Andrew Selby and Fred Evans going for gold
Posted: 03 Aug 2012, 07:21
http://boxingnewsonline.net/view-Articl ... cleID=2080
ANDREW SELBY and Fred Evans stand at the top of the world, respectively ranked first and second by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). If both were to achieve their goals at this summer’s Olympics then rankings would pale into insignificance - instead they would have made an everlasting and timeless mark on the boxing world.
As the cliché goes, first impressions count and both flyweight Selby and welterweight Evans made a lasting impression on the men who help mould them in the early days.
James Mwasigallah is co-trainer at Selby’s native Splott ABC and he’s been present at every step of the 23-year-old’s journey. He commented, “The first time I ever saw Andrew box, I knew there was something seriously there. To be honest with you, I was still boxing myself and I used to do some sparring with him and I knew there was something special about him.
“Andrew could do all sorts when he was just an 11-year-old kid, he had a natural ability and he could do things there and then without even trying.”
St Joseph ABC’s head honcho Tony Borg has nurtured talents at all levels and when he witnessed Evans ten years ago he recognised a standout. He detailed, “I remember seeing him as an 11-year-old as a youngster coming through. He had great hands; great timing and I just thought he’s a natural, y’know? There are just some kids who come in the gym and they’ve just got it.”
Nigel Davies was the first amateur coach of Evans, first meeting while Evans was just four-years-old. As Davies progressed from his Cwmavon Hornets Boxing Club, where he produced more than 100 Welsh champions, to work with the GB squad he approached Borg to inherit the talented southpaw.
It didn’t come without risk for Borg, he explained, “It was a big ask really because he’d won everything up till then and done really well, if he had come to me and had a couple of losses it wouldn’t have looked good for me. I had everything to gain but also a lot to lose.”
As the pair progressed on the international scene together the highs they’ve shared haven’t been in the absence of lows. Both had medal potential entering the Commonwealth Games in October 2010 at the Indian capital of Delhi but Evans lost a 6-2 lead as he crashed out in defeat to Mauritius’ Joseph St Pierre and Selby lost to his bitter rival Haroon Khan, brother of world class pro Amir, on countback after a lowly scored 1-1 bout.
Without wishing to make an excuse, Mwasigallah sites that Selby felt the pinch when AIBA reclassified flyweight from 54kg to 52kg prior to the Commonwealth games but it’s since be rectified. He said, “With being at GB he's got the right people involved with his diet since the Commonwealth games and he’s got a lot more focus from that. I do think a lot of it was down to the way he was losing the weight – he did lose the weight but it was the way he done it. Now he’s doing it right, look at the results. They’ve been great and they speak for themselves.”
While many boxers can suffer from an overabundance of praise, Mwasigallah states that it’s sometimes needed for Selby to solve the only remaining issue in his boxing. He said, “Andrew’s a really grounded and laid back kind of guy, he’s not full in your face like “I can do this, I can do that”. He knows he’s talented but we have to remind him now and then of how talented he really is just to maximise it.
“He does realise how talented he is but you still have to tell him because I don’t think he fully realises what he does sometimes. For instance, when I take him on the pads he’s an orthodox boxer and all of a sudden he’ll switch southpaw so I’ll switch over to suit what he’s doing as a southpaw and he’ll ask me why I’ve changed. He doesn’t even realise he’s changing stance, he can do that without thinking – that’s the extent of his talent.”
Last October Selby and Evans entered the world championships in Baku, Azerbaijan rising on the crest of a storming wave having become Wales’ first amateur European gold medallists for 86 years. Barry’s Selby would continue on the wave, taking a silver medal after closely losing to Russia’s Misha Aloyan via a 13-12 score.
Meanwhile, after Evans reached the quarter finals and therefore qualified for the London Olympics, complacency crept in to the Cardiff man’s mind and Lithuania’s Egidijus Kavaliauskas took full advantage – knocking Evans out in round two.
Knowing Evans better than most, Borg reflected, “The only time I’ve noticed a change in Fred was during the World Championships over in Baku in the quarter final and he was going towards the ring, I was sat in the house with my son watching it on the TV, and Fred looked in to the camera and winked and smiled and I thought ‘shit’.
“My son asked me what was the matter and I said “that’s not Fred, he doesn’t do that, he’s not that sort of kid”. What it was, he’d qualified the fight before that and took his foot off the gas and thought “I’m in the Olympics now” and he took his eye off the ball, if you know what I mean.”
With the last painful lesson learnt, Evans entered the Olympics to face Ilyas Abbadi, defeating the Algerian 18-10 on Sunday. Selby enjoyed a first round bye and the pair both fight on Friday in the last 16 of their weight divisions. Call it luck, destiny or fate; the draw has put Evans back in with Lithuania’s Kavaliauskas, Borg believes Fred will have “revenge on his mind”.
Borg said, “That hurt him. Fred knows where he went wrong, don’t get me wrong because the Lithuanian is a good guy but he’s not outstanding enough to put Fred away. I think if they had a busy first round and were having a tear up that same shot wouldn’t have bothered Fred. In my opinion, he got caught cold but you’ll see a different Fred on Friday.”
Woven between and around the beginning, the ups, the downs and the Olympics is the relationship built between boxers and trainers. Both Mwasigallah and Borg struggle to pin down exactly how they feel on the complex and unique bond that they share with their boxers but the passion and pride evidently oozes when they speak of seeing them at the Olympics.
Borg opened up, “Immense satisfaction – there’s no other two words for it. It’s amazing; there are no rewards in it financially but for Fred to qualify for the Olympic Games is amazing. It’s fantastic; you can’t express it in words.”
Mwasigallah said, “It is difficult to put it into words what I’ll be feeling seeing him fight at the Olympics. I feel the same with all of my boys – even when a boy wins a Welsh title it’s a great feeling. It’s a fantastic achievement for him to go and have one contest but when you really believe in a boxer and that he can go and win a gold medal, he has got that much potential, it’s even more special.”
Not only do Selby and Evans possess the power in their hands to make a historic mark at the pinnacle of the unpaid code, becoming the first Welsh boxers to win an Olympic medal since Ralph Evans at the 1972 Munich games, they also have the ability to inspire a generation. It’s something Mwasigallah and Borg both agree will have an effect on the next set of potential pugilists.
“It would inspire a lot of kids to think wow this guy has come from Splott and Barry, he’s a local boy and he can do it so we can too. We are a really busy gym anyway and to have any more boxers, whether they went to the Olympics too or just become as good as they can, would be brilliant. It’s just nice to have a busy gym with them all trying to emulate Andrew and do something along them kind of lines for themselves.” concluded Mwasigallah.
Fittingly closing the conversation, Borg prophesised, “They’re not just going down as boys from down the road, they’re going in as world class names and it’ll get boxing back on the lips of kids in school and it’ll get kids in gyms. They’ve done a great job publicising the Olympic boxing, the boxers are doing their jobs well and it’ll get kids off the street and in to gyms.”
ANDREW SELBY and Fred Evans stand at the top of the world, respectively ranked first and second by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). If both were to achieve their goals at this summer’s Olympics then rankings would pale into insignificance - instead they would have made an everlasting and timeless mark on the boxing world.
As the cliché goes, first impressions count and both flyweight Selby and welterweight Evans made a lasting impression on the men who help mould them in the early days.
James Mwasigallah is co-trainer at Selby’s native Splott ABC and he’s been present at every step of the 23-year-old’s journey. He commented, “The first time I ever saw Andrew box, I knew there was something seriously there. To be honest with you, I was still boxing myself and I used to do some sparring with him and I knew there was something special about him.
“Andrew could do all sorts when he was just an 11-year-old kid, he had a natural ability and he could do things there and then without even trying.”
St Joseph ABC’s head honcho Tony Borg has nurtured talents at all levels and when he witnessed Evans ten years ago he recognised a standout. He detailed, “I remember seeing him as an 11-year-old as a youngster coming through. He had great hands; great timing and I just thought he’s a natural, y’know? There are just some kids who come in the gym and they’ve just got it.”
Nigel Davies was the first amateur coach of Evans, first meeting while Evans was just four-years-old. As Davies progressed from his Cwmavon Hornets Boxing Club, where he produced more than 100 Welsh champions, to work with the GB squad he approached Borg to inherit the talented southpaw.
It didn’t come without risk for Borg, he explained, “It was a big ask really because he’d won everything up till then and done really well, if he had come to me and had a couple of losses it wouldn’t have looked good for me. I had everything to gain but also a lot to lose.”
As the pair progressed on the international scene together the highs they’ve shared haven’t been in the absence of lows. Both had medal potential entering the Commonwealth Games in October 2010 at the Indian capital of Delhi but Evans lost a 6-2 lead as he crashed out in defeat to Mauritius’ Joseph St Pierre and Selby lost to his bitter rival Haroon Khan, brother of world class pro Amir, on countback after a lowly scored 1-1 bout.
Without wishing to make an excuse, Mwasigallah sites that Selby felt the pinch when AIBA reclassified flyweight from 54kg to 52kg prior to the Commonwealth games but it’s since be rectified. He said, “With being at GB he's got the right people involved with his diet since the Commonwealth games and he’s got a lot more focus from that. I do think a lot of it was down to the way he was losing the weight – he did lose the weight but it was the way he done it. Now he’s doing it right, look at the results. They’ve been great and they speak for themselves.”
While many boxers can suffer from an overabundance of praise, Mwasigallah states that it’s sometimes needed for Selby to solve the only remaining issue in his boxing. He said, “Andrew’s a really grounded and laid back kind of guy, he’s not full in your face like “I can do this, I can do that”. He knows he’s talented but we have to remind him now and then of how talented he really is just to maximise it.
“He does realise how talented he is but you still have to tell him because I don’t think he fully realises what he does sometimes. For instance, when I take him on the pads he’s an orthodox boxer and all of a sudden he’ll switch southpaw so I’ll switch over to suit what he’s doing as a southpaw and he’ll ask me why I’ve changed. He doesn’t even realise he’s changing stance, he can do that without thinking – that’s the extent of his talent.”
Last October Selby and Evans entered the world championships in Baku, Azerbaijan rising on the crest of a storming wave having become Wales’ first amateur European gold medallists for 86 years. Barry’s Selby would continue on the wave, taking a silver medal after closely losing to Russia’s Misha Aloyan via a 13-12 score.
Meanwhile, after Evans reached the quarter finals and therefore qualified for the London Olympics, complacency crept in to the Cardiff man’s mind and Lithuania’s Egidijus Kavaliauskas took full advantage – knocking Evans out in round two.
Knowing Evans better than most, Borg reflected, “The only time I’ve noticed a change in Fred was during the World Championships over in Baku in the quarter final and he was going towards the ring, I was sat in the house with my son watching it on the TV, and Fred looked in to the camera and winked and smiled and I thought ‘shit’.
“My son asked me what was the matter and I said “that’s not Fred, he doesn’t do that, he’s not that sort of kid”. What it was, he’d qualified the fight before that and took his foot off the gas and thought “I’m in the Olympics now” and he took his eye off the ball, if you know what I mean.”
With the last painful lesson learnt, Evans entered the Olympics to face Ilyas Abbadi, defeating the Algerian 18-10 on Sunday. Selby enjoyed a first round bye and the pair both fight on Friday in the last 16 of their weight divisions. Call it luck, destiny or fate; the draw has put Evans back in with Lithuania’s Kavaliauskas, Borg believes Fred will have “revenge on his mind”.
Borg said, “That hurt him. Fred knows where he went wrong, don’t get me wrong because the Lithuanian is a good guy but he’s not outstanding enough to put Fred away. I think if they had a busy first round and were having a tear up that same shot wouldn’t have bothered Fred. In my opinion, he got caught cold but you’ll see a different Fred on Friday.”
Woven between and around the beginning, the ups, the downs and the Olympics is the relationship built between boxers and trainers. Both Mwasigallah and Borg struggle to pin down exactly how they feel on the complex and unique bond that they share with their boxers but the passion and pride evidently oozes when they speak of seeing them at the Olympics.
Borg opened up, “Immense satisfaction – there’s no other two words for it. It’s amazing; there are no rewards in it financially but for Fred to qualify for the Olympic Games is amazing. It’s fantastic; you can’t express it in words.”
Mwasigallah said, “It is difficult to put it into words what I’ll be feeling seeing him fight at the Olympics. I feel the same with all of my boys – even when a boy wins a Welsh title it’s a great feeling. It’s a fantastic achievement for him to go and have one contest but when you really believe in a boxer and that he can go and win a gold medal, he has got that much potential, it’s even more special.”
Not only do Selby and Evans possess the power in their hands to make a historic mark at the pinnacle of the unpaid code, becoming the first Welsh boxers to win an Olympic medal since Ralph Evans at the 1972 Munich games, they also have the ability to inspire a generation. It’s something Mwasigallah and Borg both agree will have an effect on the next set of potential pugilists.
“It would inspire a lot of kids to think wow this guy has come from Splott and Barry, he’s a local boy and he can do it so we can too. We are a really busy gym anyway and to have any more boxers, whether they went to the Olympics too or just become as good as they can, would be brilliant. It’s just nice to have a busy gym with them all trying to emulate Andrew and do something along them kind of lines for themselves.” concluded Mwasigallah.
Fittingly closing the conversation, Borg prophesised, “They’re not just going down as boys from down the road, they’re going in as world class names and it’ll get boxing back on the lips of kids in school and it’ll get kids in gyms. They’ve done a great job publicising the Olympic boxing, the boxers are doing their jobs well and it’ll get kids off the street and in to gyms.”
