Baby giraffe to behemoth
Being given a nickname was a humbling experience, now it’s time to live up to it
“BEHOLD now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron,” Job 40:15-18.
WHY am I quoting a Bible verse at the start of a column about boxing, you ask?
Well, this week I was given my boxing nickname by the trainers who have been leading us through the Fight Like A Pro journey. Chris “The Behemoth’’ McMahon.
The name drop was a great experience, pulled up in front of the other Fight Like A Pro participants and to have one of the trainers explain how they came up with the name was an honour. To have someone talk about your positive attributes and how they have seen you develop not only in boxing skills, but as a bloke – very humbling.
We are less than two weeks out from fight night and this week has been about sparring and tweaking technique to make sure we are a finely tuned fighting machines come March 12.
The level we have all stepped up is quite the sight to see. From – and speaking personally – looking like baby giraffes learning to walk to where we are now has been a great transformation.
The support from the rest of the lads and the group has let us all drop our guard and learn from the ground up, building a solid foundation.
Although sparring four to five rounds twice a week is truly draining, it is going to be an even bigger experience going hell for leather in the ring over a two-minute round.
Now, while two minutes might seem like an insignificant amount of time, it is an eternity while you’re throwing punches and being punched.
Sparring is a great exercise about trial and error, but it was not until one of the seasoned trainers said to me “throw your hardest and best at me’’ that I realised the daunting task ahead. What had seemed like a really long time was realistically a minute, maybe slightly longer, and by the end I was struggling more than I had in years or probably decades.
I think adrenaline on the night will take us all a long way, but the work put in previously and in the past two weeks will take us further.
If you’re keen to come and watch us go around, you can grab some tickets and support a great organisation by contacting 0414 356404.