While it is often said that the key to success in any field is the willingness to work strenuous in silence, this is easier said than done for some professions than for others.
In boxing, for example, it’s all well and good to train alone for years and hone your skills, but at some point you need a crowd, if only to justify risking your life in pursuit of success in a sport that is known to harm as many as it helps. Without that crowd, choosing to be a professional boxer becomes at best a hazardous and misguided hobby, and at worst something closer to masochism.
There is certainly no point in continuing to hurt people and get hurt if you are not financially benefiting from doing so. This is not a game to be played for fun or to pass the time. In fact, fighting in silence or in an empty room is as futile an exercise as you can imagine.
Most boxers in diminutive arenas will find out soon enough, of course. That’s why many of them try first and decide along the way whether they are (a) good enough to become a prospect capable of attracting the attention of major promoters, or (b) willing to earn a decent, but more importantly, salary as a journeyman in the visiting corner. These two options for a boxer in diminutive arenas are really the same these days, because anything in between means danger; a risk that will probably fail and will not bring the boxer any of the rewards he was hoping for and probably needed.
Some learn this the strenuous way; that is, when it’s too overdue. Others, like welterweight Dan Morley, quickly realize that boxing is more than just standing and punching, so they build the foundation to maximize all of their potential.
Morley, who is currently 9-0 as a pro, will be the first to admit that his career has been a stop-start one. Affected by both his own shenanigans and the Covid-19 pandemic, Morley has so far trudged through life as a pro, fighting no more than three times a year (in 2018) and recently taking a two-year break from the sport.
“I never intended to completely walk away,” he said of that time spent in the wilderness. “I was at the end of my rope, as far as patience. Something had to change and I had to step back. When I stepped back, I thought I was just going to take a six-month break. It ended up being a year or a year and a half before I started to have the idea of coming back.
“I had just beaten (Louis) Isaacs in a really good fight (in 2021) and there was a real expectation that I would keep fighting. But my career was going at a really witty time. I had six fights before Covid, all within 18 months of each other, and then I had two years off because of Covid. I fought Isaacs, broke my hand, which slowed everything down, and before the Isaacs fight I had a couple of gigantic promoters offering me sit-downs. Once I got that fight, I felt like it was going to happen. I ended up getting offered a contract, but I had to wait another six months to fight. It was supposed to be a three-fight deal, but the guy who offered it to me left the company and I got kicked out again. I fought on a show for £500 and I never heard from them again.
“I couldn’t make the money I wanted, I started getting injured – broken noses, broken arms – and I just needed a good break from it all.”
Like many others, Morley learned the strenuous way. He learned that to have any chance in the sport, you have to train like a champion, even though you don’t earn the money of a champion, have the profile of a champion, or get the opportunities a champion might expect. That’s usually enough to break the spirit of any aspiring boxer.
“Before I got so burnt out,” he admitted. “I was sparring with guys like Josh Kelly, Harlem Eubank, Mick Conlan, Abass Baraou and I was doing that every week. I did that for two years and my life was just boxing, boxing, boxing. I was running up hills with them every weekend. It was a great experience, but doing it and not making money is tough. I started to hate boxing.
“I promised myself when I came back that I wouldn’t be in that situation again. If I have to do it, I’ll do it for eight weeks and I’ll go to the gym in between, but I’ll keep a balance. If I want to go away and enjoy life, I’ll do that for a few weeks. When I was in that phase, my mindset was basically, how quickly can I get through the next six or seven years and just do it? It’s not fit.
“I don’t have any fights, the promoters always let me down, and that’s how I felt. Other guys in the gym trained like that and then at the end they had a gigantic fight, won the title and made a lot of money. But I didn’t have that. I never had a paycheck, I never had a break.”
Morley, 27, won’t be a household name in boxing circles, but he’s built quite the following online – particularly on Instagram and TikTok – during his absence (212,000 Instagram followers; 199,000 followers; 6.3 million likes on TikTok). Deeming an online presence imperative if he’s to return and succeed in the ring, Morley has effectively embarked on a mission to grow his following, and thus his profile, during his two-year hiatus, ahead of his return to boxing last Saturday (July 6). He’s done so not by stripping off for OnlyFans, selling CBD oil or spreading conspiracy theories, but in a way that, in 2024, might be considered a little old-fashioned, pioneering, refreshing.
“If I were to go back to boxing, I couldn’t do it the way I did before,” he explained. “I had a few sponsors, but I was basically just working from nothing and hoping that some gigantic opportunity would come along. I just couldn’t do it that way. I had no money at all.
“So I started working at a few gyms, started doing personal training, and started doing boxing videos on social media. The idea was to get to a point where I could start building a following and have opportunities through that; as a commentator or whatever. I started making these videos meticulously. I wasn’t making money off of them, but I was cutting footage, putting it together, and doing voiceovers. I was doing four videos a day, and it was four or five hours a day. The idea was to build a following and then get people interested in me a little more when I decided to come back.
“When I first started TikTok and Instagram, I was following a couple hundred boxing pages, but I didn’t know how to build a following on social media. My hairdresser basically told me I should start a TikTok about boxing, but that didn’t get any traction. I just posted videos about boxing. Then I started making boxing videos about styles and different fighters and eras, and on TikTok, that can really take off if something catches on. I did a Cuban-style video that got three-quarters of a million views, and then a Soviet-style video got a million views. Because you keep pushing that, you just get more and more in the algorithm, and that has a domino effect.”
Dan Morley with Joe Wicks
In addition to his social media promotions, Morley diversified his talents by exploring lucrative opportunities in the world of personal training, which has seen him work in places like the Maldives and Switzerland, and rub shoulders with the likes of Millie Bobby Brown, fitness trainer Joe Wicks and rugby player Jason Robinson. Doors naturally began to open for Morley soon after, and it was no surprise that when he announced his ‘return’ to the ring, interest in this fight – a six-round bout with 2-9 year veteran Connor Meanwell at Indigo at The O2 – was far greater than any of his previous fights.
“The response was unbelievable,” said Morley, who stopped Meanwell with a body blow in the first round. “He was a good opponent, but only one with a 2-9 record. When I fought Isaacs, it was one of the best fights of the year, but people don’t know that. I didn’t make any money off of it. People thought I was making my debut last time, but I already have a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate in the bank. It just goes to show you how you promote yourself and how you show yourself. That 45 seconds is the most watched moment I’ve ever seen. I’ve been in this sport for 13 years and people think I’m just starting out.”
Now, with a firmer foundation and a platform to sell himself on, Morley is thinking about his career as a professional boxer in different terms. He sees bigger opportunities, both financially and with titles, and he knows he’ll soon have to prove he’s good enough. Which for any boxer is probably the ultimate dream: to know that true success has nothing to do with marketability or self-promotion, but ultimately comes down to whether you’re good or not.
“I’ve sparred with some really good fighters and I’ve always been able to handle myself and do more than that,” Morley said. “I know how good I am. People always tell me, ‘You’re not confident,’ just because of who I am. But I look at all these elderly fighters that I do videos on, I look at their careers and I just want that for myself. I want to have a ton of fights, a ton of good fights and win titles. If I’m going to set goals for myself, winning the British title next year would be good, and then I’d like to win the British and European titles. I’m in one of the most competitive divisions in the world, so if I had a chance to fight (Jaron) Ennis or (Terence) Crawford in the future, I would definitely do it. As long as I can just stay lively and challenge myself, the titles will come.”
No matter what happens in the future, Dan Morley already knows that wherever he goes, he will be followed.
