by Alistair Hendrie

Martin Gethin is determined to make up for lost time. On May 31, the lightweight faces a lucrative challenge against Ammeth Diaz, a final eliminator for the IBF world title, but above all else, it’s a genuine wonder Gethin is still boxing at all. In summer 2010, the current British champion was working on a construction site moving bricks, breezeblocks and cement, and when he decided to combine this with his weight training, his naivety would leave his career in jeopardy. 

“After I’d been lifting things on the site, I’d get certain shooting pains down my back,” Gethin remembers. “I’ve always lifted a lot at work but when I was training for a fight, I’d grab something and think: ‘Right, I’m gonna run up those stairs.’ In most cases, I would pick everything up completely incorrectly; I wouldn’t bend my knees and so my back got the brunt of it.

“One occasion I got the worst shooting pains across my back and I had to sit it out for the rest of the day. When you don’t pick something up in the right way, you can suffer all kinds of injuries.”

Gethin was told by doctors that he had ripped a muscle in his back, and he was forced to undergo keyhole surgery. Although the 29-year-old admits he can’t remember the doctors’ specific diagnosis, the 16 month stint on sidelines, away from the rigours of training and competition, was an ordeal that Gethin struggled to cope with.

“It was like someone chaining me to a pole and saying: ‘Right, you can’t move from here.’ Usually I hate even taking one day off from training. The doctors said I could still take my dog for walks, but even if I was only walking for five miles or so, the pain was still so bad. It did my head in.”

Recovery was a long, arduous journey and the most rudimentary techniques in boxing became impossible to execute. “When I was in that sort of pain, when I tried simple things like dodging and weaving, trying to avoid shots, that kind of thing really set if off. I remember rolling out of the ring in the gym because the pain was so bad.”

Still, a sense of pride emanates from Gethin’s voice as he describes how a combination of common sense, patience and perspective helped him on the way to rebuilding his career. He bided his time, he says, and only after his back had fully healed, he ran further than before and trained with an entirely different degree of intensity and determination.

After his comeback win in November 2011, a six-round decision over Arek Malek, Gethin dismissed another three journeymen before stopping Carl Johanneson for the IBF International title. You might think Gethin’s fighting spirit is a significant factor in his rejuvenation. After all, fighting itself is in his blood.

His three older brothers, Darren, Steve and Robert, all boxed professionally or in the amateurs, and it was Darren, the eldest sibling and now 36, who sparked a love of boxing that would run deep through the impressionable but unruly youngsters.

“Our Dazza was always getting into fights,” says Gethin with a chuckle. “My dad, Graham, had never boxed – he was more of a pigeon flyer – but when he saw what was happening with Dazza he said: ‘Right, if you’re going to get into fights, you can go down to the boxing gym.’ From thereon in, all four of us brothers started boxing.”

“It changed our lives really. We were all getting into trouble and it helped us sort ourselves out. It gave us a good outlet to use up our aggression.”

Darren clinched the Midlands Area welterweight title, although it was Steve who always showed the most potential out of the Gethin clan. He was an ABA semi-finalist but upon entry into the paid ranks, Steve stumbled into the journeyman category and retired in 2010 with a meagre record of nine wins, 23 losses and five draws. 

Martin admits how, after such promise in the amateurs, he and his brothers were always puzzled by Steve’s failure to shine in the pros. “I thought he’d go on and do well in the professional ranks, we all did, but none of us can work out where it went wrong.”

“Steve boxed Amir Khan in Scotland in 2005; it was only Amir’s third pro fight and he won by a third round knockout. Steve did alright but he couldn’t cope with Khan’s speed. He said the ref must have been punching him too as it felt like he was up against Speedy Gonzalez in there!”

Despite his brothers’ pedigree and fleeting moments in the limelight, Robert never amounted to much as a fighter. Indeed, a perforated eardrum caused him to retire from the amateurs at the tender age of 16. According to Martin, Robert suffered incredible nerves before fights, a grave sense of stage fright that would curtail his career.

“He got really nervous before fighting in front of people. I think that led to his retirement as well. I could never understand why he got so anxious and although I don’t remember too much of his career as it was so long ago, my Dad said he was good, probably the best out of all of us. He said he was really strong.”

Martin too enjoyed a lengthy spell in the amateurs. He boxed in the senior ABAs but claims that the referees were too strict. For instance, in fights with Ryan Burnett and in particular Frankie Gavin, Gethin states he found it difficult to know what was allowed and what wasn’t. Tellingly, he lost both fights.

Gethin appears to have found a winning remedy in the pro game, however, and is now unbeaten since 2009. His last fight, a ninth round stoppage of Ben Murphy for the British title, brought him perhaps his finest hour in front of his home fans at Walsall Town Hall. Gethin boxed tentatively at first, throwing few punches, but abandoned his gun-shy principles as the fight went on.

“We already knew what he was going to come and do,” says the cocksure Gethin. “He could throw those winging punches all night. I thought I’d take a look at him from the start, see what he could offer, and then from about the third round I decided to punch with him.

“I started picking it up, throwing more shots. From the fourth round on, I could see he was slowing down as he wasn’t throwing punches. Then I started whipping to the body around the seventh round and from then onwards, that’s where he met his end.”

The victory brought recognition, acclaim, and through a strange quirk of fortune, a world title eliminator. After all, Diaz was preparing to box Marvin Quintero on April 5 until the Mexican broke his nose.

Gethin recalls his disbelief when he heard about his sudden opportunity and states: “I’d heard about it a few weeks before it was confirmed but it was never on my mind. I’ve only just won the British title so yes; it’s a bit out of the blue. It’s a bit shocking.

“Winning the IBF International title against Johanneson helped my ranking and this is the next step up, so I’m now only one fight away from a world title shot. I just need to outwork Diaz; I can’t be lazy and need to totally outwork him. He seems to be quite a stubborn character and a strong boxer so if I outwork him then he’ll fall by the wayside like everyone else. That’s the plan.”

Gethin, frankly, makes it sound so simple: beat his rival and the title shot is his. It’s a tall order, but if he can call on the spirit that got him through the days, weeks and months away from boxing, Diaz should be in for a difficult night.