Michael on a mission
ONE of Australia’s best teenage boxers is learning first-hand from Rohan Murdock on the challenges of fighting internationally as he plots a shot at the 2020 Olympics.
Gold Coaster Michael Johnston has travelled to the US with Murdock, who fights in Texas tomorrow.
The 16-year-old boxer has been making people stand up and take notice for a few years now.
First he was crowned schoolboys champion; then he was best of the nation’s under-17 age group in consecutive years.
Indeed, hopes were growing for the young whiz.
When he returns from the US, high on the teenager’s agenda will be extending his status as an Australian champion – this time as an under-19 – for a fourth-straight year.
Johnston hopes success at the state titles on March 3 and then nationals three weeks later can springboard him to a world championships opportunity.
And then it’s the Tokyo Olympics that will become his chief target.
Trained by Chris Carden out of Platinum Boxing Club in Nerang, Johnston leapt at the chance to join the touring party for Murdock’s super middleweight fight against Frankie Filippone in Corpus Christi as part of the Gilberto Ramirez-Habib Ahmed title card.
He saw it as the ideal insight into boxing away from home, as well as valuable training time alongside a pugilist he looks up to in leading clubmate Murdock.
“I have been training with him for about six years. He is a good role model at the gym,” Johnston said.
The Pacific Pines State High School student himself is building a more than a solid reputation.
“He would be the hardest worker at the gym,” Carden said. “People say he is talented but he has worked so hard to get where he is. He is a great kid.”
Johnston said the work ethics of the boxers around him had opened his eyes.
“It has kind of been put into me since I was 10 – if you want to achieve something you have got to work hard for it,” he said.
Johnston was not yet sure whether he would make the switch from amateur to professional down the track, though Olympic success could make such a transition simpler.
PEOPLE SAY HE IS TALENTED BUT HE HAS WORKED SO HARD TO GET WHERE HE IS. HE IS A GREAT KID
CHRIS CARDEN ON JOHNSTON