Remembering Brendan Ingle

Brendan Ingle also was good at promoting fighters.

UK guys here would remember sportsnight and midweeek sport special would show fights, live but lot tape delay.

Ingle, had Fidel Castro Smith, Ingle renamed him Slugger O'Toole.

 

I sparred a good bit. I was kind of a gym rat at a certain point. Ended up having an amateur (pre-first fight) asking me to train him and it went well and pretty soon I had some amateurs and then some pros.

(I did spar one round with a past-his-best Pinklon Thomas, who was much bigger than me, and it went well until late in the round I hit him with a southpaw jab in the eye … he didn’t get his eye closed so it caught eyeball … and he blinked a few times and his expression changed. My instinct was ‘I better do something fast’ so I loaded up my best left hand and let it fly … and he ducked right under it and sunk a right into my gut that completely expelled all my air, haha. Then came over the top with a chopping right. Then, thankfully, the bell rang (mine was already rung lol). I thought he broke my jaw. It had a click in it for weeks every time I opened it. Didn’t really hurt but it was like it was knocked off the hinge to so speak. I was about to go to a doctor and then it went away. So that’s my ‘high point,’ haha.)

Actual competition, I fought a bit of tough-man but that’s it.

The late, esteemed Mr. Ingle and I had this in common: We always started with footwork and emphasized it always. Control the distance and control the geometry of the fight and you’ll probably control the fight. His approach was different than mine (he had all those patterns, which looked complicated but probably weren’t once you understood them; and we had a few patterns too now that I think of it, but not everything was based on it as much as I gather his teaching was) and he clearly was more successful than I was, but as far as foundation I think we agreed on a lot of things.

 

Think gyms are very spartan in many senses, I wasn't good enough I sparred a few times but trained a lot simply fitness and I'm a huge boxing fan.

Had a few friends go pro, different outcomes but even the guys that didn't go far they put the hours in and few of them frankly enjoyed fighting.

St Pat even the best fighters talking world level if the trainer is good, even very good can work a gameplan that gives his charge a chance. Its also about trust between trainer and coach. Either link is questioned it rarely works out long term.

 

All true. One of my favorite fighters that I taught really from the day he walked into the gym, through a short amateur career and on to pro, was a journeyman heavyweight (I’d have to look it up but I’d guess 25-30 fights). But he was a great success story. Poor upbringing in a bad area, could have gone either way … he joined the military and did I think two stints … a lot of his pro fights ended up being when he was on leave so usually not in the best of shape and preparation, but he was pretty good defensively and liked to box. Not saying he could have been a world champ but if he did it full-time he’d have been decent for sure.

He kind of started late in my stint as a manager/trainer so I wasn’t around for most of it.

Now he’s married, has a great family, great job and I reconnected with him short of 2 years ago … I mentioned I was starting back training (just walking and a little jogging at that point) and thinking of joining the boxing gym to hit the bags a few days a week and he said ‘why don’t you do it at my house — I’ve got bags in the garage, no ring but everything else you need.’ Well at my age I wasn’t planning to do any sparring so I took him up on it. I’ve since lost 50 pounds and at 60 am in better shape than I’ve been since probably my early 30s. Still go to his garage a couple times a week (2-3) and also pushing some weights around and doing roadwork.

He’s a great guy. I had a female fighter who lives hundreds of miles away now and we stay in touch, she’ll reach out for my advice sometimes and other times we just catch up. That first amateur that asked me to train him? He became a pro ref as a side job and has refereed fights in three or four states. Run into him at the grocery sometime, he’s a cancer survivor and says ‘boxing taught me how to fight and that’s what got me through it.’ I’ve got a few others who I will see next month when my brother puts on a show here (he still promotes on a limited basis) and it will be like a reunion.

Boxing can be a real gift.

 

Would say about Ingle also he certainly showed that UK fighters could buck the trend of being brave, but stiff upright and just game or lots of heart.

Many fighters do it but, just being at physical peak, workrate but career wise its a short firework unless very durable and style wise thats how you operate.

Ingle operated in the days you often had limited footage on a lot of opponents, the gameplan being you bring the best version of yourself. If you are good enough always a chance.