IF you’ve ever strolled through the park on a Sunday morning and come across a football pitch and a crowd of screaming children, you know there’s no sound more terrifying than the one made by parents watching those screaming children from the sidelines. A mix of encouragement, negativity and personal resentment, it comes in waves, a wall of sound, and it increases in volume when a controversial decision is made or a goal is scored or conceded.

It’s one thing to hear the noises as a passerby, but it’s quite another to hear them as a son or daughter. For them, the ones to whom these commands are directed, there’s no escape, and all they can do to silence them is to be perfect – or at least win.

Often, these parents fit the same profile. They either care too much, or they want to win too much, or they have invested too many of their hopes and dreams in a child whose interests are, for now, a fraction of their own. They live vicariously through these children, perhaps because their own lives have reached a tedium too depressing to comprehend, or because they see in their child the self they once were, and see the child’s journey as a performance after a dress rehearsal.

Whatever the motive, such behavior is common when winning and losing are involved. It is common on the sidelines of a football match, and it is also common in boxing, a sport where the stakes are much greater than just winning or losing. In fact, when you consider what exactly is at stake when two children or adults enter the ring, is it any wonder that boxing boasts some of the most bizarre, overzealous, and troublesome fathers in all of professional sports?

Maybe not. Maybe, when you think about it, the idea of ​​seeing your son or daughter in the ring fighting another man whose goal is to knock them unconscious is as terrifying a prospect as a parent can imagine. In that situation, you worry less about them winning and more about them coming home at the end still reminiscent, both physically and emotionally, of the child you accompanied to the fight. Everything else in boxing is a bonus; winning isn’t so much a “W” as it is a relief.

Of course, at the highest level, such thoughts are easier to block or ignore. After all, that is where the large bucks are made, the titles are won, and the family legacy is created. Still, the key ingredients and the underlying fear remain. Still, you, as a parent, have to watch your son or daughter trade blows with another human being and acknowledge that, regardless of their abilities, everything can change in the blink of an eye.

It takes a special kind of person to even consider it. It requires a level of trust that most parents lack, as well as the ability to detach with love and believe, despite the odds, that everything will be okay in the end. For a coach or friend, this is demanding enough, but for a parent, someone who is almost predisposed to expect the worst when it comes to their child, such emotions can often lead to outbursts and behaviors that you wouldn’t normally expect from a parent of, say, a tennis player or a swimmer.

In recent times, for example, there has been a lot of talk about the behavior of fathers Tyson Fury, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez, who have either tried to steal the spotlight from their child or have done or said something outrageous. However, while it never looks good, it is easily explained when you consider and appreciate what these men – barely emotionally mature men – have to endure in the days and hours leading up to their child entering the ring. That doesn’t make any of it right, no, but at least we have to try to understand how unique an experience it is to watch your child in a boxing ring, where danger is obviously omnipresent. At the very least, we have to accept that if we haven’t been in that situation ourselves, it may be unfair to comment on how we or anyone else should react.

On the other hand, it is equally true that many parents, both fathers and mothers, are able to maintain a sober mind when watching their child box. Even those who are close to the action, whether as part of the entourage or as part of the training team, can conduct themselves with class and dignity in a way that seems beyond the capabilities of Messrs. Fury, Haney and Lopez. They suppress their emotions; they do not want to share the limelight.

Kostya Tszyu is an example. He, as Tim’s father, would have every right to push for more involvement in his son’s developing career, but he never did, perhaps because he is satisfied with his own achievements and knows that it is time for the next generation to succeed. Perhaps ultimately, the key to being a supportive father to a struggling child is to be content; content both with your own career and with the thought that your child will now receive everything that once belonged to you.

For some parents, this is clearly a arduous thing to accept. What’s more, as if to prove it, there is a direct correlation between the most misbehaving fathers in boxing and their own level of achievement in the ring. Some parents—the more renowned ones, that is—are witnessing their child attempt to replicate their own success, while others are doing it all for the first time, using their son or daughter as an avatar; their own status and identity are completely tied to whether they rise or fall. In this scenario, you see chaos, explosions, a thirst for attention. In this scenario, you see the same look in the eyes of boxers as in the eyes of children in parks on Sunday mornings, each wondering if today will be the day when the father makes good on his threat to “explode” the referee.

IN Abdullah MasonIn his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, the Museum of Art is exhibiting a painting that has become one of the world’s most eminent representations of noble art. “Sharkey’s Deer” may be 115 years venerable, but—in its rapid-fire blur of sweat and sinew—George Bellows brilliantly conjures the drama, tension, and thrill of watching a warrior ply his craft.

Flash forward to 2024, and the city is once again in thrall to the exemplary skills of a local player, a youthful left-hander considered by many to be the best prospect in the sport. For Mason himself, developing that natural talent has become an obsession.

“It’s never over,” says Mason (13-0, 11 KO) “When you’re in competitive sports, there’s always someone behind you or someone attacking you. You want to make sure that you’re always standing out and being better. So hopefully, the good things that I do, I’ll keep doing better. I’ll keep working on doing better. And anything else that I have to criticize, I’ll keep working on criticizing. So I’ll just keep moving forward.”

A key element of Mason’s early success in the sport is his exceptionally mighty bond with his father and trainer, Valiant Mason, and his five siblings, four of whom followed in Abdullah’s footsteps as boxers. In a city plagued by violent crime, the family found focus and inspiration in the sport, forming a close bond that seemed impenetrable to negative influences.

“Cleveland is a really tough environment, but you have to be in the right places and with the right people. My father was always with the right people. He kept us away from the typical things that happen in Cleveland. He kept us with the right people, everyone who actually has something.

“So growing up, he had a perfume store that sold all kinds of body products and he would have us running out of there. When we started boxing, we would run out of the store to get around the boxing world and to different tournaments.”

Fighting was ingrained in the Mason family’s upbringing. Their ever-protective father divided his nest into two groups, introducing the oldest three to karate, taekwondo and jujitsu and encouraging them to pass on what they learned to their younger siblings. But after the family moved abroad for a while, it was Abdullah who first tried boxing.

“We moved abroad to Yemen and Egypt a while back,” Mason recalls, when he was just 20. “When we came back, there was a boxing gym right around the corner from where we lived. Our dad would ask everyone, ‘Who wants to come to the gym and start training, fighting, boxing?’ I was the first one to really get interested.

“So I started that way, and my brothers came right after me. But once I started getting in the ring, started sparring, that’s when I got it. That’s when I knew, ‘Okay, this is something I really want to do.’ At that point, it was just for fun. I just wanted to be there because I knew this was something I wanted to do. But once my brothers got involved, that’s when I really got into it. I was like, ‘Okay, this is going to be my thing. I’m going to take over boxing.’

For some families, of course, the ongoing complexity of sibling rivalry combined with teenage angst can prove a earnest obstacle when ambitious plans are afoot. However, the bond that the Masons have nurtured has only served to sharpen their skills and strengthen their competitive confidence. It’s a relationship that Abdullah rightly feels both immensely proud of and fiercely protective of.

“I would say we are more supportive than competitive. Of course, we are competitive, as five guys in the same environment, growing up in the same house. We will naturally compete. But it is not a negative competition. It is like motivating each other to be better. Definitely supportive, we are super supportive. If one brother is lacking in some area, not just in boxing, we always like to motivate that person, that brother, to be better,” he says.

“We have a lot of the same good qualities, but as fighters we have different personalities as brothers. But that’s our style. So we all have the same good similarities, but different personality, you know what I mean? So one person might be more offensive, or another might be more boxing, or punching, or something like that. So we all definitely have similar styles, but with our differences.”

Mason is keenly aware of boxing’s opulent history of fathers training their fighting sons, but their partnership, he says, has its own unique active. The undefeated lightweight sees his own progress as part of a family project, with his brothers offering just as much insight and advice as the man who commands his son’s corner.

“They see a lot of things that other people don’t see, I would say. I pick up on that, apply it, and apply it well,” he says.

“It’s amazing to have that family active and have your brothers in your corner, have your father in your corner. It’s a business and you don’t take anything personally. You go in there, you listen to everything they say because that’s what’s best for you in the ring.

“His [his father] being a coach who really sees things that you can’t see from the outside, but at the same time he’s my father. So it’s definitely more comfortable with my father and my brothers in my corner. He just gives me that extra push. I can lock in a little bit better because I know they’re right there. They’ll tell me what they see. And I’ll trust them completely.”

A testament to the work Mason’s team has put in behind the scenes, each victory so far has come with an impressive set of knockouts. The result has been an avalanche of praise, with many predicting he will dominate the lightweight division for years to come.

However, the competition in this particular weight class, even among potential fighters, is already looking very heated, and among the undefeated, promising fighters are such as Andy Cruz, Keyshawn Davis and Emiliano Vargas are all competing to become the next large thing at 135 pounds. While Mason appreciates his natural strength, he can’t wait to showcase the full range of his fighting skills.

“It just turns on like a switch when I want to start sitting on my punches and turning them around. But when I’m in the gym, I see a lot of things and do a lot of things that in a fight I would turn into something. In a fight, you see me throwing that one punch that’s going to knock them out of there.

“But in sparring, I would put together combinations, move differently, step differently, move smartly. I would just work on different things,” he says.

“But as I fight, you’ll see these things start to come together more and more. As I start fighting those longer fights, those rounds with tough opponents, I feel like more will come out and eventually people will start to see more of my arsenal and more of my actual style that I have. Of course, I have the power, judging from my past performances, but there’s so much more to me.

FRANCESCA Hennessy has yet to fight five professional fights but the 19-year-old is already setting her sights on becoming the youngest undisputed world champion in history.

Confident, charming and incredibly talented, Hennessy represents a novel generation of boxers who are inspired by the current champions and want to build their own history.

“I would like to become the youngest undisputed world champion, because the youngest at the moment is 23,” Hennessy said Boxing News.

“I’ve got three more years to do it and I really believe I can do it. I believe I can if I take the right fights at the right time. I’m still newborn. That’s my ultimate goal and that’s what I’m working towards.”

Described by Gareth A. Davies as the female version of Vasyl Lomachenko, Hennessy’s introduction to boxing was inevitable. The daughter of legendary promoter Mick Hennessy and sister of Michael Hennessy Jr., she couldn’t escape the sweet science that flowed through Francesca’s home as a child.

Hennessy continued: “My brother would train in the hallway, and I would sit in the hallway for hours just watching him. This was before I even started boxing. I just liked watching him and practicing that stuff myself.

“My biggest inspiration at first was my brother, because he wanted me to box, too. He would stand in the hallway, hold my shin guards, and show me things. Then we would spar, and he would kneel down and I would give them to him in the hallway.”

She was also inspired by Savannah Marshall, one of the first female boxers in the UK to gain a lot of recognition and show what she could do. The popularity of women’s boxing has been growing steadily in recent years and Hennessy wants to follow in Marshall’s footsteps as a role model for the next generation.

“I think I first met Savannah when I was about 12,” Hennessy said. She would take me to sparring sessions and show me all this stuff. As a newborn girl who wanted to be a boxer, it was kind of an eye-opener.

“Wow, I can actually do this. I saw how my dad and Peter Fury looked after Savannah and how much women’s boxing has grown.

“Not just as a boxer, but as a person, I looked up to Savannah because she was so sweet and nice outside the ring. But once she got in there, she was a killer and she knocked people out.

“I just love the contrast. I love that you can be so nice outside the ring, but when you get in there, you have bad intentions. I’ve always admired Savannah in that sense.”

But like any athlete who dreams of becoming an elite athlete, sacrifice is the norm. Especially in boxing, where training camps are strictly regulated and weekends spent partying in nightclubs don’t exist (or shouldn’t). But when you’re still a teenager, those temptations are challenging to resist.

“When I first started, it was challenging. But now it’s just my life. I’m so grateful that I get to do what I love every day, because a lot of people can’t. It doesn’t bother me when I see everyone going out and partying while I’m inside.

“It was challenging at first, when you saw all your friends going out and you couldn’t go with them. But now it’s just my lifestyle. It’s not my thing anymore.”

In addition, boxing requires a different level of stoicism. A mindset that is unaffected by personal losses. Instead, the ability to focus on the task at hand while blocking out distractions. Before her fourth professional fight, Hennessy had to practice that virtue in person, like a plane going through turbulence after takeoff.

“My grandmother passed away a few weeks before my fight. My grandmother was like my best friend. I was always close to my grandmothers, especially at camp when you couldn’t go out with your friends and you couldn’t socialize.

“My grandmother was the place I would go for tea. We would laugh and I would always be there. So it was a really tough time.

“But I just believe that when things like this happen, you can either sit back and not push. Or you can get up, push, make them proud and make their name live on in memory.

“I believed that by dedicating my fight to her, I could make her cheerful. I knew that she would be looking down on me that day. Even though it was challenging, I’m glad I took up the fight.”

Hennessy won over Dorota Norek on June 15 on points on the undercard of Chris Billam-Smith’s rematch with Richard Riakporhe. The judge scored it 77-75 in Hennessy’s favor, and it was the toughest fight of her newborn career. No prospect is expected to lose in their first few fights, but many do. Norek was an unexpected test of fire, and Hennessy passed.

“I was cheerful with my performance because a few things went wrong during the preparations. I had a lot on my mind. Dorota is a very tough woman. She came to win.

“My last opponents were on the defensive and didn’t want to engage. So it was nice to have someone who actually came out to win and fight.

“It was also good to be in an atmosphere where I didn’t have to do everything my own way and had to dig a little deeper.

“I was really cheerful with the fight and I’m glad I learned a lot from it, and that’s the most vital thing.”

Hennessy, now 4-0 with one knockout, wants to get back in the ring as soon as possible. A shot at an undisputed championship may have to wait, although “The Billion Dollar Baby” hasn’t ruled out fighting for other gold before the end of the year.

“I just want to be energetic,” she said. “I’m still newborn, so I want to keep it going and keep the ball rolling. Even since my last fight, a few weeks into training, I feel like I’ve learned and absorbed so much from it.

“I watched my fight and I was like, ‘I can do this in the next fight, I can do that.’ It made me even more excited about my next fight after that fight. There’s so much more I haven’t shown.

“There’s so much more of Fran Hennessy that people haven’t seen. So in my next fight, I want to show a lot more of my style.

“I would like to have a few more fights and get a title at the end of the year. I’m not sure what title it will be, but some kind of title at the end of 2024.”