Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BILLY-JOE SAUNDELRESINvSMTEARTvIRNAMCUINRGR9AY2
SAM SEXTON will look into Hughie Fury’s eyes — not around the eyes, but into the eyes — then try and ‘put him under’.
British heavyweight champ Sexton is working with a hypnotherapist as he prepares to defend his title against Fury in Bolton on Saturday. And he is hoping his ‘boxnosis’ will again bear fruit, after helping him to win his last nine fights.
Sexton said: “When I was over in Wladimir Klitschko’s camp in Austria for sparring a few years ago, someone mentioned he did it, so I thought I’d give it a go.
“It’s not someone waving a watch in front of your eyes and making you do things.
“It’s about mental control... taking on the information that needs to be taken on, rather than all the junk from everyday life.
“People ask, ‘Does it work?’ And the answer is, ‘Yes, it does for me’.
“I’ve been through a lot of problems over the years, some issues, and when I was in the gym, my mind was elsewhere.
“Now I feel solid and when I’m in the gym I’m completely there – all the stuff that we cover when I do my sessions with [hypnotherapist] Matthew Robinson comes out.
“He conditions me to believe – and I mean completely believe – that I am stronger than anyone else.
“Mike Tyson has done it, Muhammad Ali did it, Steve Collins, Nigel Benn… they all did it.”
Sexton, 33, knows he will need all his mind on the job against Fury.
He added: “I could have had someone a bit easier, but what’s the point? I want to fight for that world title before I retire and he’s the man who will get me there.”
insists the
RIO FERDINAND’S coach
Control got it wrong in British Boxing Board of
to become a pro boxer. denying him a licence
39, (right), ex-WBC Speaking of Ferdinand,
Richie Woodhall super-middleweight champ
got it wrong. I’m not said: “The Board have
age and lack of surprised, due to Rio’s
had come to watch experience, but if someone
his licence. him spar, he’d have got
a enough standard to be “He’d reached a good
boxers come over professional. We see foreign
near as good as here, who are nowhere
and other
Rio. His sparring partners
not coaches said to me, ‘He’s
bad, Richie’.”