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Pugilistic Defeat & Struggle: Jonathan Walley’s Fight Experience Part II

January 15, 2017 — 1 Comment

By Rudy Mondragón
Twitter: @boxingintellect 

Fight Night 

The night of the fight was finally here. July 30th marked the day that Jonathan Walley would raise his arms in victory. This was the plan. What transpired, however, was the beginning of Walley’s biggest pugilistic struggle.

I drove to Van Nuys early in the afternoon to pick up my tickets for the KO Boxing With The Stars event from Jonathan. Instead of receiving tickets from him, I was greeted at the door by his older brother. From the doorstep, I could hear Walley’s voice and the shower head running. I looked over to the bathroom window and saw an excessive amount of steam exiting. Jonathan was still trying to cut weight.

Unlike professionals, amateurs are expected to make weight the day of the fight. Rather than resting, focusing, and relaxing before his fight, Walley was forcing his body to make weight to remain eligible for his evening contest. Jonathan’s day started with a 6am run in the gym while wearing his sauna suit. After his run, he went into the jacuzzi and steam room to force himself to sweat some more. He then went home for a nap and when he woke up, he went straight to the bathroom to create a steam room like environment in his home (this is when I came to pick up the tickets). Next, Walley showered to freshen up, put his sauna suit back on, and went back to the gym for another run. From the gym, he walked home (3 mile walk) in his sauna suit under the summer sun to sweat off more weight. On top of all this work, Jonathan still had to fight.

I arrived to Los Angeles Valley College and found a seat in the old school wooden bleachers of this community college’s basketball gym. It definitely was a night of stars, as notable figures were in attendance. Obba Babatunde (The Notebook, John Q, and Philadelphia), Laila Ali, and Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav to name a few. Amongst the stars were parents, family members, and friends supporting the many amateurs who were scheduled to fight that night.

After a couple of exciting matches, it was time for Jonathan to fight. Originally scheduled as the co-main event attraction, there were some last minute schedule changes that moved up Walley’s fight sooner than expected. Obba Babatunde, the emcee for the night, announced Jonathan, prompting his entrance to the ring. Nothing happened. The crowd looked towards the locker room entrance, but Jonathan was not walking out. After a second announcement by Babatunde, Walley finally appeared. He seemed to be in a rush, still trying to put on his head gear for the fight. From my perspective, it seemed like something was off. Walley looked physically ready to fight, but looked flustered and mentally  uncomfortable.

Jonathan fought three hard rounds. At times it seemed like his mind was working faster than his body, not being able to execute his game plan, falling short of his abilities and skills as a counter-puncher with power. Maybe the hard work to make weight over-fatigued him, or the schedule change threw him off mentally. Whatever it was, Walley was not performing like his usual athletic, skilled, and intellectual self. Something definitely wasn’t right.

The final bell rang and it was time to hear the judge’s decision. It was a close fight. Judge’s scorecards called for a split decision, in favor of his opponent, Ivan Beltran. This wasn’t what Jonathan envisioned. He came to win, yet the reality, on this night, was Jonathan experiencing his first career defeat.

Post-Fight Rollercoaster 

Boxing is not like any team sport. Boxers don’t compete in three-game series or on a weekly basis. On a sports team, you have a collective community you compete with and a shorter amount of time to think of defeat as you are expected to get back on the court/field to perform. For Jonathan, athletes in team sports have “shorter memories of defeat.” He states that in boxing, you are alone and therefore, “you hold on to that shit.” This is what I call the arc of redemption* in boxing, which is the traumatic time a boxer experiences between defeat and their next match. For boxers, the arc of redemption can last months, even years, before they are able to step back in the ring to correct their career paths.

I sat down with Jonathan five months after his first career defeat. For the most part, he was in high spirits and energized every room we walked into. As we began our conversation, the first thing Jonathan shared with me about his defeat was that going into the fight, he felt he was better than his opponent and that he did not expect to lose. He went from being a confident fighter to all of a sudden feeling emotionally drained and alone.

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He originally had plans to hang out with friends after his fight. He felt that things changed as a result of losing. “I lost and then there was no party… there was no party… everyone went out to eat and my phone was dry as fuck.” At one point, Walley questioned whether his friends would have given him love had he won. Maybe his friends just didn’t know how to support him at this crucial moment in his life. Either way, Jonathan’s mind, the mind of a fighter, went towards a dark space where loneliness sank in, and feelings of abandonment felt real. Jonathan occupied a mental space at the extremes of sadness and anger.

The days that followed were extremely difficult on his overall wellbeing. He had a hard time sleeping, didn’t want to talk to anyone, and despite draining himself to make weight for his fight, Walley did not have an appetite. Jonathan explained to me that, being the food lover that he is, it was especially difficult feeling hungry and not having a desire for a meal.

In an effort to turn his struggles into a positive, Jonathan decided to leave the state of California to get away. At this stage, Walley was avoiding people and wanted to process defeat in isolation. When people asked where he was, he would tell them he was in Las Vegas, including me. The reality however, was that he was in Arizona reflecting on his defeat and life.

Even though he wanted to be alone to process, Jonathan realized that he needed words of affirmation and validation from his loved ones to help him overcome this vulnerable period of his life. Although he did receive some, he also recalls the negative energy he felt from his critics and the silent voices around him. “It wasn’t about the things they could’ve told me,” Jonathan said, “it was more the things that was said not to me, and then, the things that wasn’t said at all.” In other words, Jonathan found out people turned on him and spoke negatively about him behind his back. He also wished people would have been more vocal and attentive about his struggle instead of remaining silent.

Although Walley feels like he has learned from his first defeat, he doesn’t feel like he will ever fully recover from it. When it comes to experiencing his first defeat, Jonathan feels that “you can’t play it off and say you don’t care.” Defeat in a boxing context is still a new thing for him and a day doesn’t go by that he doesn’t think about it. He had a tentative match scheduled for the end of January, but with the unstable nature of amateur boxing, that fight was called off, further prolonging Walley’s opportunity at redemption.

In the mean time, Walley has to sit with the thought of his first defeat for six months, maybe more, before he can step back in the ring for his chance at redemption. What does a boxer do during that long time frame to physically, mentally, and spiritually heal? Talking about it with people is a good start. Talking about defeat and the emotional rollercoaster one goes through is not a sign of weakness. If anything, it is a sign of strength. Strength because Jonathan displayed vulnerability in sharing this experience of struggle with me. Opening up to one person about hardship is a brave act, but a willingness to share one’s story of defeat with the rest of the world is a manifestation of courage.

Jonathan’s road to recovery is embodied in stic.man’s hip hop track titled, Joe Louis from The Workout album. This track is about the famous black boxer, Joe Louis, who is considered one of the best heavyweights of all-time. One of the bars in this song states, “If you stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready,” which is what I see Walley doing as he waits for his next scheduled match. That is what he knows best. Staying in the gym keeps him feeling alive, ready, and prepared in case he is asked to fight on short notice. At this point, to overcome this difficult phase in his career, Jonathan manifests stic.man’s lyrical hook in Joe Louis: “I train to live, I live to train. It’s go hard or go home, no pain, no gain.” There is no quit in this young man. Healing through boxing and training is a one day at a time process.

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As difficult as it was for Walley to open up, what I admired the most was that he made no excuses of his defeat nor belittled his opponent. He respects the decision. He respects Ivan Beltran. He accepts defeat and welcomes the ups and downs that come with it. One things for sure, Walley is eager and ready to rise up again.

*Special thanks to Dr. Samantha Sheppard for helping me think through this idea of temporal struggle in boxing to construct the concept of boxing’s arc of redemption.

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The photos below are of Jonathan Walley training at the Roy Jones Jr. Fight Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada the morning before our conversation 

Boxing & Beyond: Jonathan Walley’s Pre & Post-Fight Experience Part I

January 4, 2017 — 1 Comment

By Rudy Mondragón
Twitter: @boxingintellect 

In This Corner…

Jonathan Walley is a 22 year old amateur boxer. Prior to boxing, Walley was a standout basketball player who had athletic scholarship offers to well known institutions of higher education. During his high school career, however, Walley got into trouble and found himself serving time in a juvenile center known for functioning like an adult state prison.

As a result of his detainment, Jonathan lost his scholarship offers. He tried community college, but it wasn’t fulfilling for him. Then, one of his closest friends introduced him to the sport of boxing. Walley described this moment as, all of a sudden, finding himself in the “best situation possible.”  It was at that time that he met reputable trainer, Joe Goossen, from the Ten Goose Boxing Gym in Van Nuys. For Walley, Goossen has since become a fatherlike figure who teaches him lessons about life, principles, and morals.

It was at Ten Goose Boxing Gym where I first met Jonathan in the summer of 2015. Though he is a great athlete, it wasn’t his boxing skills that caught my attention at the time. It was the Black Lives Matter t-shirt he unapologetically wore that drew me in. In the Post-Ali era of boxing, where politically charged boxer-activists are hard to find (they exist though, trust me), it was refreshing to see Walley openly demonstrate his politics via his choice of fashion.

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During our interview, Walley made sense of Black Lives Matter with a medical analogy to critique the idea of “All Lives Matter.” He stated, “it is like going to the doctors office with a broken arm and having a doctor suggest examining your leg instead… all bones matter, right, they do, but if this one’s broke, lets focus on this one.” In other words, Walley understands the importance of getting to the root issue of systemic problems. Without a functioning bone, the body cannot continue. Without addressing racism and power, this country cannot fully heal from the traumas of the past.

This two-part article focuses on Jonathan Walley’s experience as an amateur boxer who was dealt his first career defeat. I had the honor and privilege of sitting down with Jonathan before and after his July 30th, 2016 152 pound amateur match in the Elite Male division against Ivan Beltran. Jonathan displayed the excitement and confidence of a young man who was ready to enter the ring only to then hear him speak his truth about the sadness and loneliness he experienced after defeat. Below is Part I, which explores Jonathan’s pre-fight moments where his mind, body, and spirit were in tip top shape. Part II (forthcoming) will focus on the vulnerability and struggles he experienced after defeat.

Fight Week

It is Tuesday night during fight week and Jonathan’s demeanor is serious and focused. He is mindful of his food and liquid intake as anything too heavy can jeopardize his goal of making the 152 pound weight limit. We sit down for the interview during the dinner hour. I ordered a sandwich and offered Walley a meal. He respectfully declined the meal offer, but took me up on a glass of lemonade. He is the type of fighter who stays in the gym in order to be ready to fight at any moment. It is also a way for him to maintain his weight given his love for food. I asked him if the sacrifice of limiting his food intake the week of the fight was worth it. His response was one of optimism and positivity. He doesn’t see it as a sacrifice but more so part of the process. With less than 5 days till fight night, Walley is on a strict meal plan, no longer eating whole meals in order to make weight.

As a boxer, Jonathan describes himself as a “non-violent person.” He doesn’t limit the conceptualization of boxing as simply being a violent sport. Instead, he describes it as a “dangerous sport” that is no different than the dangers we experience on a daily basis in life. Walley engages in this dangerous sport because of his family, friends, and followers. He thrives on the aura he absorbs from them when they watch his fights. It keeps him motivated and energized. He loves to put on a show for them because he believes they provide him with the necessary validation and recognition to grow as a person.

Walley emphasizes that an amateur career is an important time for one to find themselves. By this, Walley means finding his fighting style and the right weight to compete in when he turns professional. Yet, this idea of finding himself also deals with identifying the necessary coping strategies to deal with the high pressures that come with the grimy boxing industry. The coping mechanisms necessary to deal with the struggles that come with defeat or career setbacks. Jonathan is finding out what he is made of. As quickly as one’s confidence sores in boxing, it can quickly be taken from them. Jonathan is learning how to embrace the idea of struggle to become a better man.

Jonathan feels he has done the excruciating work in the gym necessary to come out on top. He describes his training environment similar to a hot sauna. At the Ten Goose Boxing Gym, it feels as if the heater is turned up, the body heat of other boxers training increases the temperature in the gym, and on top of that, it is the peak of the summer season. These are not the most comfortable of training conditions. Yet, Jonathan smiles the entire time he paints this picture for me. The hard work has been done in the gym with Joe. He doesn’t fear the possibility of losing. He doesn’t believe in such a thing.

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The remainder of Jonathan’s prep work for the fight consists of watching his weight, light workouts, and intellectual engagement. The intellectual side of boxing consists of strategy, deconstructing an opponent’s style, and learning from boxings greatest stars. Walley’s intellectual engagement comes in the form of studying fights on YouTube. For fight week, Jonathan’s video line up consists of the 1993 match between Pernell Whitaker and James “Buddy” McGirt, the 2004 match between Floyd Mayweather Jr and DeMarcus Corley, and the 2013 fight between Mayweather and Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. He does this is to study Whitaker, Guerrero and Corley, who are southpaw fighters (left-handed) just like his July 30th opponent. Walley is a student of the boxing game who does the physical and mental work in and outside the gym.

Closing Thoughts 

Going into this fight, Jonathan knows his family supports him. He also knows that they do not like the fact that he boxes. It is the dangerous nature of the sport and the aftermath of a fighter’s career that worries them. Many times, boxing is all boxers have and as a result, they struggle once their careers are over because they do not have a back up plan. Jonathan believes he is different in this regard.

Walley’s back up plan involves food. Jonathan loves to eat and feels like a career in the food industry is in his future. He wants to open his own restaurant one day. The idea of a “back up plan” for boxers is an important topic of conversation that should be discussed with both amateur and professional fighters. It is a topic that deals with their present lives as fighters and the future they envision for themselves once their careers are over.

Boxing is a brutal sport that requires a back up plan. The reality, as Jonathan explains, is that majority of boxers do not have college degrees or come from homes where parents hold middle class jobs or have their own businesses they can pass on to their children. So what does a boxer do once their boxing career is over?

Engaging in this type of conversation is one of taking a fighter’s humanity into consideration. It deals with the well-being of the fighter after their bodes are no longer able to entertain boxing fans. Do managers talk with their fighters about life after boxing? How about promoters? Is there a system in place that supports fighters in this regard? I would say no as it does nothing for the movers and shakers of the boxing industry who are concerned with the bottom line: making money.

As Jonathan’s amateur fight on Saturday loomed, it was uplifting to know that he was thinking about his life after boxing. In a sporting industry that denies its employees minimum salaries, pension plans,* or health care, it is critical that boxers take control of their careers, their minds, their bodies, and their spirits. Jonathan is an agent of his own future and we should take note of it.

Stay tuned for Part II of “Boxing & Beyond: Jonathan Walley’s Pre & Post-Fight Experience.”

* California Professional Boxer’s Pension Fund has existed since 1983 and holds $5.3 million dollars for retired boxers over the age of 50 who meet certain criteria. Pension funds for boxers varies by state and is not currently a federal issue. Many boxing agents have advocated for the regulation of boxing in order to address issues of minimum salary, pension plans, and health care to name a few.