INSIDE THE GYM
Boxing is an unforgiving business, as Joshua Buatsi and Duane Sinclair find, whatever level you’re operating at. They speak to John Dennen
Friends and sparring partners Buatsi and Sinclair are taking different paths
ALKING past the wide window of the Croydon Boxing Academy in south London, if you peer inside you might see amateurs and keep-fitters slogging away at bags strung up along the walls. Your eye will be drawn to the ring framed by the window. Looking more closely you also might notice the man sparring is Joshua Buatsi. It’s a rare thing to stroll down a random street in Croydon and unearth a ringside view of one of the best prospects in Britain at work.
On this occasion Buatsi is working simply on his lead left, moving round the ring with Londoner John Harding and his long-time sparring partner Duane Sinclair.
His approach taps into the fundamentals. “Once the basics are right, then you can always move on from that,” he says. He is surrounded by the people he started with in boxing. Sinclair has trained with him since they were both amateurs at South Norwood & Victory. Mark Gillespie, the trainer from that club is in his corner, and Shane Sobers, the first person to introduce Buatsi to the sport, is the man who set up this particular gym.
“That is inspiration for all these guys in the gym now, who are amateurs or never even had a bout, they look over and they see Josh, Olympic medallist, he’s going to fight for his British title within 10 fights. He’s from round this area, so it’s inspirational,” Sinclair said. “And he’s still coming to his original gym.”
But fighters in the same gym can inhabit what feels like two different sports. Sinclair was at South Norwood & Victory when Buatsi first joined the club. Over the subsequent 10 years Sinclair has seen him excel, winning national titles, getting on to GB’S elite squad and ultimately become one of the stars to emerge from the latest Olympic Games. Sinclair has also been with his team as a professional with Buatsi boxing on high profile events from the O2 Arena to the Principality Stadium in Wales. All the while Sinclair, a 9-0 pro too, has been operating on the small hall circuit. Buatsi’s British title fight with Liam Conroy on March 23 will co-feature at the Copper Box on Sky Sports. Duane fights the week before when he takes on Jordan Joseph, a previous Buatsi victim, at York Hall on March 16.
“The contrast of the shows,” Sinclair says cheerfully, “It can be two different worlds.” The small halls can be a harsh environment to ply your trade. “I even fought at an event where we were in a tent outside,” Sinclair said. That was at a Hayemaker promotion at the Indigo night club. “There weren’t even any changing rooms, they had a tent outside and they had a blow heater in the tent and that was the changing room,” he continued. “I just think going through those things and having to be focused, I think it makes you stronger even though I might throw a little shade on it, it does make you stronger in a sense that you’ve got to stay focused. You’re uncomfortable. You’re focused on the event, focused on the fight. It does help with
PEOPLE WANT TO SEE KNOCKOUTS. PEOPLE WANT TO SEE SOMEONE HITTING THE FLOOR”
YOUR TEAMMATES MIGHT BE THERE BUT IN THAT RING IT’S ALWAYS YOU ON YOUR OWN”
the mindset but you’d prefer the O2 or the Prinicpality stadium. You get proper changing rooms and stuff like that. You would prefer it.”
In this session Sinclair and Buatsi are essentially doing the same training. “We’re in the same gym, we’re going through the same hard work, but the end result, the fight night’s completely different,” Duane noted. “It can be heartbreaking. It’s a sport you have to love. Enjoying it’s not enough. You have to love it or you’re done.”
“It’s literally the fact that I just love fighting, because that alone can put you off. I love the atmosphere in the gym, I love the progression, feel yourself getting better, watch people around you getting better. Just loving the sport,” he continued. “I’ve been saying for years, ‘This is my last year.’ But I absolutely love it.”
Boxing, wherever you stand within it, can always dangle a dream in front of you. Dillian Whyte came through the same small hall circuit, appearing at the tiny London venues like the Coronet Theatre, the Troxy and the Camden Centre in the early days of his career. Now Whyte is in a position where he can turn down an offer reputedly worth five or six million pounds to fight at Wembley Stadium. “You see what the hard work [and] dedication to your craft can bring you,” Sinclair says.
Buatsi of course works ferociously hard. His path through boxing has been earned. He doesn’t only train at the Croydon Boxing Academy, he visits some of the best gyms in the country for sparring. In his contests he has put in the performances to justify his status as such a highly touted prospect. He is good and has kept up his destructive form in the professional ranks. While he has declined to talk himself up too aggressively, Buatsi has boxed with concentrated power and speed for a light-heavy.
But with that exalted position comes a host of different problems. He has his golden opportunity and the ability to make the most of it. That, as he sees it, is an obligation. A devout Christian, he refers to a Bible parable, saying, “The master gave his servants X amount of talents and the one that buried his talent and didn’t use it is the one that he was upset with.”
“We’ve all got talents, whatever it is,” he continued. “Everyone’s got talents or gifts, whether mine’s fighting or not, as long as you’re using it [that’s what matters]. That’s what I believe. As long as you’re using it and not wasting it.”
There is scrutiny, public expectation and the pressure, not least from promoters and television companies, to accelerate too quickly in the effort to become that next big star. Ted Cheeseman for instance ended up headlining at the O2 against Sergio Garcia a few weeks before this interview. But it was a European title fight too soon and Cheeseman suffered a punishing defeat. Buatsi reflected, “As a whole boxing is an unforgiving sport. In the amateurs you can lose this weekend and box next weekend and you’re back on it. In pro boxing, you take the loss and they’re on to you. It’s an unforgiving sport. It’s brutal.”
There are other pressures. To act out of character. To give the fans what they want to see: hostility, bitterness, the whole carnival that goes along with pro boxing events. “People always want to see that confrontation, just awkwardness, do you know what I mean? But again, it’s not in my character,” the Londoner mused. “As of now, I haven’t encountered anything that’s made me step out of line. Maybe in the future, everyone’s human… To an extent I thought I’d get away with it because my fighting style doesn’t reflect that. If I was nice outside the ring and nice inside the ring, I would get slaughtered. But because I feel that my fighting style is a contrast to what I’m like outside the ring I can get away with it.”
“I feel people are waiting for me to step out of line in terms of a physical reaction towards an opponent or maybe a verbal one,” he added. “People will say, ‘This Buatsi is too polite, too much of a nice guy.’ But they don’t run on it because they think actually when he gets in the ring he’s as spiteful as anyone. But I feel outside, people they want to see a bit more action, a bit more rubbing shoulders, a bit more shoving, pulling people, stuff like that that’s what I feel that people want to see.”
He has indeed been ruthless in his fights. Last year he was taken the six-round distance once, winning five other bouts inside, typically with hefty knockouts. He finished 2018 savagely hammering Renold Quinlan. The stunned Australian stomached an early left hook poorly and swallowed another as the referee called break. “The left hook I threw was already gone before I heard break or stop again,” Buatsi explained. “I understand the rule ‘protect yourself at all times’ but you’ve got to play fair…” On resumption Buatsi swiftly moved in to finish the job. “We thought he was going to give me those rounds, it didn’t go the distance but am I complaining it didn’t go the distance? I’m not. People want to see knockouts. People want to see someone hitting the floor,” he said. “I guess if I if I wasn’t as spiteful or if I didn’t get to him, then he would have lasted and then the fight may have gone a different way but, I mean, I saw an opportunity and I took it.”
When the time comes, he is vicious. “Strictly business when we’re in there,” he explains. “Once we’re through those ropes I know it’s me or you… There’s no emotions in that ring.
“Eyes can be deceiving. Someone may look serious and they may not be. Someone may look vulnerable but they may be more serious.”
He always tells himself, “This is a man fighting for his dreams. So it’s for me to go in there and make sure I come out on top. “It’s nothing personal. It’s just an opponent.” He can feel sympathy for a beaten boxer once the fight is over, but not until then. Watching Craig Richards, a potential opponent down the line, take out Jake Ball was an example. “It was a fight where he was beaten fair and square but I felt sorry for him. [But] that’s the last thing on your mind, feeling sorry for someone. I win then I can switch back and I’ll be sympathetic or whatever. But within that moment in the ring no way. There’s no time for that,” he said. “You know when you get in that ring on that night it’s always you on your own. Your teammates might be there or whatever but it’s you on your own.”
A different mentality settles over him in a contest. He becomes inspired. “You look at the story of David and Goliath and you think this guy is my Goliath in modern days. Meanwhile I will be David and I will overcome,” he said. “I have a different mindset when I’m in that ring. I feel totally different… I’m of that mindset where my health, my whole being is at stake.”
The stakes in boxing, whether you’re warming up in a tiny York Hall changing room, or taking centre stage on Sky Sports are always high. Buatsi’s next step in this unforgiving business is his British title fight at the Copper Box on March 23.