SV Sports Therapy is proud to sponsor boxer, Matt Chanda. Newageboxing.co.uk recently wrote an article about Matt. We've included the first few paragraphs below. Click here for the full article.
When Matthew Chanda made his ringwalk on November 12th 2016 the building, canvas and ropes were all familiar, but everything else was new. Only two fights previously he was fighting for a Southern Area title at York Hall and now in only his eighth bout he was back at the same venue and now fighting for a Commonwealth title against undefeated and much feared ex-Olympian Duke Micah. Less a step up in class, this was a pole vault in standards, a triple jump in abilities.
Micah had torn through the bantamweight division, the Ghanaian wrecking ball had stopped 17 of his 18 opponents, winning the other bout on points. Chanda was favoured by few. But the fight wasn’t a one-sided beating. It wasn’t the destruction many had predicted. Chanda held his own, showed his usual effervescent style of walking into the space and letting his hands go to head, body, head; anywhere a gap opened. Micah had to stop loading up on the big shots he was renowned for and start to display some of the skills that got earned him an Olympic place.
12 tough, frantic rounds passed. The pace only occasionally slowed, but both men showed the kind of desire and heart that is only displayed when two people really want something. You know, REALLY want something. The judges were split, but it was Micah who garnered the favour of two of them, the other siding with Chanda. The Ghanaian walking away with the Commonwealth bantamweight belt, Chanda walking away with a new army of fans and the kind of respect only the toughest deserve.
“I have confidence in my ability, I have from the start. I went in there believing I was that good, but now I know” says Chanda when he looks back at that night in east London. “I didn’t have any doubts in taking that fight. On paper he was the best fighter I have fought but I fought top kids in the amateurs as well. I fought Martin Ward in the amateurs and thought I did enough to beat him. I’ve mixed it with some good, top fighters and given as good as I got. I just hadn’t done it on that stage, I’ve done it in the gym. Doing it in front of people is a different pressure but I know now I am good enough to do it.”
Chanda speaks now as a fighter who knows where he belongs. The Micah fight has raised his profile in the sport, but also acted as a boost which he says, despite the first loss in his career, will make him a new force for the future. “It gives me more confidence in training and in sparring, I know I’m at that level and it makes me a different monster now. You can believe something, but I went in the first round thinking ‘he might hit me in the first round and I go’ – but then as the fight went on and I felt his punches I knew I was at that level.
Looking at his boxing ability, stepping in and out, or his feinting, I matched all of that technically. I grew as a fighter from it. Beforehand I believed it, afterwards I knew it. Belief and confidence makes a dangerous fighter.”
Like good fighters do, Chanda doesn’t dwell on the disappointment or blame others for the loss but instead is reflective and manages to pick apart where he feels he underperformed on the biggest night of his career. So is Micah an opponent he would like to share a ring with again?
“I’d love that fight down the line. There were things I did that I shouldn’t have done; got too close and spoiled my own work. I also didn’t feint enough, just little things that I could do differently. I didn’t let enough combination go to show the judges I was hitting him. I could have made the fight a lot clearer but that’s my fault. Also experience because to be fair to him he was good, at one point I had him going on his bike as he knew on the inside I had the better of him. He knew how to adapt and structure a fight, change it when it wasn’t going his way.”