Curtis Woodhouse Continues His Boxing Comeback!
By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart
Curiously and without much of a fanfare there was a return to the ring by one of the stories of British boxing that has not received, well, much by way of fanfare.
It’s hard to see why not as he was an under 21 year old English soccer internationalist and a British title holder at super lightweight. His last fight was in Scotland when he lost to our own Willie Limond – a man himself, known to contemplate a return to the ring or two over the last few years.
This is a guy who is also my social media hero as he took on a Twitter troll and even went to the guy’s house and posted pictures of his street so that he knew he was genuinely looking for a “conversation” with the guy who had called him out.
Curtis Woodhouse, 23-7, 13 KO’s has the story all lined up of being a success in his first sport, soccer and then in his first love, boxing.
His soccer career included playing for no fewer than 11 professional clubs and then managing 4. He is currently the manager of non league Bridlington Town – a semi professional outfit which is outside the top leagues in England.
By late 2006 he had fallen out of love with soccer and he then turned to boxing. He had absolutely no experience in the sweet science but he made a very impressive debut and from there looked like he was going to have a very decent career – and he did!
Though he had never fought as an amateur, that did not mean he was a stranger in using his fists. There were skirmishes with the law and others, which suggested that he had some affinity with fighting; he managed to gather a few convictions along the way and though he was certainly no shrinking violet he knew that he needed to add some discipline to his fury. That came when he moved more seriously to boxing but for a period of time he mixed being a boxer and playing professional football.
By 2009, Woodhouse announced that he was to turn his back on playing professional football for the last time – he had made the decision before and it actually took until 2011 before he finally did play his last professional game.
The problem for the boxer in Woodhouse, during that time, was that he was fighting a number of journeymen who were providing him with the experience he was after but not the steps on the ladder he wanted and needed.
Mind you, in 2005, he got his hands on his first title – the little regarded International Masters belt and having defended he was due to face Frankie Gavin who had won the 2006 Commonwealth Gold Medal. Woodhouse had to pull out that fight, though he did fight him in 2011, but it was clear to many that being a player in one sport whilst trying to be a player in the other was not going to be a long term target that would bring real results. He had to cut one and follow the other, and so he did. Except he didn’t…
Having been a player and a boxer, he transferred to become a boxer… and a soccer manager… 7 months later he gave up being a manager.
The reason given – too hard to combine two sports…
10 months later he became an assistant manager – obviously being an assistant would be easier…
3 months later he succeeded his boss as the new manager…
That lasted a year before he moved to another club which saw a more settled 21 months in charge before he went to his current club, in September 2016 – Bridlington Town
.
That whirlwind of activity served as a backdrop to his boxing career and it had by now delivered all it was going to. he had got the British super lightweight title and came up north to Scotland to defend it; his opponent obliged by putting his Commonwealth title on the line.
Woodhouse, apart from an English super lightweight title – which he subsequently lost in his next fight – and failed bids to win the WBO intercontinental title against Frankie Gavin and his first Commonwealth lightweight title chance against Derry Mathews in 2012, he was not an honoured boxer.
His “final” fight was in 2014, and Woodhouse, having lost to Willie Limond and as a consequence his British title, announced his retirement from boxing.
Over two years later, he has returned.
The obvious accusation that he faced was that he was cashing in – he needed to fight to pay the bills. Woodhouse with characteristic honesty not only scoffed but blew the idea out of the water.
Like many boxers up and down the country the thought of the types of wages that come with being a Floyd Mayweather, JR. or a Conor McGregor is simply laughable. Most professional boxers have to live their sport as there is very little other rewards available for them.
They have to work for less than minimum wage because the financial risks are way out of kilter with the cash rewards available to them.
Woodhouse returned to a small hall and won on points but this boxer who is pushing 40 has done so because he wants to. The return to the ring may actually cost him. The enterprise will, he reckons, cost £6,800 and if he does not sell enough tickets he will PAY to fight and not EARN his right.
That equates to 170 tickets to sell and whilst you might think that someone who has had a dual career that spans several years would have plenty of people who could afford the £40 per ticket to support him, it’s a tough indication of the risks that the little guys take every year and each day to bring the bacon home and provide us with the entertainment we crave.
The May/Mac fight was a great spectacle but it should sell many more £40 tickets if the effect is real. If we do not see bigger crowds at the grassroots then all we did was put the sprinkles on the top of the cup cake. When we bite in, we need rich sponge and frosting, otherwise the sprinkles will fade and drop off our cupcake like the gloss on a Las Vegas sign…
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