Australian boxer Alex Winwood is chasing Olympic gold in Tokyo this month. Photo: JUSTIN RAKE
Australian flyweight boxer Alex Winwood certainly won’t be missing out on Olympic glory without a fight.
Having taken up the sport at 15 after a chance encounter with a coach on a Western Australian street, just three years later, the still-teenaged Winwood found himself at the Rio 2016 selection event.
“I’m glad I didn’t qualify the first time; I wasn’t experienced enough and got shown what a world-class amateur was,” the Perth-based Noongar man reflected.
This time around, though, Winwood, the great-nephew of former professional Brian Bennell, is carrying high expectations of himself. Despite currently being ranked 92nd of the world’s amateurs, Winwood told the “Where Do We Begin” podcast he won’t be “settling for anything less than gold” in Tokyo.
“The rankings don’t make sense to me,” he said.
Nor do they to anyone who delves at all deeply into the system. Just the world’s top 32 boxers in each division qualify for the Games, only certain international bouts count towards ratings and, remarkably, there are inactive fighters placed above Winwood.
Even if the rankings were meaningful, in his own eyes, he should be held in higher regard.
The subjective nature of deciding a bout’s winner is the topic of many a boxing debate, but Winwood believes he’s had a history of getting the rough end of the stick. During one particular year, the judges’ verdict on nearly all of his fights “baffled” him.
“There were eight fights I felt I got robbed in,” he said.
“It’s easy for the judges to rock up, be there for an hour and take away from the last five weeks [of work] I just put in with a stupid call.
“I don’t think it takes too much skill or talent to score a fight. You can usually see who’s won but sometimes these judges don’t.”
He believed he had to have a “perfect fight” to win in that period, but, looking back on it, Winwood asserted the challenge has only made his commitment stronger. And just before he heads to Tokyo, commitment is one of his most striking traits.
Being in the flyweight division, weighing in just slightly above 52kg would see the 158cm tall Winwood disqualified from any competition.
When he can fully focus on preparation and isn’t at his full-time work building ships for the defence force, constant calorie counting and 16 training sessions per week dominate the life of the Olympic debutant.
Winwood’s seen people lose their minds and, tragically, sometimes their lives to the gruelling nature of maintaining a particular weight.
“Not too many boxing coaches are very clicked on with the weight, but with the science in the new day and age, it’s going to be a lot safer,” he said.
For anyone who knows anything about boxing, though, it’s clear weight-watching isn’t the only issue boxing authorities are needing to provide education on.
Especially after watching the 2015 film Concussion, Winwood is alert to the inherent dangers of his chosen lifestyle.
PLEASE HELP US CONTINUE TO THRIVE BY BECOMING AN OFFICIAL FOOTYOLOGY PATRON. JUST CLICK THIS LINK.
“It’s your life you’re gambling with. You have to provide for more than yourself, so you can’t be playing with your health,” he said.
However, a health crisis of a very different kind is what forced Winwood’s journey to the Olympics onto a new path.
Training in India just before the biggest three fights of his life, news of issues in the location of the upcoming Olympic qualifying tournament caught the 24-year-old’s attention.
“Two days before we were going to fly out, the whole tournament got scrapped,” he said.
It turned out the Chinese city of Wuhan wasn’t going to make for the ideal host, so qualifiers eventually had to be moved. The considerably less pandemic-stricken city of Amman in Jordan was selected as the replacement.
“We flew to Australia and had five days back home, then we were straight back into camp in Canberra, then Thailand,” Winwood remembered.
And when March 3 rolled around and 221 boxers from 35 countries convened at Amman’s Prince Hamzah Sport Hall, confidence in Australia’s flyweight representative was gushing from head to toe.
He soundly beat Hong Konger Chun Hin Kenneth Tam in fight number one, but his next opponent, Thailand’s Thitisan Panmond, proved a sterner test. Winwood lost 5-0. A do-or-die box-off loomed.
Pitted against Iranian Omid Ahmadi Safa, Winwood thought he had it lost heading into the final round. However, a “go, go, go” mentality in round three was decisive.
Walking back to his coaches after the last punches were thrown, Winwood proclaimed, “I feel like I’ve won that. If there’s any bloody fight I’ve ever competed in and won, it’s this one.”
Sure enough, Alex Winwood had won that fight. A miraculous comeback and rise to Olympian status had been secured.
Yet, he’s still got one more tournament to win before ultimate satisfaction.
Hearing him speak, it’s hard not to get caught up in the hype surrounding the Bunbury-born apprentice electrician heading into the Olympics.
“My opponents are looking at old footage of all my bad habits. They’re getting prepared for an old fighter, not the one they’re going to face,” Winwood said as he looked ahead to Tokyo.
Being “very smart”, “strong” and “fast” combine to make a “dangerous fighter” and, according to the fighter himself, “that’s what opponents are going to see” from him.
Winwood plans to turn professional immediately following the Games, so his life philosophy of “leaving no stone unturned” couldn’t be more important as Tokyo preparations reach climax.
The flyweight tournament begins on July 26 at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan. He’ll be coming up against the world’s best to reach Olympic glory, but Alex Winwood will have all of Australia in his corner.
Alex Winwood’s interview, the second instalment of a ten-part Olympic-themed series, can be heard in full via “Where Do We Begin”. Daily review and preview episodes will be released during the Games. Subscribe now on any major podcast platform.
