Pugilists square off for Townsville bouts
IT TOOK a push from his mother to first get him in the ring. It took a period of selfreflection down the track to draw him back.
But now for Cody Hine there is only looking forward, and he has the Queensland belt in his sights.
The Townsville pugilist will contest his first state titles, beginning tonight, already sporting an impressive black eye from a recent sparring session.
Not that it fazes Hine. Twice now he has had to overcome adversity just to get himself to pull the gloves back on, twice he has needed to change his routine in the hopes of attaining the lofty levels he has aspired for.
While he was still in high school, a Hine who lacked self-esteem was taken to a
gym session by his mum in a bid to rediscover his confidence.
For a while it worked, until his full-time work pursuits sent him backwards, as classic habits of bad eating and exercise neglect began.
It was all very normal for Hine – who could say they have never allowed work commitments to wreak havoc on their active lifestyle?
But he said he never wanted normal. He never wanted a typical life. He wanted a “kick up the backside” to remind him of why he woke up every morning.
“I had about two years off and found I really missed the training. You have to be really dedicated and disciplined, and I just missed having that in my life,” Hine said.
“I was just finishing high school and it was typical: I’d go out, do my apprenticeship,
work big hours and I got caught in that rut. You start not eating the best so I put a bit of weight on, and that was just the norm for a while.
“But I didn’t want normal, I wanted to push myself. I wanted a challenge, I wanted something to push me and get me out of bed.”
Hine may not admit to getting nervous once he steps into the ring, but the week leading up is a completely different story. He will be at work each day shadow boxing in the corner, fretting about whether the training he has done will be enough.
Even right before his bout, Hine said the doubts start circulating in his head.
“Have I worked enough?” he thinks. “Am I about to blow it all?”
However, Hine said that was arguably his favourite part of boxing. It had taught
him to back himself, trust his instincts, and by doing so “you find out a lot about yourself”.
It is a contrasting case to that of fellow North Queensland fighter Matthew Carroll.
At just 16, the Mareeba product will take on rivals who come to Townsville in his quest to defend his state title. A tirade of bullying at school enticed the teenage prospect to the sport when he was 11, admitting he used to get “bashed up quite a bit” and needed to defend himself.
Carroll has never looked back, and is eyeing off a professional career once he turns 18.
The featherweight said he already had caught the eye of several promoters, and the self-confessed entertainer within him could be a drawcard as tempting as his talent.
But he said regardless of
where he ended up in the sport, he had no regrets.
To go from a scared kid one day to a full-time worker with the world at his feet, boxing had already saved him.
“It disciplines you, it makes you a different person and it’s crazy what it does. I’ve matured a lot, I reckon if I wasn’t doing boxing I wouldn’t be this mature,” Carroll said.
“I know how much I’ve put in, I’ve trained ridiculously hard it’s not even funny. I’m not nervous, I don’t care who’s in front of me.
“I love building attention … I wear the robe, no one really wears a robe, and you walk up to their corner, swing on the ropes in their corner and surprisingly it throws some of them off. I reckon I have a lot of growth potential in me, so I’m really excited to see what the future holds.”