The perfect gift for a boxer at Christmas? Blinkers

"You don’t get a Christmas  unfortunately. That’s how it goes."

Boxers don't get to savour Christmas spreads - in case it leads to an Christmas spread.

Bernard Dunne’s career centred around Christmas. In a profession that ensures ebbs and flows, it was the one constant.

Early on when a routine brain scan uncovered a cyst, his third professional bout had to be cancelled. It was a week before Christmas when his phone rang and he, along with an unfortunate group of interrupted movie fans seated in the Liffey Valley cinema for The Lord of the Rings, received the news it was to be rescheduled for 3 January 2003. “No Christmas piss-up, then,” he recalled in his autobiography.

After securing the European super bantamweight title, the first thing he shouted down the mic was that Christmas had come early. What day did they announce his world title shot against Ricardo Cordoba? Christmas Eve, 2008.

When did he know it was all over? It was sitting with trainer Harry Hawkins having a Christmas pint in Dublin. The first time they ever had a drink together despite living in each other’s pockets for years. Dunne knew friends had been in Hawkin’s ear encouraging him to keep competing, but he realised then the hunger was gone. “I had never felt like that before.” 

That is the life of the pugilist. Dubliner Emmet Brennan knows that better than most. The Irish Olympian was famously branded boxing’s real-life Cinderella man after he quit his job, applied for a €4,000 Credit Union loan and took advantage of Joe Ward’s decision to leave the amateurs. Qualification was a mission accomplished.

He went to Tokyo with a debilitating shoulder injury and left determined to get it right and make it as a pro. Right now, he is in the midst of preparation for his 2023 debut.

“I probably won’t be fighting until February,” he explains. “This year it’s not like I have something around the corner but for the last six years, the All-Ireland elites were in January. You don’t get a Christmas then, unfortunately. That’s how it goes. You have to treat it like another day.” 

“I’m 31 now. I’ve had plenty of Christmases where I did it wrong,” he admits. “Especially around alcohol, having a few drinks even if I was fighting in January. That’s a recipe for disaster. Now at my age you have to get everything spot on. Otherwise, you are weight-watching when you should be focusing on technique and performance.

“It’s not just food. Around now you meet up with three or four different friend groups, that snowballs into three or four days of drinking. Then you make bad decisions the next day hungover.

“It will catch up with you physically. Mentally too, if you aren’t ticking those boxes, it will be in the back of your mind.” 

The horse keeps bucking. He always climbs back on. For 12 months before the Olympics, he stayed clear of alcohol. In the blur of shoulder surgery and trips to the US to meet managers and promoters, the gargle got him again. Thankfully, the tendency for extremes turned productive and he threw himself into training earlier this year.

He is seven months drink-free and for the entire month of November, Brennan did an ice bath a day, adding one minute every time.

“The first two weeks wasn’t too bad because the temperature outside was ok, it was bearable. Then we had the sharp decrease in temperature. The ground is freezing, you had ice on top of the water and once it got beyond 20 minutes it was really mentally tough.

“The toughest part is while you are in it you can endure it, but it honestly took an hour to heat up afterwards.

“It won’t be on top of my list next year. I’ll just grow a moustache,” he says with a laugh.

“Look, I’ve been injured since the Olympics and I’m only coming back now. In the high-performance unit where you are out of your comfort zone every single day, always trying to impress and someone is trying to take your spot.

“I went from years of top-level pressure every day, really out of my comfort zone to life just going by. I did need something to get back on the horse and that was it. It was like the feeling nerves before a fight, you are building yourself up for it. It did what I wanted it to do.” 

This week he has reduced his calories slightly each day, catering in Sunday’s dinner and some dessert. He organised his training schedule so Christmas is a rest day, one small respite in an otherwise relentless drive to the paid ranks.

“Come Monday, I’ve a serious week of training mapped out. 12-14 sessions. Straight back at it.”