Behind the Mask Read online

  I had travelled to Philadelphia as an amateur with the Ireland team, which included some top prospects like future world bantamweight champion Ryan Burnett and Steven Ward, a world-rated light-heavyweight. This was around the period when I had given up on my dream of boxing for Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics and decided to follow my Irish heritage.

  Once we had arrived in the city, with some time on our hands, my cousin Phil, who would also go on to box professionally, and I decided to go out for a walk. We didn’t know where we were going; we were just chilling out. But as we turned a corner this guy jumped us and told us where to go. At first, I thought to myself, ‘No way’, but when we realised that our lives were probably on the line, the two of us took off like Usain Bolt. We got back to the place where we were staying, shaken up but in one piece. We explained to the Americans who were looking after us where we had been and we immediately saw the look of shock on their faces. They went on to explain to us that we had somehow found ourselves in one of the most notorious gang areas in the whole of Philadelphia, and that the guy who was ready to take our lives probably assumed we were two rivals trying to take over his turf. My first time in the States and my career could have ended right there and then.

  Instead, only a couple of days later, I made the first of a few big impacts I’ve had in America, when I was matched with Maurice Byarm at the famous Blue Horizon venue, where they filmed the first Rocky movie. I was very proud to wear the Irish vest as I made my way to the ring in a packed arena, which was anticipating a good scrap. The Irish Americans were going nuts as they saw me step through the ropes. Byarm had been doing a bit of trash talking leading up to the fight, saying that he was going to knock me out so hard that my ‘momma would feel it back home thousands of miles away’. That, as you can imagine, just helped me to get fired up even more for my first fight on American soil. I wasn’t going to allow this big mouth to get the better of me. I was going to show the Americans what the future heavyweight champion of the world looked like.

  Byarm, who was a southpaw, was a good bit smaller than me but he clearly fancied himself as the new Mike Tyson because he came right at me throwing left and right hooks. I was able to tie him up in the early stages and then I got to work with my left jab and straight right hands. However, as I caught him with an uppercut he landed a left hook and that got the crowd going. In the second round, I surprised him with my hand speed and a left shot to the body that had him complaining to the referee. I was now in control and Byarm knew that he was behind, so he came out bobbing and weaving, swinging bombs at the start of the third and final round. I stayed calm and as he backed up into a corner I landed one of the best hooks I’ve ever thrown. As he sagged against the ropes I landed another hammer right hand that sent him crashing to the canvas. Looking back today, it was a finish not too unlike the way I would put away Steve Cunningham at Madison Square Garden years later in 2013, which would be the next time I boxed in the States.

  The reaction from the crowd at the Byarm fight was incredible. Here was this big Irish heavyweight, tall dark and handsome (even if I say so myself!) knocking out their man in style. With so many Irish Americans in the crowd, they especially loved it. Former world heavyweight champion and boxing legend Joe Frazier was at ringside because he had helped arrange the competition in conjunction with his son Marvis, who had also fought for the world heavyweight title. They asked me about the possibility of staying in the States longer term. The funny thing was that me and my cousin Phil were already seriously considering running away to America, leaving the amateurs behind us and trying to make it as professionals in the US, because we loved the whole vibe of the place. We were just teenagers but it seemed like a good idea. Phil was keener than me so his eyes widened when it was suggested that we make the move after the buzz I had created with the win at the Blue Horizon. But I was starting to go out with Paris at the time, I had my family back home and when I sat down and thought about it with a cool head it just wasn’t for me. However, it was clear the Americans liked my style and I loved being around them.

  . . .

  Over a decade later, and having journeyed along the professional ladder, I knew that I was still made for the American stage – I just needed the opportunity. The seeds had been sown with my ‘victory’ over Deontay Wilder in December 2018, but unbeknownst to me, they would bear fruit in 2019, and grow to a level I couldn’t imagine.

  Having returned home from Los Angeles and reflected on the controversial draw with Wilder I was content that I had made a huge statement to the world. That clip of me climbing off the canvas in the twelfth round was seen millions of times on social media. Everyone wanted to see the rematch; it was going to be the biggest, most lucrative fight in world boxing and the talk behind the scenes started immediately. I was expecting that it wouldn’t be long before I would have a date for the second bout. While there was some speculation of bringing the fight to Wembley Stadium in the spring or summer, which would have been unforgettable, to be fighting in front of my home fans in London, the reality was that Wilder was still the champion and his team were likely to insist on a venue in America. That didn’t bother me because I knew that when and where wouldn’t matter; when I did face Wilder again he was going to take a beating.

  My coach Ben seemed to be taking the draw with Wilder harder than I was. As soon as the fight was over, he had messaged the team at BT Sport asking when they could send him a copy of it so that he could watch it again. When they did send it over he was watching the fight over and over again, trying to get his head around how all three judges could not have scored the fight in my favour. It was constantly on his mind and he reckons he eventually watched it a hundred times, trying to discover any little things that we might have done differently. Fortunately for him, he had booked a holiday in Orlando and New York with his girlfriend Esra for shortly after the fight, and that managed to calm him down and take his mind off it. He went from wondering what we could have done better, to seeking to understand even more flaws in Wilder that could be exposed the second time around. Ben now believes that there were a few things that we could have done better that night. But he also thinks that all reflections on that fight in Los Angeles have to be grounded in the context of what I had come through in such a short space of time.

  After Ben returned from his trip we reconnected in the new year. I couldn’t have been happier and Paris was expecting our fifth child. At the same time, I was acutely aware of just how important it was for me to stay in shape because that helped me so much in regard to my mind remaining in a good place. I also wasn’t sure when the call might come for the rematch with Wilder and I wanted to make sure I was ready. Ben felt that, too, and we agreed that it would be good to take another trip to Marbella for a three-week training camp.

  On New Year’s Day, when a lot of people I imagine were probably getting over the festivities from the night before, Ben, Esra and me and the family headed out to Marbella. I soon had the sun on my back once more and good people around me. I loved training every day. It wasn’t as serious as the previous twelve months because I was still waiting on word of my next fight, but it kept me ticking over. In fact, Ben tried to rein me in a little because he felt that I was working too hard but I was just enjoying it so much. I even had a bit of fun when we took a couple of kick-boxing classes that a local instructor was running. I showed the class that I could use my feet to good effect as well. And of course, because I love a challenge, I threw down the gauntlet to all twenty students that I would spar two rounds each with them, kick-boxing. And I did, with every one of them. That was great fun. The topic of Wilder came up now and again, and Ben and I reflected on how that twelfth round would perhaps live on in boxing history for years to come.

  I was receiving plenty of media attention back home in the UK, and in a positive way too, and I was entering a new year as I had never done before. Just twelve months earlier I had been in the same place in Marbella losing so much weight, but now I didn’t have that same mountai
n to climb.

  When we arrived home I enjoyed taking the kids to school in the morning and playing with them at the weekends. I was keen to get some word on the Wilder rematch, but then came some news that I didn’t see coming. I received a phone call from my friend and former world champion Amir Khan to tell me that America was calling me louder than ever before.

  Amir said that the leading promotional company in the world, Top Rank, were interested in doing a deal with me. Top Rank is run by the legendary promoter Bob Arum, who worked with such great fighters as Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya – all box-office, household names. And now, to my great honour, he was interested in doing a deal with me. Many of his previous fights had been shown on HBO, but he now had a deal with ESPN, and their internet streaming channel, ESPN+. After thirty years, HBO had shut down their boxing operation as the way boxing was being televised was changing in the States. Eddie Hearn had done a big deal with DAZN, which is a company that streams sports on a subscription basis, and the ESPN+ channel is now their direct competitor, along with Showtime, who continue to put on pay-per-view events for the very big fights, in the same way that Sky and BT Sport do in the UK.

  I knew that ESPN was a big platform in the States, going out coast to coast into so many homes, bars and hotels, but I wasn’t interested because I had just fought on pay-per-view on Showtime against Wilder and felt that my profile had shot through the roof.

  But then I got a call from my management team MTK Global about the possible deal with Top Rank and ESPN, and they outlined how they wanted to make me an American star. That part didn’t actually matter to me, because I’m not interested in being a celebrity. It just doesn’t do it for me. If I wanted to, I could probably go to hundreds of celebrity nights every year. But it’s not my thing. I’m a normal person who has just been lucky and done all right through boxing. So that wasn’t going to be a motivating factor for me. However, they also said that I could have a couple of fights and then look to do the Wilder rematch. Initially, I still wasn’t that interested because I felt that I would have been happy just with the Wilder rematch and then I could hang up my gloves and move on to another chapter in my life.

  But as I weighed up the biggest offer I had ever received in my career – enough money to set my family up for life – along with the fact that I would have such a powerful American promoter behind me, I felt that it all started to make sense. And I would get my shot at the American dream, after all. I agreed to sign with Top Rank in February. Frank Warren and BT Sport would continue to organise my affairs in the UK but Arum would be leading the way in the States. With this news, when Frank was asked about the negotiations for future fights with the big names in the division, such as Wilder and Anthony Joshua, he said, ‘They will now have to come to us. This ESPN situation is probably one of the biggest things to happen to a British sportsman. It’s something special.’

  I was the lineal heavyweight champion of the world – the unofficial ‘true’ champion, often referred to as ‘the man who beat the man’ – and now I had the kind of promotional backing on both sides of the pond that such status deserved. As the WBC champion with the backing of Showtime, Wilder understandably felt he could call the shots, as did Joshua, who at the start of 2019 was the WBA, WBO and IBF title holder and had the backing of Sky and DAZN in the States. But this deal I did with Top Rank turned everything my way. I was completely in control of my destiny now, and the financial clout behind me was a match for anyone in the heavyweight division.

  With the multimillion-pound deal agreed, it was now a case of where I would start my new American adventure. I quickly decided with Top Rank that there would be no better place than Las Vegas. The venue was going to be the famous MGM Grand hotel and 15 June the date. Wilder and his team, who assumed I would be going for the rematch right away, got the shock of their lives when they saw how much Top Rank were getting behind me and so they decided to make other plans as well. Wilder would be heading to New York in May to face Dominic Breazeale, who had been knocked out by Joshua in seven rounds, a month before my date in Vegas. In between that, Joshua was pencilled in for a defence against American Jarrell Miller, but after Miller failed a drugs test, Mexican Andy Ruiz stepped in to face him on 1 June at Madison Square Garden. The heavyweight world was on fire like it hadn’t been for about twenty years, since the days of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis.

  It was decided that I would be fighting unbeaten German Tom Schwarz on my Vegas debut. Ben had seen Schwarz box in Germany in March as he had been over there with another boxer and so he suggested him to Top Rank and they agreed.

  When Bob Arum said he was going to make me a huge star he certainly meant it, because from the moment I hit America I was on every major television chat show. We touched down in New York and had a meal with the Top Rank team and then for a few days I was part of a media frenzy. On the chat shows I was very open about the troubles that I had been through and the mental health issues that I had overcome to return to the ring, and that really seemed to connect with people. I would be opening up about the despair I found myself in and I could see the cameramen and women with tears running down their faces, and it was the same with the audiences. Afterwards, some of the TV people, including some of the presenters, would approach me to talk more about their own experiences. I was touched. And although it was not something that I had chased, I have to say that I did appreciate the warmth and the respect that I was receiving from the American public. In return, I tried to repay that warmth and respect to every American I met.

  I still had to make sure that I was preparing properly for 15 June and so early in the mornings I would go running with Ben in New York, with the Statue of Liberty right beside us. That somehow felt appropriate because I felt as liberated as I had ever been in my life. The shackles were off and I was about to compete on the boxing stage that I always felt I was born to perform on. Next stop, Vegas.

  Tim Allcock, who is a key member of my team, organised a house for us in Vegas for the four weeks we were staying there and that worked out well. When we did take a walk down the Strip it gave everyone a bit of a thrill and a buzz to see my face plastered all over the place, and lighting up the billboards. Ben’s only concern was that because there wasn’t the same edge of danger surrounding this fight with Schwarz, compared to the clash with Wilder, that I could possibly underperform. But I knew that I was here to put on a real show, before, during and after the fight.

  As we arrived in Vegas, Wilder had just taken care of business in New York with a first-round knockout of Breazeale. It was a sensational stoppage and it was a case of ‘over to you, AJ’ as Joshua got ready to defend against Ruiz, a chubby Mexican who had lost on points to Joseph Parker in 2016 when challenging for the WBO title. (Parker would eventually lose his belt to Joshua.)

  As the whole team sat down to watch the fight we, like just about everybody else in boxing, were expecting Joshua to retain his titles quite comfortably, but that changed when I saw him making his walk to the ring in Madison Square Garden. Both Ben and myself immediately felt that there was something not quite right because Joshua looked cold, and by that I mean that there wasn’t a bit of sweat on his body. Before any fight, as a boxer you go through such a good warm-up that there’s sweat glistening from your body as you leave the dressing room. But that wasn’t the case with Joshua. He looked nervous; he looked like he didn’t want to be there. And after previously thinking that he would win on points, I turned to the lads and said, ‘He’s going to get knocked out.’

  This was the first time Joshua was in a big fight away from his home country and when that happens you react in one of two ways – you either feel out of your comfort zone and shrink, or you rise to the occasion. If you’re totally confident in your ability you’d be happy fighting in outer space. When I go to the ring, I’m there to fight, no matter what is in my way – it’s as simple as that. I bring my heart to the ring every time. But in New York ag
ainst Ruiz, it just seemed like Joshua had left his heart back in the dressing room. Joshua was a 1/25 favourite and he knocked Ruiz down in the third round. But then in one of the all-time biggest shocks, Joshua himself went down twice in the same round before being knocked down repeatedly again in round seven when he was stopped on his feet, having spat out his gumshield after hitting the canvas. As the referee waved it off, a few of us jumped and shouted, ‘He quit! He quit!’ He seemed to have given in. It was shocking to see the way the fight ended. To me, it was no surprise that Joshua struggled to recover after being put down, because any time he has been hit in his career that has been the case. But this time he seemed happy to lose. That’s something that I can’t comprehend, a concept that’s alien to me because I’m not bred that way – there’s no quit in me. The little fat guy beat the body beautiful and the heavyweight division was turned upside down.

  Just like Joshua, I was a huge favourite going into my fight with Schwarz two weeks later. There was a lot of expectation because the whole event was based around me but I embraced it and I had a special ring entrance all prepared for my new American fans. I thought I would take a leaf out of the Rocky IV script by donning the same Uncle Sam gear that Apollo Creed wore when he came in to face Ivan Drago. To add to the sense of occasion, I had the James Brown hit ‘Living in America’ blasting out from the speakers, and the showgirls doing their thing as I made my way to the ring. The crowd went crazy for it. A year on from my comeback fight against Sefer Seferi, I was in great shape and ready to give ESPN and all the fans watching a night to remember. When I was growing up, my dad always had the big fights in Las Vegas on TV and I would get up in the middle of the night to join him and watch fighters like Floyd Mayweather and Naseem Hamed. Ricky Hatton was always my hero growing up, and here I was headlining in Vegas and he was in my corner as part of the team. It was a special night.