Ahead of his big fight, Fielding talks to us about his life and career
Rocky Fielding tells Terry Dooley why he is ready to scale Mount Canelo
IF YOU ONLY PLAYED FOR TRANMERE WOULD YOU TURN DOWN THE CHANCE TO PLAY FOR ENGLAND?
IMAY not be Barry Norman but I know a lot about films. Even before the
Rocky series the celluloid world tied in with the sweet science on a lot of different levels. Sure, there are straight-up boxing films, yet there are also ones that can be lazily linked to the sport or certain fights by those seeking a sneaky shortcut when writing an introduction.
The movie Everest tells the story of two ill-fated expeditions that claimed eight lives in 1996. The film underlines just how risky such excursions are, and the obvious question is why would anyone put themselves in such a position?
Since the retirement of Floyd Mayweather, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has ridden the wave of two dubious decisions against Gennady Golovkin to become the face of the sport as well as its biggest draw.
A few British fighters have fallen short when trying to scale Mount Canelo. First up was Matthew Hatton, who dropped a decision to the Mexican in 2011 – only a seventhround foul by Canelo prevented a shutout on all three cards.
Later that year, Ryan Rhodes almost made it to the Balcony, if you will, only to be felled in the final round. Amir Khan did well early in 2016, then was annihilated in round six. Liam Smith suffered a similar fate, falling in nine in the same year. All four were huge underdogs.
Some people make the astonishing decision to risk life and limb on Everest or other peaks. Similarly, boxers have to do a job that, especially at the upper-level, requires them to take on challenges that most people in their right mind would turn down.
When Rocky Fielding said “Yes” to a WBA secondary supermiddleweight title defence against Canelo at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York on December 15, he knew he would have to conquer a mountain if he has any hope of coming home with his belt and ensuring that “The fifth time is the charm” for Alvarez’s British opponents.
The 31-year-old also had to field the online barbs that came his way when the fight was announced. He is selling his title to the highest bidder, they said, before adding that it is a forlorn task. Like anyone who steps into the danger zone, Fielding knows that he is taking a huge risk.
It is one he talked to Boxing News about after feeding his baby daughter and nursing her back to sleep.
“I knew once I said I’d take it that all this attention would come along,” he said. “I also knew I’d get a lot of stick on Twitter – that there would be negative as well as positive tweets – so I just had to get my head around all of that.”
No one outside of his team and supporters is giving Fielding a chance, let’s be clear about that, yet there is a hypocritical air to the umbrage people poured out when this particular fight was announced.
“If you are in a job that you’ve been working hard in then your manager might come in and say they’ve got you a bigger, better job that you’ll also have to work hard in to make a success of it,” argued Fielding.
“Are you going to say ‘No’ and then regret it looking back? Or if you are playing football in the lower leagues are you going to turn down England at Wembley and say: ‘I can’t do that because I’ve only been playing for Tranmere.’
“Look at Tony [Bellew]. He is someone I get inspiration from and text all the time. I watched him go out and beat [David] Haye twice then take on [Oleksandr] Usyk without a second thought. Tony got the chance to go out and win all those belts, and he went out and took it, which is kind of where I am at right now.”
“The Rocky from Stocky” prefers to sit back and let the people around him negotiate on his behalf. This can be a useful, not to mention stress-free, way of going about things, especially if it turns out that they are secretly working on a huge fight. When the call came it took Fielding by surprise, and he only had one question.
“[Trainer] Jamie [Moore] said he’d been negotiating for me and that Canelo wanted to fight me, so I said: ‘Sound, what weight will it be at?’ Jamie told me they wanted it at my weight so I told him to let them know we’ll take it. I put the phone down and realised I hadn’t even asked about money and all that so had to phone back to check those details.”
One downside was the initially gruelling media schedule. Although the fighter himself is happy to talk at length about the contest, Moore decided to close the gym doors to the media once it reached a critical point. You cannot blame him, either, as the build-up to a major fight invariably involves answering bland, repetitive questions from bland people.
“It got a bit heavy with people wanting to be at the gym so Jamie stepped in,” he admitted. “You forget that I’ve got to do my training, do all that media stuff, and then I’ve got to go home to be a dad to my kids and doing stuff around the house for my girlfriend.”
The opportunity came on the back of a fifth-round upset win over the WBA’S second-tier belt-holder Tyron Zeuge in July, which came at just the right time for the fed-up Fielding, who was training in a thriving gym with a hungry pack of fighters yet had to sit on the bench and watch everyone else get a run-out. However, like most super subs, Fielding ensured that when he came off the bench he did it in fine style.
“My girl and my lad dropped me off at the airport, I told them I’d have a nice, shiny belt for them as a prize when I got back,” he revealed. “That was my thing, I’d promised my lad I was going to bring a prize back and nothing was going to stop me. I couldn’t make that promise and not fulfill it. I knew I’d be too strong for Zeuge.”
Given that he mentioned helping out around the house I asked if he does a spot of ironing with his prized passion around his waist. “The belt is in the downstairs toilet in its box at the moment!” he said.
“Seriously, if you knew what I’d been through for the last six or seven months then you’d understand why I am doing this in my first defence. I was really down. I beat David Brophy in September [last year] then was in the gym two weeks later getting ready for a fight on the undercard of the Bellew-haye rematch that didn’t happen. Then I trained over Christmas so missed out on some time with my son. I came back in January to train and there was still no news from Eddie [Hearn] on a big fight.
“It is hard because the lads all had dates and were fighting. I had missed out on simple stuff like opening birthday presents with my boy because I had to leave for the gym and taking him to his nursery. I spent two weeks in a training camp in Tenerife earlier this year despite not having anything lined up, and while my girl was pregnant and looking after our twoyear-old as well.”
Being away from his family for a
I WAS TRYING TO DO FACETIME CALLS WITH MY SON JUST SO I COULD STILL FEEL LIKE I WAS PART OF THE FAMILY
fortnight has been the hardest part of his career thus far, even tougher than the painful road to contention and a loss to Callum Smith (see sidebar). Fighters are paid to train and fight, but it comes at a personal cost – Fielding feels he has paid the price of admission despite what people may say or think.
“We were doing quick Facetime calls, you’d be out all day training in the morning, and the evening, and then try to get some times with them,” he recalled. “Then you’d phone and he’d be in bed and you’ve missed him again. Other times he may have been in nursery so you’re just trying to catch him at the best time so you can still be part of the family. I even missed his first-ever parents evening. He may only be two yet they have one to tell you how they are getting on.
“That was a big downer for me when I was away, you think: ‘God, I’m missing out on things being over here.’ That killed me at first. I could have sat at home sulking then got a fight and just done a 10-week camp, instead I kept in the gym, kept working and now we have this. This is a big reward for all that work.
“I’ve still got to do the dad stuff, you can’t not do it, and so you just balance it all out. The dad part is my life, I enjoy it and they are what I’m doing all this for. You put yourself through the fights and that for the kids.
“I haven’t been able to do one night feed for our daughter and help out that way. There are some other things I haven’t been able to chip in with so I give thanks to my girlfriend and our families for their help. I can do this fight then come home to do the nursery runs, do the night feeds, mix in, and move on with being me. I will chill out with these at home after it then see where we go next.”
As for the fight itself, many suspect that Fielding’s only slim hope is his size, yet Moore has often told me that he hits deceptively hard; harder, in fact, than anyone else in the gym. “He would say that, the rest are all smaller than me,” joked Fielding.
“Alvarez doesn’t make many mistakes as a fighter, but when he does it is my job to capitalise on them. If you look at me, I don’t have big muscles, a six-pack and all of that – it is all about the timing of the shots, catching them as they are firing at you.
“The power is there if I catch you right. The best knockouts I’ve had were when there was the fear factor there, where that fire is in my belly, and I have that for this one.
“I took Prizefighter at five days’ notice, the WBA [secondary] title at five weeks’ notice, and now I’ve had a proper camp for this after that surprise phone call.
“I’m ready.”