A NIGHT AT THE FIGHTS
WITH WAYNE MAD DOG ELCOCK
By Adeyinka Makinde
16.02 - The education of a promising
professional fighter is always something to behold.
For the manager it is the arduous process of bringing
along his charge at the right pace, as the potential
opposition is assessed and scrutinized to present the
appropriate level of competition. Stagnation of the
boxers skills beckon for those who are overcautious
while defeat is the certain consequence for the over
ambitious. As much an art as it is a science, the choice
of selection says much about the intuition and level
of expertise of the manager doing the selecting. On
Saturday, February 15th, at the Wembley
Conference centre, Wayne Elcock, a powerfully
built middleweight managed by Frank Maloney will have
learnt much from his tussle with the Belarus originated
Yuri Tsarenko.
Once a semi-professional footballer,
Elcock has only recently given up his job as a telecommunications
engineer in order to devote his energies totally to
the sport. Dubbed "Mad Dog," Elcock has been
compared to explosive punchers of the ilk of Nigel Benn
and Joe Calzaghe. That Maloney intended this to be a
great leap forward is attested to by the
selection of Tsarenko, a fighter moulded in the granite
hard intransigence typical of many a fighter imported
from the Slavic lands, as well as the decision to schedule
the bout for ten rounds.
A brief period of observing Elcock
reveals his Mad Dog moniker to be somewhat
misplaced. He is an aggressive fighter, true, but his
is a schooled aggressiveness, not at all unbridled or
uncouth. He has quick hands and many times would move
to his opponent not with a jab or succession of jabs
but with a right, driven hard against the sides of the
Belarusian and followed up with a left in the direction
of the head. Even when stepping backwards, Elcock looked
deadly, making Tsarenko miss and swiftly moving forward
to punish him.
In the second, Elcock concentrated
more on utilizing the more orthodox jab followed by
combination attack. During one such onslaught, Tsarenkos
left cheek opened causing the referee to temporarily
halt proceedings for the wound to receive treatment.
The subsequent chase by Elcock however yielded no knock
down. Indeed, while Elcock, ably encouraged by Maloneys
shouts of Good shot," scored, Tsarenkos
boxing became more assured. The look on his face showed
anything but fear and he moved towards, not away from
Elcock. As the end of the fifth approached Tsarenko
was surprisingly still in the game a combination of
his resilience and Elcocks ineffectiveness. Indeed,
in the sixth, Tsarenko was not merely surviving but
actually prospering catching Elcock with a blow that
pushed Elcocks head backwards. Encouraged by these successes,
Tsarenko upped the pace absorbing Elcocks punches with
apparent ease and coming forward. This proved disconcerting
to Elcock to the extent that appeared to forget to use
his jab. So bereft of ideas was he that ex-heavyweight
champion Tim Witherspoon sitting ringside purported
to remind him of the basics: "Double the jab up
Wayne
.two jabs Wayne
then hit him with
the right."
Things went from bad to worse. Elcock
was stung by a short right thrown to the side of his
face and was fighting for his survival as with Tsarenko,
hoping to land the coup de grace, followed in pursuit.
Frantic messages from around ringside implored Elcock
to keep his hands up and to get on his "bike."
And survive he did. In the final round he moved around
keeping sufficient distance between himself and Tsarenko
with a jab. The referee scored Elcock the winner by
ninety-eight points to ninety-three.
In the main bout of this Frank
Warren promoted event, Southern Area Lightweight
champion Graham Earl survived an intense, give
and take first round brawl with Steve Murray,
to knock his opponent out in the second of a scheduled
12 round bout, an official elimination contest for the
British Lightweight championship.
Ade Makinde may be reached at
adeyinkamakinde@aol.com
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