THE HARROWING YEAR
Gary Lockett – the former trainer of Nick Blackwell – has emerged from the toughest period of his life and, as he tells Declan Warrington, is looking ahead to the future
For the first time, Gary Lockett opens up about the plight of Nick Blackwell
ATRAUMATIC period for Gary Lockett began with the life-threatening injuries Nick Blackwell suffered in his fight with Chris Eubank Jnr in March 2016. Blackwell’s recovery was followed by Enzo Maccarinelli’s stoppage loss to Dmytro Kucher, Mike Towell’s death after the defeat by his then-charge Dale Evans, and Blackwell’s return to hospital – where he remains – after further head injuries sustained attempting to spar. One year on from the Blackwell-eubank fight, as Lockett’s super-welter Liam Williams prepares to face Liam Smith, he talks about the toll it has taken on him, and how it has changed him forever.
After reviving the careers of Enzo Maccarinelli and Gavin Rees, your work with Nick Blackwell was cut short. Is it with Liam Williams you can conclusively be judged as a trainer?
I work with the tools I’ve got. Liam’s always had that natural ability: you’ll see that on Saturday. You’ve seen snippets: footwork, speed, combinations, so he was always very good. He makes my job easy ‘cause he’s dedicated. You get the feeling, if he’s getting outboxed he’ll out-fight you, if he’s getting out-fought he’ll outbox you. You really couldn’t judge me, because he’s a natural talent.
Regardless of if he fights again, how proud are you of your achievements with Maccarinelli?
We worked tirelessly. I thought there was something left and I was right. Our time started with lacklustre performances against Carl Wild and Ovill Mckenzie, when he shouldn’t have been stopped, but things started to click with that victory against Mckenzie [in August 2013]. He was a big underdog, took some big shots, showed a lot of bottle and came through it. That was one of my best nights. I’m really, really proud; we had some really good times. In Russia [when Maccarinelli KO’D Roy Jones Jnr in December 2015]: I had Alex Hughes and Zack Davies boxing out there, they both won. Some of the antics, laughs; it was brilliant. Scary, scary times as well. Imagine [Vladimir] Putin’s Hells Angels paying all that money to get Roy Jones, and then he gets knocked out in front of 12,000 people? I know we didn’t have a prime Roy Jones but I’ve been coaching since 2009; that was the most someone had listened.
Against Juergen Braehmer, he had the smack in the eye, but I believe he’d have chinned Braehmer [without the swelling].
Was it a mistake for him to return to cruiserweight when it was going well at light-heavyweight?
No. I don’t think Enzo was ever a light-heavyweight. He was drastically depleting himself. Look at him the second time around at cruiserweight: he was bigger, fitter. The first time his face used to look fat; people didn’t realise until he moved down. In October 2015 he fought Jiri Svacina, at cruiserweight, and nearly broke him in half with a bodyshot; he’d been taking something out of himself.
How have those defeats as a trainer compared with those as a fighter?
You feel it in different ways, especially when you’re close to a fighter. It hits me hard for a good week or so, but as boxing men, we’re very strong, in ways we never thought. [The Maccarinelli defeat against Kucher] was terrible; really bad. Everything, as long as I’m a trainer, is worse because of what happened with Nick Blackwell. That’ll never leave my mind. There’s not an hour, every day, that goes past where I don’t think about Nick, ‘Could it have been avoided? Could we have known?’ I’ll never watch that fight back. That was the toughest time of my life.
How do you reflect on it?
What’s happened is absolutely tragic, but Nick had the shepherd’s warning and he didn’t take note. It’s just so, so sad. Enzo, Liam, Gavin Rees, I’m very, very close to these guys; Nick exactly the same. Social media makes everything 1,000 times worse; I absolutely hate it. It gives complete idiots platforms for their opinions. It’s disgusting. Anyone that mindlessly criticises should be taken off it.
It was a double-whammy with Nick; he was in hospital and I was getting criticised, and I do care about what people
think. My reputation is worth everything to me; to think that it was damaged hurt me.
Look at him against John Ryder [when he won the British title], he looked lost for five rounds and then all of a sudden clicked in and stopped him in the next couple.
Nick takes three or four shots to land one. It’s almost like a challenge to Nick: he likes to test their power, which is something I’ve never advised.
The less you get hit, the better, but that’s Nick. He tended to do that, then all of a sudden – it could be the eighth round – he starts fighting, throwing bombs. He did it against Ryder, Damon Jones. That was part of the plan: tuck up and come on strong late, but it just wasn’t his night. If it was any other fighter performing like that I’d have pulled him, but you have to understand Nick.
The whole thing was really bad; it’s never, ever going to leave me. In certain people’s minds, every time I come up it’s, ‘I remember Lockett in that fight with Blackwell and Eubank’.
You also said you received lots of support?
Yeah, too much to mention. Off the top of my head, Tony Borg, Joe Gallagher, Billy Nelson, Graham Everett... I didn’t hear many boxing people criticise – there were a couple – they understand what it’s like.
Mick [Hennessy, Blackwell’s then-promoter] was good; David Haye I need to give a special mention to, absolutely fantastic. Nick said he was really warm; they went for dinner, and a week after, he was back up there seeing him again. They met up four or five times, and David tried to get him doing punditry.
Just after Nick came out of hospital I went for Sunday lunch with his family, which is testament to the way I’ve always got on with them. There was never any doubt I had their support as well.
How difficult was your first fight back, when in June, Williams defeated Gustavo Alberto Sanchez?
That was tough. I had really negative thoughts [including about Williams getting injured]. I can’t really go into what goes through this daft head of mine. I can’t keep going over things, but it was tough getting back in the ring. Once I was back it was okay, but I don’t think it’ll ever be the same, I’ll always have those thoughts.
Not long after that was the Dale Evansmike Towell fight...
Yeah, a different situation again. It’s different when it’s your fighter, to when it’s the other fighter. I didn’t know Mike Towell. And what a terrible, terrible thing to happen to a young man with a family.
There were rumours about him going to hospital and tellling them about headaches [before the fight took place]; apparently he was on the floor screaming. But he still went through with the fight. I don’t know the details; that’s what his wife said.
He got stretchered out of the ring. We just thought it was dehydration or something; never in a million years did I think lightning could strike twice. It’s absolutely devastating.
A terrible thing, but spare a thought for Dale who hasn’t fought since. Not everyone appreciates how hard it is for the boxer in the opposite corner. It was the same referee, Victor Loughlin, and the same corner team: myself, Liam, and Bob Plant. Twice in six months.
Did you ever consider walking away from the sport?
Yes. It was after Blackwell-eubank. How on earth is someone allowed to have an opinion on me, speak about me as if I’m the devil himself, when they don’t know me, see me with my family and boxers? To see a guy nearly beat to death with your own eyes [pauses]: that’s hard to take in. I saw it once with Nick, and then I actually saw a guy beaten to death, with Dale. We saw a man beaten to death that night. You start to question boxing.
It still hurts. With something like that, I’m the worst person: I’ll never stop thinking about it. [Blackwell’s sparring injuries were] completely avoidable; it was the hardest year of my life. I wanted to get 2016 out of the way. It wasn’t just Nick, it was Enzo getting chinned as well, and things happening outside of that.
My wife [Nia] saw what I was going through: it obviously hurt her. It couldn’t have been easy for my mum and dad either.
Think of poor Vic Loughlin: he had more criticism than me.
How did you feel when you learnt Blackwell was injured again, having attempted to spar?
I still can’t get over it. The only thing I can tell you is with brain injuries, they don’t really know what happens: people have injuries and then speak foreign languages. I think Nick’s ability to judge situations was altered when he had the first injury. We were having some good food, wine, a really good time, and he said, ‘If I get my licence again, will you train me?’ I said, ‘Shut up.’ He said, ‘No, I’m serious.’ ‘You’re joking, yeah?’ ‘No, I just miss it so much.’ I’m starting to speak up now and there’s people starting to look. ‘Nick, you’ve had a brain injury. I don’t want to hear this again.’ He said, ‘If you’re not going to train me I don’t want anyone else to, so I better forget it.’ I said, ‘Too right you better forget it; if I find out you’re sparring that’s me and you over.’ I didn’t think nothing more of it. You look back and think, ‘I should have seen it’. I can see it now, the things he was doing and saying. He was coming to our gym, doing a circuit, and then on to sparring on the queit with God knows who. When I had the phone call [to say he was back in hospital], it was his brother, Dan [Blackwell]. I thought they were winding me up. He burst into tears, so I realised then; it just unrolled again. My attention immediately went to Liam [inset, on right], Alex, and Jay Harris who were fighting that weekend, and trying to keep it away from them, which we were successful with by the skin of our teeth. An absolutely terrible time, but it wasn’t as hard: I’d been conditioned to it, which is a horrible thing to say. ‘Why?’ The first time was unavoidable; he had that injury going into the fight, that’s what he thinks. He looked back and said: ‘There were things I kept away from you. My legs, I don’t know why, weren’t firing as normal.’ Whether that was what he was feeling... Nick was very good at keeping things away from you; most boxers
‘THE WHOLE THING WAS REALLY BAD; IT’S NEVER, EVER GOING TO LEAVE ME’
‘THERE’S NOT AN HOUR THAT GOES PAST WHEN I DON’T THINK OF HOW IT COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED’
are. A boxer will look at you in the face and lie: I know because I was one.
It makes me really angry, because there were people helping him do it. Anybody surely knows someone with a brain injury shouldn’t be getting struck in the head. I might have been in that ring [in a sparring session against a fighter who’d had a head injury], but I guarantee you, when that first bell rung, I don’t think I could have thrown a punch.
We only know two involved [trainer Liam Wilkins and lightheavyweight Hasan Karkardi] and the reason we know is because they had professional licences; there were amateur guys as well, but the Board can’t do anything to them.
There’s not an hour that goes past when I don’t think of how it could have been avoided. I miss him like crazy. We all do. He’s a big loss in the gym – his personality [smiles], he lights up a room. He’d recently got his trainer’s licence.
Nick’s a natural-born fighter who lives on the edge and does really dangerous things. I’m still baffled, but we don’t know how injuries affect people, otherwise why would someone do that?
There were people who could have told me. You tell the Board; they send a letter that says, ‘If you have Nick Blackwell sparring we’ll ban you.’ I’d have said: ‘If you’re sparring don’t come back to this gym again. Think of your mum, your dad.’ I would have done everything I could to protect him, but I wasn’t given the option. It’s just so disappointing.
How is he today?
It’s been four months. They’ve said he’s progressing slowly, but it’s super slowly; not your everyday ‘slowly’. After 12 months, the end of November, they think they’ll know whereabouts he’ll be with the recovery [he’s capable of]. We’re praying and hoping it’s going to be somewhere near a full recovery.
That might be a little naive, but hopefully not: the man’s made of something else.
At 40, you’re a young trainer, and you’ve a promising stable, so what does the future hold?
I’m really looking forward to Williams-smith. Great fight, for the Interim WBO title, which adds more prestige. Liam’s over the moon, and supremely confident in himself.
The Williams-smith promotion looks top-drawer. That can only be good for the boxers. Alex, Zack, Chris Jenkins, and Jay: I just want to see them progressing. We need to get our win on April 8, and then the world will be rosy.