In his latest column for Boxing News former European super-lightweight champion Joe Hughes talks about his week teaching boxing to schoolkids, why having a disability shouldnโt hold you back and gives his thoughts on Anthony Joshuaโs latest win.
Last Friday I was at a Primary School summer camp just outside Bristol. That went well. The company weโre doing it with put on different sports or games. They work with different schools, and I get sent for one day to do a bit of boxing with the kids there. You get some that are really interested and enthusiastic and want to know everything about it. And you get a few of the kids that are not interested in the slightest. I wonโt be changing my profession to P.E teacher any time soon. But itโs fun, something different and the majority seem to enjoy it.
When I get there, I normally bring one of my belts and do a talk about who I am because most of them donโt know who I am. Iโll tell them about my career and my disability Erbโs Palsy because thatโs a big part of my career and what Iโve achieved despite having it.
This week I worked with an autistic lad who goes to a specialist school but heโs struggling over the summer holidays. Heโs quite enthusiastic and wanted to do some boxing. Iโm going to be working with him a bit more over the summer holidays. Some of the kids I work with donโt go to school for whatever reason, so it makes it easier to find time with them but when theyโre at school it makes it harder to find that time to work with them. He seemed to get something out of it. When itโs like that itโs rewarding work.
In future columns I do want to speak about the incompetency in boxing in terms of what itโs like in the professional boxing world. Iโll have some little stories of the way Iโve been treated over the years. Iโd also like to speak about my disability. I go back and forth in my head about it because I sometimes think to myself if I wasnโt disabled, Iโd be a world champion and Iโd be this, Iโd be that. At the same time, I think I probably would never have been a boxer or set foot in a boxing gym. A question I get asked a lot is, what do you think youโd be like if you didnโt have it. Itโs not like I was 25, on the way up and got injured. My whole life would have been different.
I get a lot of messages off parents who have kids with Erbโs Palsy specifically or children with other disabilities. Just because theyโve got a disability doesnโt mean itโs going to ruin their life or give them less of a life or be less happy or anything like that. What I say to the kids is what I’ve achieved with Erb’s Palsy means you can achieve what you want.
I saw some of the Derek Chisora fight last Saturday. Heโs a great entertainer, a great personality and who is anyone else outside of the ring to tell him he canโt do it anymore. If you donโt wanna watch it donโt watch it. If people had said to me, you canโt do certain things then I would have the right hump. I know itโs a different situation.
There will be concerns regarding Chisoraโs wellbeing in the future. That is something I can understand people being worried about. The person who should be most worried about it is him and his family. Itโs up to him. If heโs passing the medical, I suppose what else can you do.
It wasnโt the most impressive performance from Anthony Joshua against Robert Helenius. He did what he needed to in terms of winning and with a spectacular knockout. It still looked to me he was still unsure of letting his hands go. There were moments where he was boxing at range nicely, landing the jab and then heโd smother himself whereas in the past he would have rattled off a five or six shot combination and done some real damage. And with an opponent like Helenius thatโs what I would have liked to have seen him do.
Itโs difficult after having to change opponent so close to a fight so there are reasons you could sort of give. But do I see him becoming the best heavyweight in the world again? Not off the back of that performance or his last few. It doesnโt mean he canโt be but thereโs a lot of work to do still. The most passion he showed on the night was after the fight. It was almost like there was a huge relief at the end so maybe all of it was a mental release for him.
Me, my wife, and my oldest son are going up Pen Y Fan in Wales this weekend. My oldest is into that type of thing. He did a Race for Life a while ago and did 5k in 35 mins. Heโs only six. My mother-in-law went up Pen Y Fan it for charity a couple of months ago and since then heโs wanted to do it. Heโll be alright, Iโm sure, knowing him.
Iโll be coaching Saturday morning then itโs the Womenโs World Cup Final on Sunday. My oldest is right into his football. We watched the match against Australia, and he was jumping all around the living room. It would be quite some feat if they won.
On Monday Iโll be back to coaching and working away trying to get by.