ARM WRESTLE MANIA
O’Dwyer’s change of direction could lead him back to Games
OSCAR DE LA HOYA is the latest to call out an old and retired fighter to fight a rising star.
This week he said 24-year-old Ryan Garcia should face Manny Pacquiao.
That’s the 44-year-old ring legend, who has spent more time on the political campaign trail than in the ring since a 2021 defeat by Yordenis Ugas, against someone he would have peppered in his pomp.
De La Hoya (above) isn’t the only one at it.
Fellow promoter Eddie Hearn was relishing the suspended Conor Benn, 26, pushing
Kell Brook at ringside recently in the hope it would spark interest in a future fight worth mega money.
Finale
Brook, at 37, had the perfect swan song by beating Amir Khan when they fought 16 months ago.
But some in boxing don’t want that to be the finale to the Sheffield hero’s fine career.
They’d rather risk his health by getting him back in the ring.
A boxer failing a drug test is never a good thing but at least Khan can’t be tempted out of his slippers.
This is all about people using the reputation of the old fighters to boost the reputation of their younger boxers.
In the case of De La Hoya, it’s to get Garcia back on everyone’s lips after a loss to Gervonta Davis.
Boxing needs to stop using former heroes to create new ones because eventually it will end horribly.
HERE’S a message from Adrian O’Dwyer.
Next summer, 20 years on from Athens 2004, he’ll likely be in demand for ‘where are they now?’ pieces.
“The high jumper with the piercings and weird contact lenses? Track him down.” O’Dwyer has no interest.
He won’t be getting into the nostalgia business — because, remarkably, he has another Olympic dream to chase.
A podium spot at the European Championships always seemed part of O’Dwyer’s destiny. Indeed, plenty felt he could go a lot further, that the high jumper from Kilkenny might well be Ireland’s greatest field athlete since double Olympic champion Dr Pat O’Callaghan.
A fortnight ago, O’Dwyer — in the year he turns 40 — finally got his hands on major medals.
Bronze and silver at the European Championships in Finland. But O’Dwyer long since left athletics in the rear view mirror. Now he’s a rising star in the world of arm wrestling. His Olympics experience at 20 in 2004 was a harrowing one, but O’Dwyer is dreaming of a second act in an extraordinary life.
“It’s an old, old sport. A lot of people don’t realise that it has a federation and it has competitions around the world,’’ he said.
“A lot of people think that it’s a pub thing, that people arm wrestle when they get a few drinks inside them.
“It boils down to a bit of vanity with a lot of people too. When you train for arm wrestling, it’s so arm-based — working on the biceps, triceps, forearms, pecs and shoulders.
Train
“So a lot of the arm wrestlers look like body builders without wanting to be body builders.
“I train for it every day, and I have my goals and my hope is that it gets into the Olympics and I go there.
“There’s a fairly solid chance of it getting in for 2028 in Los Angeles. With arm wrestling, you can peak as late as your 50s.
“I’ll be 44 in 2028 so I’d go after it. It would be so weird if it happens — 24 years after I first went to the Olympics to go again. That would be great.’’
It took a while, but O’Dwyer has found his tribe.
There’s an underworld vibe to arm wrestling. Many of the competitors look like they could be in a Marvel movie. O’Dwyer is no different. He’d stand out in any crowd. And he feels much more at home in arm wrestling than he did in track and field.
“The people that I’ve met through arm wrestling are very, very different to athletes,’’ he said.“It’s far less ego-driven — a lot of arm wrestlers tend to be a bit older too and it’s not their job.
“It’s also a mini combat sport. With that comes a bit more respect towards your competitors. After a competition, we go out together, have a few drinks, we all get on fantastically and there are no issues.
“That isn’t really the way things are in athletics. You didn’t really mingle as much.
Arm wrestling is way more chilled and fun.’’
It’s a technical sport too. Within a split second, you sense whether to attack, say, an opponent’s fingers.
Getting into your rival’s head is a common tactic too.
“The mental warfare is hilarious. So much information passes from person to person when you grip their hand.You can immediately sense where they’re loading, where they’re strong and where they’re weak,’’ said O’Dwyer.
Opponents
“You can look at your opponents...the Americans and Canadians use a lot of vocal warfare to try and unsettle the other person.
“But the guys from, say, Georgia and Kazakhstan are very much deadpan. They do physical actions rather than talk.
“Like any sport, it can be won or lost before the event even begins.
“If anyone smack talks me, it doesn’t bother me one bit. It’s just water off a duck’s back. I try and get the set-up I want and keep my energy reserves for what I want to do on the table rather than talking s**t to each other.’’
O’Dwyer is built like a heavyweight boxer. At nearly 6’6 and 100 kg, he’s not far off the size of Anthony Joshua.
But that was a problem when he was a high jumper. He had to put his body through torture to become light enough to