How important is your '0'? Frankie Gavin, Matthew Hatton and more give their opinion
Once it’s gone it’s gone - an unbeaten record that is. It’s not like you can purchase one in your local Argos store! To an unbeaten boxer his '0' is like a precious jewel that money cannot buy. Let's try to discover if an undefeated record is really critical to a fighter’s campaign to the top of his trade or if it is simply overrated. Look at this varied bunch of fighters from around the UK to try and gauge just how important it is to stay unbeaten and to try and find out what impact a loss or several losses can have on a fighter's career.
Take Stephen Smith, an unbeaten prospect who had fought ten and won ten when he put it all on the line. His level of opponent over his first few fights is what you would expect and he had slowly started to take small steps up each fight. Then he was offered a fight with Scottish tough man John Simpson for the Commonwealth featherweight title. Taking that fight showed he has true confidence in his ability and was willing to risk his '0' for maximum reward. I asked Stephen just how important is it for him to remain unbeaten and his reasons why.
“I am willing to take high risk fights and I’m not the type of fighter who will try and earn a padded record, I want to fight and beat the best to keep learning and progressing.”
Fighting a few journeymen is fine, you have to learn your trade don’t you? Stephen thinks fighting too many could actually harm your career. “ I do believe you need to learn the game and so fight a few journeymen, but few being the key word. I don’t believe in fighters who have 15 - 20 fights and still wont move on from journeymen. I believe it can make you pick up bad habits and so hinders your progression.”
Obviously nobody likes to lose but surely it must be in the back of a fighter’s mind going into every contest. In any walk of life the fear of failure can spur you onto bigger and better things and Stephen has a similar mindset in his boxing career.
“I am scared of losing so to speak, I never want to lose but I do everything I can to stop that happening. I feel like if I wasn’t ‘scared’ of losing then I wouldn’t try as hard to win. I really think that if you don’t mind losing then you will not dig in when the going gets tough in a fight.”
Tony “Bomber” Bellew started his pro career under the spotlight and is followed closely by many boxing fans because of his all action hard hitting style. The light-heavyweight star has now progressed to 15-0. He is exactly the sort of fighter who the punters don’t mind parting with their hard earned cash to watch. Tony has been pushed very hard in his last two fights but still came away with victories. He is now being matched in a way that will push him on to become the champion his fans expect him to be. Tony sees taking a on a few learning fights early as a must.
“I boxed various styles and not all journeymen come to lose. The likes of (Hastings) Rasani and (Ayittey) Powers can punch a bit and come to fight so I would call the early part of my career a great learning experience and very good matchmaking.”
On the subject of matchmaking, aside from the fighting it must be one of the most demanding jobs in the sport. It's vital a fighter has trust in his team who set up the fights for them. I asked Tony if he felt he has ever been offered any unsuitable fights?
“I got offered Velecky and he had 16 wins with 15 coming by way of KO so that was a risky one but in all honesty I will fight anyone who is put in front of me.”
Former amateur world champion and hot prospect Frankie Gavin turned pro in February 2009 along side James DeGale and Billy Joe Saunders which must lump a certain degree of expectation on to his young shoulders. Gavin is currently 8-0 with seven inside the distance. Frankie wants to be the best so wants to test himself against the best on his climb up the rankings.
“In my seventh fight I faced Gavin Tait and I didn’t really want to fight him as I knew I was going to win. I still trained hard but still found it hard to take it that seriously, the reason I accepted the fight was because he had never been stopped before.”
Frankie feels losing a fight would be very damaging at this early stage of his career.
“I never worry about losing a fight, I would be more embarrassed about a loss because at this stage of my career I should be beating the opponents that I get in with.”
Would a loss really be that bad ? “Yeah I think it would, I would be back to the drawing board. If you lose early in your career you need to have a good think about what your doing in this game. Same goes for a draw as well really. A loss at this stage would really knock my confidence as I want to go on and be a world champion.”
Undefeated light-middleweight Michael Norgrove dipped his toes into the world of professional boxing in April 2010 and Is enjoying every minute of it. Michael is fighting again in March and he is currently 4-0. He turned pro quite late in comparison to a lot of boxers and feels keeping his record intact is important.
“At this stage for me personally it is quite important. I’m no spring chicken anymore and I got into the sport late (Michael is 29 now) so I have ambitions to win as much as I can is as little time as possible."
Saying that he also states that a loss against a respectable opponent is not the end of the world. “For example if I was 20-3 with a few loses to tough opponents it wouldn’t matter too much. As long as the loses were against credible fighters then that’s boxing.”
Michael wants to move quickly and remain active so he can get what he wants out of his boxing career. He is willing to take on anyone who his team put in front of him. “It doesn’t matter who is standing in front of me as long as I've done my work. I want tough fights because it make me fight better and brings out the best in me. I want to face people who are going to test me , I don’t kill myself in training to take walks in the park.”
Cheshunt welterweight Phil Gill AKA “The Phil Gill Experience” has not tasted defeat in his career to date and has comfortably out boxed everyone he has faced. Phil thinks being an unbeaten fighter he brings more to the table and has more to offer boxing promoters.
“To me it is very important to remain unbeaten, its about my marketability. While I am unbeaten I feel I am a better prospect to sell. If I had lost a fight there might not be as much interest. While I am putting in good entertaining wins then I am easy to market. Promoters that are putting on TV title fights prefer people with unbeaten records. They want the fight to sell and unblemished records help this.”
Phil makes a very good point regarding the impact one loss could potentially have on his career. “I feel at the weight I fight at due to the amount of fighters in the division one loss and your getting overtaken in the domestic rankings by any number of other boxers. Then it takes time to build yourself back up. Compared to the domestic heavyweight division where there are not so many fighters to compete against.”
If we stay on the topic of unbeaten fighters our readers will believe the hype and wont want to listen to the next group of fighters who have all been unfortunate enough to taste defeat; but has it had a disastrous effect on their careers? Larry Olubamiwo was 4-0 when he stepped into the ring for what should have been a comfortable six rounder against the well travelled Daniel Peret. Larry couldn’t get going that night and found himself on the wrong side of a 57-59 scorecard. This is Larry’s take on the defeat.
“I felt sick to be honest. Obviously nobody wants to lose a fight and it was worse losing to a guy that I know I should be beating and I know is not as good as me."
This was by no means the end for Larry, in fact the loss made him determined to come back stronger.
“Oh yes, it definitely made me want to come back better, I've been through some hard fights before, not just in boxing - in life, so losing a boxing contest didn’t feel like the end of the world. It was always obvious to me that I was going to come back.”
Does one loss mean you have to start from the beginning and work your way up again? Just how much of a negative impact did that loss have on Larry’s career?
"I would say it’s ended up having a positive effect more than anything. You always get the naysayers who talk about my loss to Peret and some people though on that basis that I cant be any good. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Now I have come back and turned it around especially with my last three opponents. I have shown people not only can I comeback but I am even stronger than before by beating Dave Ferguson in an English title eliminator, that fight meant a lot to me.”
Larry’s friendly nature and willingness to make himself available to boxing fans has gained him a decent following. Is it possible the fans that had followed Larry during his first few fights may have been put off by his loss?
“I think at the time it did but since then the wins I have had turned a lot of people around to me. I have now showed I'm a lot better than what people thought after my loss and with my last three wins. So yes, I feel at the time it did turn some fans away but now I have redeemed myself in the fans eyes they are flocking in there droves to be fans of mine, which is great, you know.”
Say you have lost a handful of fights over your career, would that be the end? Is there any chance that your mobile will keep ringing with big fight offers? Matthew Hatton thinks it’s all about your last performance, not your overall record.
“I don’t think after a few loses the big fights dried up for me. I have been quite fortunate to have been in some quite big fights and have been offered really big fights in the past that have frustratingly not come off. Some people see an unbeaten record and it really impresses them but you have to look closely at the opposition that the fighter has been mixing with. So if you have lost to a couple of decent fighters it will stand you in good stead further down the line.”
Matt also feels his following has not been affected by a few losses. “It all depends on how you perform and the opponents you bring in. Boxing fans are not stupid and if they see you fighting turkeys the fans will get fed up that and the numbers in the crowds will start to drop."
International Masters lightweight title holder Ryan Barrett has lost eight times but he is still in the domestic mix for titles. In 2006 Ryan was drafted in to fight Amir Khan at short notice. At the time Ryan had only lost two fights and felt the potential reward was well worth the risk.
“I took the Khan fight at late notice, one week in fact. I just felt like if you don’t give it a go then you will never know. If you do get a result you find yourself in a very exciting position.”
Ryan is still active and it wasn’t too long ago he was fighting Willie Limond. Ryan does think that it has been harder to get some big fights with his losses. “Yeah I've struggled a bit on that side. The bigger promoters don’t want to use you if you have got a few losses on your records. They don’t want to put you in a championship fight and you find yourself fighting down on the undercard. I do feel I have got less opportunities and another thing is you find yourself keep getting called in at late notice.”
Promoter Steve Goodwin has been in the Boxing business for just over one year now and feels that he can market fighters who have lost a few bouts as long as they are in competitive match ups.
“Yassine El-Maachi has been beaten four times yet I have still marketed him well. I have only been in boxing a short time and this ‘0’ is a nightmare for the sport.
“As a promoter you cannot chose someone's opponent without the manager accepting that opponent and many managers are paranoid about their fighters '0'. What they want to do is build their fighter up for a big money fight. Then often you find the unbeaten fighter is over matched because they have not experienced enough tough fights. As a promoter I feel it is easy to market competitive fights whether or not the boxers are unbeaten.”
Surely this subject will continue to be debated by boxing fans for years to come and I don’t think you would ever get people to agree on their reasons why an unbeaten record should be protected or at what point in their career a fighter should take the step up into a real challenge.
All in all I now believe that an unbeaten record is great while you have it. But when its gone, it doesn’t have to be the end of the world and great success and memorable careers are still very much achievable.
Have you made your mind up yet?
