I train myself to be switched on, start to
finish, and then have fun. If I’m landing at
will, I’ll try some things out. I know I can
land a clean jab on him, a pull-counter on
him, whatever. So let’s sit there, draw him
in, roll and come back with something. I
practise all the way to my last spar. People
probably think I’m nuts, and should just be
drilling things for the fight ahead, but I’m
not like that. I like to have fun. It’s all about
a feeling.”
One of two boys born to a Turkish-Cypriot
father and a Jamaican mother, Patterson was
raised in East Dulwich, London and describes
himself as an “energetic kid”, which is to
say he liked pursing activities he deemed
– you guessed it – fun. This meant football,
singing, street-dancing and then, at the age
of 14, boxing. “I found the Fitzroy Lodge gym
online, took myself there and liked the smell
of the place,” he recalls. “They told me to
come back the next day and I was throwing
natural left hooks in no time.”
Then he was asked to slip inside a
headguard, set foot inside a ring and prepare
himself for the very real possibility of getting
punched in the face. For a 14-year-old
looking for kicks, a good time, it seemed ➤
C
Elliot Worsell meets Ahmet Patterson,
a fighter with many irons in the fire
HOTTER THAN
★ AHMET ★
PATTERSON
BIG FEATURE
BRINGING THE HEAT:
Patterson [left]
swarms all over Aston
inside Bethnal Green’s
York Hall
Photo: ACTION IMAGES/
ANDREW COULDRIDGE
26 l BOXING NEWS l OCTOBER 20, 2016 w w w . b o x i n g n e w s o n l i n e . n e t w w w . b o x i n g n e w s o n l i n e . n e t OCTOBER 20, 2016 l BOXING NEWS l 27
OR a man who stands six feet six inches
and weighs just shy of 17 stone, Hughie
Fury has a remarkable knack of making
himself small and thus going unnoticed.
It’s just the way he likes it, apparently.
“Ring my dad if you need anything else,”
he says at the end of this particular
interview. “He’ll probably be able to explain
things better than me.”
It’s a line he has fed me countless times before, so comes as
no surprise, but still it serves as a reminder of his desire to be
largely invisible, a sign Hughie even now, at 22 years of age and
with 20 straight pro wins to his name, isn’t entirely comfortable
doing the talking. Leave that to the others, he’ll say. Dad. Uncle
John. Cousin Tyson. Leave it to those guys.
Yet that doesn’t mean I do as I’m told and contact Peter Fury,
his father and coach, or indeed rely on anyone else to fill in blanks
F
The guarded and shy
Hughie Fury is the opposite
of his famous cousin in many
ways, but with the division
suddenly wide open, the
young prospect is preparing
to make himself known,
writes Elliot Worsell
THE
QUIET
FURY Hughie convinces himself exist. Instead, I tell him that won’t be
necessary. Not this time. “Well, if you’re sure,” he says. “You know
me. I like to let my boxing do the talking.”
This is true. What’s also true is that Hughie Fury knows
now is the time to step up, both in terms of his career and in
terms of being a Fury. After all, the landscape’s changing. The
shadow has shifted. Tyson Fury, the man whose presence and
mouth has inadvertently protected Hughie from all who pry, is
currently unavailable. Hear that? Me neither. There is silence
at last, a silence that now leads to opportunity, not only for
the heavyweight contenders keen to adopt Tyson’s neglected
collection of belts, but also for Hughie, the Fury who, at times,
has been forgotten amid the furore.
“I do believe Tyson will come back and we will rule the
heavyweight division together,” he says. “I reckon I’m going to go
and do my thing, Tyson will have a bit of a break and then he’ll
come back and we’ll both be at the top. ➤
HUGHIE
★FURY★
BIG INTERVIEW
MY DAD EXPLAINS
THINGS BETTER THAN
ME. YOU KNOW ME.
I LIKE TO LET MY BOXING
DO THE TALKING
LETHARGIC:
Fury [left] beats Kassi
last time out in April,
but doesn’t feel great
FATHER AND
TRAINER:
Hughie [left]
is coached by
his dad, Peter
Photos: ACTION IMAGES/
PETER CZIBORRA
12 l Boxing news l may 26, 2016 w w w . b o x i n g n e w s o n l i n e . n e t w w w . b o x i n g n e w s o n l i n e . n e t may 26, 2016 l Boxing news l 13
AT Goodison Park, home of
his beloved Everton FC, Tony
Bellew will take his third strike
at world glory, against Ilunga
Makabu [inset], following two
unsuccessful attempts in the
past four-and-a-bit years. Back when your author was
a directionless 16-year-old, he could not envisage the
rise-fall-rise-fall career his then-schoolmate was about
to embark on; Bellew himself saw it from the moment
his gentlemanly father, Tony Snr, presented him to
popular Liverpool fight figure, Terry Quinn. Bellew has
lived it every day since and on May 29 encounters
what may be his final chance to realise everything he
once dreamed of.
“Bomber” – the now-famous moniker originally
bestowed by our football manager when we were
teenagers due to Tony’s crushing form on boxing’s
club-show circuit – has come a long way from the
20-year-old who I once toiled alongside in a rundown
factory near the Liverpool docks that, a generation
earlier, had forced the toughest of Merseyside folk to
either crack or galvanise themselves. We worked
exceedingly hard for the minimum wage that was
paid each Friday and would
typically be spent by the
Monday which all-too-quickly
followed. As I chose overtime
to ensure my pay packet
lasted that little bit longer,
Bellew instead made his way
to Rotunda ABC as the
Senior ABA (now Elite)
tournament loomed
ominously on the horizon. A
couple of Novice titles at
81kg had informed the
industry that Bellew could
punch.
“There was nothing worse
than getting up and doing
my run then having to work
then going to the gym,” Bellew reflects. “The job was
boring but there were some good people there with
big hearts and that made going in that tiny bit easier.
It was at Rotunda where the real hard work would
happen and I knew from the first moment I stepped
foot in there that it was a place that was going to
change my life. The late Jimmy Albertina showed me
nothing but love and encouragement from the start
and he made me believe in myself so much because
it was daunting walking into a gym that had the
Smith brothers and Joe Selkirk. When Jimmy died in
2003, I made a promise that I was going to win the
ABAs the following year and that’s what I did.
Everything I’ve done since, a lot of it is down to that
man and I wish I could thank him for everything.”
Amateur glory imbued Bellew with pride, but more
personal accomplishments inspired the hunger to go
beyond the initial ABA gong that some thought
would be his ceiling. His three beautiful boys and
their mother, long-term partner Rachel, became the
catalyst for a professional career that would take in
the sparsely attended small halls, congested arenas
and the blinding lights of Hollywood.
“Without any children, there was a good chance
that I could’ve stayed
amateur and saw the world
fighting for my country,”
Tony points out. “The
headaches in the pro game
were explained to me by
[popular 1980s Liverpool
heavyweight] Noel Quarless
when he used to take me on
the pads as a youngster and
it was a world that
frightened me to be honest.
The only way to make proper
money, the type of money I
wanted to set my family up
with, was to turn pro and to
knuckle down and hope for
the best. The power was ➤
A
★tony★
bellew
big feature
THIS IS MY MOMENT:
Bellew stands on the
pitch at his beloved
Goodison Park, ahead
of this weekend’s
crunch showdown
ONCEABOMBER,
ABOMBERALWAYS
As Tony Bellew closes in on the biggest
fight of his life, Chris Walker, his friend
since they were both 11 years old,
explains exactly what makes him tick