How We Are Living During The Coronavirus Outbreak: “Coronavirus and Me”

The coronavirus has struck and the boxing world has pretty  much shut down temporarily. So what are we all doing? 

Well, boxing is my life. I don’t really do much else outside of the boxing world. So what am I going to do with my time? 

My first reaction was to carry on as normal, which I did in preparation for my next fight. I went to LA before being informed that trainer Andre Rozier wasn’t supporting the fight going ahead due to this escalating issue. So I went to Vegas and got drunk, then flew back to New York and joined Matt Tinker, who had also been pulled off an event being Top Rank’s planned extravaganza at Madison Square Garden, in getting drunk. 

Now sober once more I ponder my time. I have two fighters staying with me in Brooklyn right now,  in 24-0 bantamweight Duke Micah, who is set for an April outing and English amateur Sonny Waghorn, who has been competing in the now postponed Ring Masters tournament. 

Havoc Management and Media also had a couple of fighters, including Feargal McCrory, on the planned cards at Madison Square Garden which didn’t occur, so we’re reeling from that disappointment but we support Top Rank in their decision and maintain Top Rank are still the best people we’ve worked with. Carl Moretti and Brad Goodman are great to work with and myself and Carl on a personal level are hoping that this coronavirus doesn’t effect this years’ Ryder Cup and the ensuing banter that will occur from that! 

Havoc Media is a business mostly ran over the phone and from a laptop, so it will continue to run as normal and we will be there to support all events and personnel we work with. So from a work standpoint I train people in Manhattan and that isn’t proving easy with people not going to the gym right now despite the gym always being squeaky clean!

I don’t do holidays but I may take some time to enjoy my other hobbies in times of crisis. With the weather warming up I’ll want to get my golf clubs out if possible and I’m writing this whilst reliving WWE’s attitude era on the WWE Network. 

I’ve been through a hurricane before in hurricane Florence so after that things don’t really scare me. I’m not to worried about all of this so I’m just trying my best to carry on as normal and having a little break from the strenuous world of boxing and catch up on some television and sleep. 

If anyone wants to come to the gym and train hit me up as I’m still training! And hopefully I’ll be back fighting in May and I’d like to thank Andre Rozier, Terrence Simson, Ryan Rickey, Mike Leanardì, Trinity Boxing and Daniel Gonzalez for all their support. 

I’d encourage everyone to just be smart, stay calm and use common sense until this blows over. I’m still excited to see Contender VIPs upcoming April 4 event. Also, Jason and Andrew Moloney’s American debuts and also Feargal McCrory’s US debut. 

I’m hoping that this outbreak won’t effect the likes of Dominic Boesel’s IBO world title defense against Zach Dunn in Germany which I think it’s a massively underrated fight, and also the big planned events such as IBO/IBF Champion Gennady Golovkin and IBO/IBF/WBA/WBO Champion Anthony Joshua against Kubrat Pulev. 

For now I’m sat in bed listening in Brooklyn. I’m watching WWE Raw from January of ‘98…

…Sonny Waghorn is eating McDonalds cookies and Duke Micah is listening to a Christian pastor on YouTube.

We’re just carrying on as normal I guess. 

Last but not least I hope everyone stays healthy and happy!