Wishaw’s Chris Steel suffered his first loss of his career on December 20th, 2011 against former sparring partner Malta’s Daniel Micallef.
Steel was expected to win the fight and move onto better things, but things didn’t turn out as planned and for Chris it was a life-changing experience.
18 months ago Steel injured the ligaments in his right hand during a sparring session and was told to take six months off by doctors at Wishaw General Hospital. But the inexperienced and eager Steel chose the wrong option and took the fight at just two weeks’ notice.
Chris spoke to www.ringnews24.com about his decision to go through with the fight.
“I was then offered a fight on a couple of weeks’ notice and against my better judgment I decided to take it, hugely underestimating my opponent and thinking I would win even though I was unfit and injured. I was working two jobs at the time to pay the bills and support myself, and I took the fight to be able to buy my girlfriend presents for Christmas. I landed a punch in the first round and my hand just snapped into pieces. I ended up losing that fight to a guy who I’d sparred with before and had made him look as if he didn’t even belong in the same ring as me.
“But on the night he beat me fair and square and I walked away from boxing. That’s the thing that separates boxing from other sports: if football players have a bad night on the pitch they go home, forget about it and nobody remembers the next week; if a boxer has a bad night in the ring, that loss stays with them the rest of their career.
“I felt disheartened and let down by the business side of the sport. Then the doctor confirmed that I had damaged my hand to the point where he strongly recommended that I never box again because the hand would never fully recover.”
When asked about why he wanted to fight again after receiving this warning, Chris explained:
“I’ve been training with the hand now for a few months and it feels good, and even if it does go again I will probably keep boxing because I need to go all the way with this and test myself. I started it so I want to fulfill my potential and not be a could have been”
With the healing hand, we spoke about his future in the sport and what to expect from the fighter who used to be considered a major Scottish prospect.
“The hand healed over a year-and-a-half and I still wasn’t sure what to do. I spoke about it to my manager and promoter Paul Graham, who said he would support me if I wanted to go down the journeyman route – fighting all the time on the road for young prospects to pad their record and earning a lot of money- up to £4000 a month if you boxed every week. Over time, that would have bought me a nice house and car and gave me a comfortable lifestyle, but Paul encouraged me to give it one more go before taking that road.”
Chris took the defeat to heart and his life was turned upside down. In this period of his life he seperated from his long-time girlfriend and suffered depression.
“The defeat led me into a deep depression, which ultimately led to the collapse of a four-year relationship with my long-term girlfriend. I was used to going to the boxing gym everyday training and being around the same people, so when I retired I was left with a huge hole in my life that I filled temporarily when I started drinking and partying a lot.
“Once boxing was removed from my life everything just fell to bits piece-by-piece and I hit a low, I had never been at before. I’d gone from being a top prospect and having the world at my feet to retiring at 21 years old. I never went to University or got a further education – I didn’t think I would need a Plan B because my Plan A wasn’t going to fail. I never seen myself as being anything else but a boxer so it put my life in a tailspin.”
Was he was worried that another defeat on his CV would and turn his life upside down again?
“I don’t think it was the defeat it was the fact that I had to retire and I lost my love for the sport. I am not fighting for the same reasons anymore, I’m not after the Mayweather undefeated record, media attention or money. I realised that where I come from people have a lot of respect for me as far as what I have been able to achieve in the ring and what I always stood for. I’ve been the underdog most of my boxing career so when I turned pro and I was a prospect it was weird; people love nothing more than seeing an underdog achieving success.
“I realised that whether I win, lose or draw these people are still going to follow me and support me because I’m living my dream of being a professional boxer. I want to bring titles back for all the people that support me, I want to represent where I come from well and put the name on the map.
“I just want to make the people that support and always have supported me proud of what I am doing.”
Looking to the future Chris Steel’s comeback is not too far away, with a potential fight happening in Lanarkshire very soon and a possible September comeback.
“Every time I walk into the boxing gym I grew up in there’s about 20 kids in there, and they all idolise and look up to me. They want to be like me and copy the moves I do in the ring. I realised that boxing no longer is about making a million pounds and being famous or holding title belts. I have a responsibility to all these kids to set a good example and be a positive role model. What message am I giving them if I give up on achieving my dreams for a bit of money? They listen to me every time I speak to them or offer advice and I need to use that for positive reasons.
“So when I fight in the next few months it will be my first fight in a year and a half. I just want to make everyone proud of me again and show that no matter how hard things get or how tough your life gets. There is absolutely no excuse for giving up on your dreams and taking the easy way out. Anybody that’s ever hit a hard time in their life or been down on their luck can turn it around.
“I want to show boxing fans, that Floyd Mayweather and Adrien Broner aren’t the be-all and end-all of boxing. There’s millions of up-and-coming boxers and they all go through hardships and tough times. Boxing isn’t all about the flashy lifestyle or having tonnes of money. It’s a cruel business and sometimes it can ruin lives. I want people to read this and hopefully it can touch or inspire a few people.”
Before leaving to continue training for his return, Chris recalled a quote from Mike Tyson that helped put things into perspective.
“Guys get knocked out three or four times and come back and become champions. That’s the thing about the nobility of the sport isn’t it? The struggle, coming back from unimaginable odds – that’s what the sport’s about; you never win until you give up”
