This is a game of snakes and ladders but I’m on the climb now
Brophy looking up after crushing defeat and eye op nightmares
DAVID BROPHY has regained his title tunnel vision after a year out struggling to see a future in the fight game.
The Caldercruix ace is set for his comeback a week tonight at the MTK Scotland show at the Emirates in Glasgow following a horror last 12 months when his career was in the balance.
He went from the high of claiming the Commonwealth super-middleweight crown against Zac Dunn to the blow of British title defeat to Rocky Fielding then the low of an eye problem that could have ended his hopes of a return.
Brophy, 28, said: “Boxing is a game of snakes and ladders. One minute you are heading to the top then next you are right back at rock bottom.”
But he is ready to climb. Again. It’s not the first time the Lanarkshire fighter has tumbled down the snake and had to battle up every rung.
A promising footballer, his double leg break put paid to his time at Dundee United BY MICHAEL GANNON before a freak accident at home when a shattered glass mirror ripped in to his calf resulted in doctors warning they might have to amputate.
Brophy defied the odds and hauled himself up the boxing rankings but a long-standing eye issue came to a head after going down to Fielding last September.
He said: “The defeat was a disaster and when you suffer that kind of loss you just want to get back out to put it right.
“I couldn’t do that though with the eye problem. I’m not using it as an excuse for the Fielding defeat. It was bothering me before I went to Australia so I can’t say it was the reason I lost in Liverpool when I won with it before.
“There’s no doubt it was an issue. It was affecting me every day. I was getting double and triple vision, I couldn’t train properly or even road run. I couldn’t even watch the television.
“The specs are not a good look when you have ears like mine! It was a pretty worrying time and I was pretty down.
“It wasn’t like depression or anything but it’s hard going when you have doctors telling you there’s every chance you won’t be able to fight again.
“The only thing was I’d heard all that before though when I broke my leg. I know doctors are always making sure they cover themselves when it comes to expectations.
“You don’t get a straight answer but there still was a lot of concern. I had to think about what I was going to do. I was weighing up other careers because boxing was my life.
“It was a major shock to the system to be thinking about all that just a few months after going to Australia and winning the Commonwealth title.”
The op was a success and Brophy is ready to get his foot on the rung again. He’s signed up with promoters MTK Scotland and is busting a gut with trainer Billy Nelson in his Airdrie gym.
Brophy – whose only other defeat in 22 bouts came against world champ George Groves – is grateful for the support and he’s determined to make the most of his second chance.
He said: “It does make you even more determined to make the most of your career. I’m not daft and saying ‘I’m the best’ or whatever but I’ve never turned down a challenge.
“I’ve taken fights that I was probably not ready for, like the George Groves fight. I went to the other side of the world to take on a top-five ranking guy and won.
“Before the Fielding fight was I was rated in the top 10 in the world. I know I have it in me to fight for titles.”