Fists of fury leave boxer ‘homeless’
Township fighter’s trail of destruction in gyms where he spars
LEGENDARY American boxing trainer Cus D’Amato — who moulded, among others, Mike Tyson into an undisputed heavyweight world champion — once said a true champion is able to still achieve his full potential under the most trying conditions.
At the beginning of their collaboration, D’Amato trained Tyson from a dungeon, when other boxers used state-of-the-art facilities — yet they never won much.
Looking at what young flyweight Joshua “TKO” Studdard is going through at the moment, D’Amato’s lessons could well apply to him.
The nephew (on his mother’s side) of late, former Gauteng middleweight champion Cameron “Kangaroo” Adams not only recently lost his father, he also doesn’t operate from a boxing gym. While others routinely turn up for training sessions at gyms all around Gauteng, Studdard trains on the veranda of the family home in Sophiatown, where he has erected two punching bags next to the gate.
He trains at home after he was “blacklisted from Joburg gyms”. Why? Because he has bleksemed some of their best boxers during sparring sessions.
The 23-year-old has already showed his unshakeable will to succeed when he somehow boxed to victory after his father Rocky died of complications following surgery last month.
While he laboured to a six-round points win over Morapedi Khotle at Emperors, the reasons were understandable: “Everything came to a standstill when my father died. I just could not perform mentally, so my preparations for that fight were affected.”
Studdard is training for his six rounder [he is unbeaten in six fights] against Sihle Jelwana in the “Brawl for it All” tournament at Emperors Palace on Sunday. He said he still had not properly mourned his father’s death.
“I’d promised to mourn his death after my fight with Khotle, but I still haven’t,” he explained this week. “So far, the only thing I have done was to take my mother to the Eastern Cape where my father had promised to take her when he came out of hospital.”
Studdard’s trainer, Warren Hulley, said he wanted to call off the Khotle fight. “[But] He’s a tough kid,” said Hulley. “[And] out of adversity can come the call to greatness. We have fought overwhelming challenges to get Joshua where he is today.”
A continuing challenge for Studdard is finding a gym where he too can have his own locker. “Working on the bag [at home] when it is raining is very dangerous because the gloves slip and I could easily injure myself.”
But things are beginning to look up for Studdard, whose conditioning coach Caz Abrahams has secured him a sponsor: “They make it possible for me to sometimes train at the Bronx Gym. They also pay for my supplements and my studies.”
A qualified paramedic, Studdard said he was also grateful to trainer Colin Nathan. “I also doff my hat to Colin, who always opens the doors of his HotBox Gym where I spar with the likes of Hekkie Budler, Simphiwe Khonco and Sabelo Ngebiyane.
“I salute Budler, Khonco and Sabelo for giving me sparring sessions without charging me a cent.”
On why he didn’t just do all his training at the Bronx, he said: “I cannot go and train whenever I want to. Also there are so many fighters there.
“Sometimes we have to share punching bags. That’s why I still train at home and go to the Bronx for sparring.”
On his upcoming fight, Studdard, who has lived up to the moniker TKO in five of his six fights, warned Jelwana: “Jelwana’s zero in his unbeaten record will go when we meet at Emperors Palace. I am coming out to knock him out — period.”