Right Hooks and Library Books: Behind the Pretty Faces

One week before Boxing Varsity, the Troxy will host Liam Gallagher’s first London gig with his new band. The following day, a friend of mine will be performing at a sold out charity gig.

Come March 17th, it will be the turn of CUABC to perform. This is our big stage, our chance to shine, although there is the small matter of avoiding right hooks to the head. Better not get stage-fright.

It is easy to just have your eyes on the prize. It all looks so glamorous at glitzy shows and events. Boxers know better. In the words of the great Muhammed Ali, “the fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights”.

Let me take behind the scenes of CUABC, the bits you don’t see:

The Tuesday night sprints…

Jesus Green is a lonely place. Most students are in formal at 7.30pm, ready for a big night. Not CUABC. Not even the darkenss can mask the pain

Sunday morning sparring sessions…

Nick Melgaard unearths this beauty of a headguard for sparring at the New Astley Club, Newmarket

Evening bouts in village halls…

Be it a garage, town hall or Madison Square Garden. Wherever the ring goes, you go. Just hope we have gloves

Training twice a day and resisting the lure of food (rumour has that CUABC Head Coach Ben Blowes shut down Fitzbillies)….

Father, lead me not into temptation

With this being Cambridge University, no stone is left unturned. PhD students Charlotte Housden and Ben Pearson at Neuroscience have been concluding a study in the Clinical Neuroscience Department at Addenbrookes called “Amateur Boxing and the Brain”, with help from CUABC.

As part of this I have had 3 MRI scans in two years. Try getting those on the NHS. At present, according to the BMA, there is currently “insufficient evidence – either positive or negative findings – as to the risks amateur boxing poses to neurological function and cognitive performance, both in the short and long-term.” This sadly means I need another excuse for late work.

One of the scans (left) taken at Addenbrookes with the stare of the art MRI machine (right). Charlotte said boxers are the only people to fall asleep in this, which if you’ve ever been near one, is an achievement – they sound like jackhammers going off for an hour

So we’ve done our time in the shed, on the track, in the gym… All a boxer wants to do is dance like the greatest. Add nine 5 kilowatt amps, 10 40″ plasma screens, a live action projector the size of a bus, 3 dedicated bars, 104 years of rivalry and you’ve got a Varsity Match.

Showtime at the Troxy – being a sound man, I had to check the subwoofers. If the jab doesn’t rattle the ribcage, the entrance music will

Most importantly, for all the miles ran, pounds shed, weights shifted, it is all about having your hand raised. Be it in front of 100 people in a community centre, or 1000 people popping champagne in suits. Two weeks and counting…