Hopes takes on the best in the ring | Sport

Jarrod Buckard | 3rd December 2008

OLD school Blackwater boxer, Joel Hopes, recently returned from Sydney with tales of his exploits in the Australian championships.

After making the cut for the Queensland team, Hopes proceeded to blitz the opposition at the Blacktown RSL in Sydney last week.

Training and fighting for the competition was physically and mentally draining for Hopes, but he still managed to perform at a high standard to make the final round.

"It’s very fatiguing, especially when you’re balancing it with shift work and looking after kids from Monday to Friday as well as training," explained Hopes.

"Before the first fight I got a call from the missus saying Blackwater was in the middle of that hail storm, before the second fight I got a phone call saying my mate passed away, then before the third fight I got a call saying the little girl was missing out at the weir.

"So having all that on my mind, it was very difficult to fight."

Hopes powered through the tirade of bad news to take out boxers from South Australia and Western Australia before being beaten by one of the best in the final fight.

"My first fight was against A Kolizof, from South Australia, and the ref stopped the fight in the third round after I cut him above his left eye.

"I had a day’s rest, then the second fight was against B Scully, from Western Australia. He was beating me in the first round 4-3, which is pretty close. I came out into the second round and got him with a few good shots – near knocked him out and the ref stopped the fight.

"I got through to the final against S Lovett, from Australian Capital Territory. He’s actually the current Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder – he’s pretty hard to compete against.

"I got a knock in the back of the head in the first round, that sort of put me off a bit, it was a hard fight. Near the end of the third round the score was 8-3, I got knocked down and before I could sort of recover I got hit with a flurry of blows.

"Overall I got good support, we took away four Queensland coaches, and even all the kids in the Queensland team gave me good support, and respect for getting as far as I did.

"The actual division I fought in was 81kg, which is the second heaviest division at the championships.

"I’d definitely like to thank all my sponsors, supporters and family, and everyone else for their support – without them I wouldn’t get far at all."

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