ALTHOUGH it is always said that the key to success in any field is that you are determined to be calm, but it is easier to say that in some fields than others.
In boxing, for example, everything is good and good training only for years and sharpen your skills, but at some point it will have to be a crowd, if only to justify risking your life in the pursuit of success in a sport known to hurt. as many as it helps. Without this crowd, choosing to be a professional boxer becomes, at best, a dangerous and unfair hobby, and, at worst, something close to masochism.
It makes no sense to keep hurting people and getting hurt if doing these things doesn't bring you any financial reward. After all, this is not a game you play for fun or to pass the time. In fact, fighting in silence, or an empty room, is as futile a task as you might imagine.
Most boxers in the small gym circuit will quickly realize this. That's why many of them try out at the beginning and decide in the process that (a) they are good enough to be prospects who can attract the attention of big promoters or (b) they are ready to do well, which is more important. , unchangeable salary as walkers in the far corner. These two options, for the boxer of small halls, are really the ones only in modern times, because anything in between represents danger; a risk that may backfire and bring the boxer one of the rewards they've been waiting for and possibly needing.
Some learned this the hard way; that is, when it is too late. Others, however, such as welterweight Dan Morley, recognize early on that boxing is more than just turning and punching and so build a foundation to maximize all opportunities.
Now 9-0 as a pro, Morley will be the first to admit that his career has been one of a kind. As much affected by his wanderings as the Covid-19 pandemic, Morley has so far interfered with his life as a professional, fighting more than three times a year (in 2018) and recently taking a two-year break from the sport. .
“I didn't intend to leave at all,” he said at that time in the wilderness. “I was at the end of my rope, patience wise. Something had to change and I had to step back. When I took that step back, the idea was to take a six-month break. That ended up being a year or a year and a half before I started getting the idea to come back.
“I had just beaten (Louis) Isaacs in a good fight (in 2021) and I was expected to move on after that. But my work was going on during a really good time. I had six fights before Covid, all within 18 months, then I had two years off due to Covid. I boxed Isaacs, broke my hand, which slowed things down, and before I beat Isaacs I had big promoters giving me sit-down meetings. Once I got rid of that fight, it felt like it was going to happen to me. I finally got the contract but had to wait another six months to fight. That was supposed to be a three fight deal but the person who had given me that deal left the company and I was fired again. I hit 500 pounds on the show and never heard from them again.
“I couldn't earn the money I wanted, I started getting injured – a broken nose and broken hands – and I just needed a proper break from it.”
Like many, Morley studied hard. He was learning that in order to have any chance in sports you must train like a champion even if you don't earn the money of a champion, brag about being a champion, or get the kind of opportunities a champion would expect to get. This is usually enough to break any aspiring boxer's spirit.
“Before I fainted,” he admitted. “I was traveling with players like Josh Kelly, Harlem Eubank, Mick Conlan, Abass Baraou, and I did that every week. I did that for two years and my life was boxing, boxing, boxing. I was running up hills every weekend with them. It was a great experience but doing that and not making money is hard. I started to hate boxing.
“I promised myself when I return that I will not put myself in that position again. If I have to do it I will do it for eight weeks and stay in the gym in between but I will have a balance. If I want to travel and enjoy my life, I will do that again for a few weeks. When I was in that phase, my idea was basically this: how fast can I go through the next six or seven years and just do this? That is not a healthy place.
“I don't get any fights, I'm always disappointed by the promoters, it's like Groundhog Day mine. Some guys in the gym were training like that and then there was a big fight at the end, they won the title, they got a lot of money. But it wasn't like that for me. I never had a profit or a break.”
Morley, 27, may not be a familiar name to many in boxing circles, yet online – particularly on Instagram and TikTok – in his absence, he has generated a following (212,000 followers on Instagram; 199,000 followers and 6.3 million likes on -TikTok). Considering an online presence as essential if he is to return and succeed in the ring, Morley, during his two-year suspension, successfully began a campaign to increase his fan base, as well as his profile, before returning to boxing last Saturday (July 6). He didn't do it by taking down OnlyFans, whipping up CBD oil, or spreading conspiracy theories, but rather in a way that could be taken in 2024 that is old school, novel, refreshing.
“If I were to go back to boxing, I wouldn't do it the way I used to do it,” he explained. “I had a few sponsors, but nothing was happening and I hope a big opportunity will come. I just couldn't do it like that. I had no money at all.
“So, I started working in a few gyms, I started training, too indeed he started making boxing videos on social media. The idea was to find that in a place where I would start to find the following and find opportunities behind it; punditry or anything else. I started making those videos carefully. I wasn't getting paid for them, but I was recording videos, combining images, and doing voiceovers. I would make four videos a day and that would take four or five hours a day. The idea was to get a following and then make people a little more interested in me when I decided to come back.
“When I started my accounts on TikTok and Instagram, I followed a few hundred boxing pages but didn't know how to build social networks. My barber actually told me that I should make a TikTok about boxing but that didn't get much. It was just me posting boxing videos. Then I started making boxing videos about styles, other fighters and eras, and on TikTok it just explodes when you find something that sticks. I made a video about the Cuban style and it got three quarters of a million views and the one about the Soviet style got a million views. With its constant push, you just appear more in the algorithm and it's like a domino effect. “
Dan Morley and Joe Wicks
In addition to the pressures of social media, Morley has diversified his talents by looking for lucrative opportunities in the world of personal training. This has seen him work in places like the Maldives and Switzerland and rub shoulders with the likes of Millie Bobby Brown. Stranger Things fame, fitness coach Joe Wicks, and rugby player Jason Robinson. The gates, naturally, began to open quickly for Morley and it is not surprising that when he announced his “return” to the ring the interest in this fight – a six-rounder against the 2-9 journeyman Connor Meanwell at the Indigo at the O2 – was successful. much bigger than any of his previous fights.
“The response was unbelievable,” said Morley, who stopped Meanwell with a body shot in the first round. “It was a good road opponent, but it was a walk-on with a 2-9 record. When I boxed Isaacs that was one of the best fights of that year, but people don't know about it. I didn't get paid for it. People thought I was making my debut the other day, but I've already got a 'Fight of the Year' contender in the bank. That just goes to show that it's all about how you market yourself and get yourself out there. That 45 seconds was the most viewed I've ever been. I've been in this game for 13 years and people think I'm just starting out.”
Now, with a solid foundation and a platform to sell himself, Morley thinks about his career as a professional boxer in different terms these days. He sees great opportunities, financially and so far academically, and knows that it will soon be up to him to prove that he is good enough. Which is, for any boxer, perhaps the ultimate dream: to know that true success has nothing to do with marketing or self-promotion but ultimately leads to whether or not you are good.
“I've had success with very good fighters and I've always been able to hold my own or go above and beyond,” said Morley. “I know how beautiful I am. People always say to me, 'You don't have confidence,' just because of the way I am. But I look at all those old fighters that I make videos about and I look at their careers and I want something like that for myself. I want to have many, good fights, and win titles. If I'm going to set goals for myself, next year winning the English title would be great, and I'd like to win the British and European titles after that. I'm in one of the most stacked divisions in the world, so if I can get a crack at (Jaron) Ennis or (Terence) Crawford next time I'll take it. As long as I can keep working, and keep challenging myself, the titles will come from that.”
No matter what happens in the future, Dan Morley knows now that he will be followed wherever he goes.
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