Boxing: Happy to act as a punch bag

By Peter Jessup

Heavyweight Garth da Silva is headed into training camp with pros including Mike Tyson and Paea Wolfgramm as he seeks to continue his Liverpool Cup success at the world champs in August.

Da Silva is back in Auckland to visit family and satisfy some work commitments for the Army, then heads to high altitude in Denver, Colorado, to act as a punching bag for fighters in the America Presents stable.

"They don't charge me training fees and they don't pay me sparring fees. I'm there as a sparring partner and that's fine because it's what I can't get in New Zealand," he said.

"The intensity is really high because all these guys are going for world titles. There's a higher emphasis placed on everything from nutrition to weights. I'm learning a lot."

He'll be trained by Wolfgramm's coach, Larry Goosen, whose brother Dan is Tyson's agent. He's expecting to hit out against Wolfgramm and Auckland's world kickboxing champ Ray Sefo, who is also at America Presents, but "I don't expect they'll let me anywhere near Tyson."

Da Silva was ranked in the top three amateurs in the world before last year's slip-up at the Commonwealth Games, but is hoping he'll go one higher when new rankings are released after his win at the Liverpool Cup early this month.

The only boxers missing from Liverpool who will be at the worlds in Houston, Texas, next month were the Cubans and Russians - but that's a big "only."

Da Silva wants to be as fit as he can for them and anyone else he encounters in a tough ask - five fights in nine days.

"It'll be the ones who can hang in through repeated fights, take the pummelling and back-up, who will win." The contest is fought over four two-minute rounds.

After that it's back to London where he'll train at the Fitzroy Lodge gym with the England amateur team. He's hoping for fights in Europe to familiarise himself with all styles that will be on show at Sydney 2000, an Olympic medal being his firm goal.

Da Silva dropped to 88kg after the Liverpool effort and is building back muscle with weights work as he seeks to hit 94kg before training down to a fight weight of 91kg for the worlds.

He'll have September off, then it's full steam towards Sydney with a hard and fast programme on the cards next year.

"Everyone will be looking for plenty of fights in the build-up to September 2000 so I shouldn't have to look for hard work."