Leapai lost his way – but not his desire
FOR Logan “Lionheart” Alex Leapai, there was one specific moment that sent him back on the hunt for boxing glory.
“When you can’t tie your shoelaces you kind of realise, hang on, I have got to change,” he said.
The father-of-six let himself go after retiring early last year. The Samoan-born Aussie who fought Ukrainian legend Wladimir Klitschko in 2014 for the world heavyweight title was all of a sudden tipping the scales at 153kg.
Enough was enough. A turnaround in diet and training saw him shed 40kg in little more than six months.
Leapai’s retirement had followed his father Faataui Elisaia Leapai’s request.
“My father told me on Thursday to hang up the gloves and he passed on Friday morning, the next day,” he recalled, speaking on the Gold Coast yesterday.
Leapai had been battling serious vision problems caused by cataracts but he said his father’s words had come out of the blue.
Following surgeries on both eyes and a realisation of his increasing size, Leapai decided 12 months into his retirement to have another shot at earning world champion status.
Leapai was actually due to compete in his comeback fight today against Alapati A’asa in his homeland’s capital city Apia but the event fell through.
He will instead return to the ring on October 14 in Brisbane against New Zealand’s Thomas Peato – as part of the undercard for the main showdown between Queenslander Dennis Hogan and Japan’s Yuki Nonaka.
It will be his first bout in more than two years but there is zero doubt about where his intentions lie: To be ruled best in the world.
“There’s only one Klitschko,” Leapai said. “All the heavyweights that are coming through now, they haven’t been tested.
“Before there was only one world champ, Klitschko, but now there are four world champions. I can pick and choose which.”
Also on the Hogan v Nonaka undercard is Gold Coast boxer Rohan Murdock, who will fight for the first time in a year after a horror run of injuries.