Looking For a Fight

By David Matthews

Back in the early noughties, journalist David Matthews was given a commission to write a feature about boxing. As he ventured into this closed subculture, he became fascinated by the hardened characters who inhabited it – and found that they were unwilling to talk to outsiders.

An average guy, of average fitness, he decides to take them on at their own game and begins a two year training programme with the aim of achieving a level of fitness where he can have just one fight.

At that time boxing was seen as a violent, outdated sport that was the last bastion of rabid machismo. But in the years since, helped by the global status of superstars such as Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, boxing has come to be seen as the ultimate physical and psychological athletic challenge. And what was once exclusively male terrain has grown in appeal amongst women as a martial art which can deliver a level of strength and mental toughness unparalleled in other sports – and enable them to fend off any kind of attack.

Matthews pursues his goal with humour and determination. He diets, he works out, he learns how to punch properly and how to take a punch, and he observes the boxing scene with wit, grit and emotion, peppered with self deprecating charm. Well ahead of the game, it’s this journey of self discovery that makes this remarkable account of boxing from within such a compelling read.