Alex Daley @thealexdaley
Historian & author
SUCCESS in boxing is largely due to hard work and talent, but sometimes other factors can give a fighter the edge. Boxing’s first threeweight world champion Bob Fitzsimmons, for example, famously credited the development of his enormous punch to time spent blacksmithing for his father. Today, the exceptional athleticism and footwork of Vasyl Lomachenko are said to stem, in part at least, from gymnastics and Ukrainian folkdance classes he took as a youngster.