Theme Park at its Darkest

2.

How about these rugby players?

There’s a difference between being a fighter and being an athlete. I’ve been in situations in a fight were I can feel my brain is swelling inside my head. You ask yourself a question in situations like that.

‘Why am I doing this? Do I really want this?’ Sonny Bill has never been in situations like that. Don’t call yourself a New Zealand champ if you want to fight for fun. That’s why it rubs people the wrong way.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/act-sport/canberras-ben-edwards-fighting-for-title-but-would-fight-sonnybill-williams-for-free-20150207-137mpk.html

What’s your projected career trajectory with boxing?

I’m going for a world title. I’ve just turned 31; hopefully, I’ve got a good six, seven, eight years left in me. I’ve never been knocked out or anything like that. The road to a boxing world title not as exciting as kickboxing – some fights you take to pad your record and to stay busy – but my long-term goal is a WBC world title.

At the moment, I’m working towards a regional title to get more experience. It’s really hard to tee up a fight the ABF will approve of. At the top level, there’s a few guys like Lucas Browne, but there’s not a real depth of talent below that.

Have you had any experience of Lucas Browne?

We do train together sometimes. He’s just got an opportunity for a WBA world title, fighting against Ruslan Chagaev, a left-handed Russian fighter. Lucas is just blunt-force trauma. He’s ranked top-ten for all sanctioning bodies – I’m somewhere around fifty. We won’t be fighting one another anytime soon, which is good because he’s a great training partner.

When is your next bout?

It’s scheduled for the third of July. I don’t know who I’m fighting. It’ll be the highest- ranked guy that will take the fight that the Australian Boxing Federation approves of. It’s a pain in the bum to get someone that will take the fight that the ABF approves of. It may not be for the Aussie title. I thought it would be easy [to get fights] with the title, but it’s proving hard to get an opponent at present.

How’s your dad?

He’s alright. He’s in and out of hospital. He was back in hospital the day after the fight. He sleeps twenty hours a day, so for him to go to the venue, that’s huge. He wasn’t himself after; he couldn’t think. It’s one of those things. He came out for a couple of days, but with kidney problems, he had to go back in [to hospital] again.

He becomes extremely dehydrated because of the diuretics, and his kidneys pack it in. When he goes back, Mum gets a break; she’s his full-time carer. She doesn’t complain, she just does it all. When he’s in hospital, she gets a break, and he socializes. At the moment, I’m living with them too, all cramped together in one tiny little shoebox house.

You were threatening to leave civilization recently due to woman-oriented trauma. Has that situation improved?

We’re on-again, off-again. At the moment, we’re on. I’m still in civilization, but my X-Box is packed and ready to go.

This entry was posted on April 10, 2015 at 6:44 am and is filed under fighting, Kickboxing, Martial Arts, Real Men with tags Alexei Muchin, Australian Boxing Federation, Ben Edwards, Boxing, Canberra, Commonwealth Games, cornermen, Elite High Performance, Elite Physiotherapy, Errol Zimmerman, Gary Hamilton, GFC, gi, gloves, Gokhan Saki, John Hopoate, Kickboxing, London, Lucas Browne, Melbourne, Olympic Games, ringcraft, Ruslan Chagaev, Sonny Bill Williams, Stockade Training Center, Sydney, Tyrone Spong, WBC world title. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.