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A CHANGE in fortune was overdue for Steed Woodall.
Last year his mother suffered a heart attack and then COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Believing she was close to losing her life, depression hit her son who had also gone through a break-up with the mother of his daughter.
Having accepted fights with some of the top 10 British super-middleweights and light-heavyweights only to see them fall through, Woodall was struggling and faced with adversity. With bills to pay and his two-year-old daughter to look after – sharing the responsibility 50-50 with her mother – the Birmingham fighter began to hate boxing and retirement crossed his mind more than once.
Then, on June 14, a breakthrough finally arrived. Having pulled out in April because of injury, Woodall received another chance to face former, British, Commonwealth and European super-middleweight champion Lerrone Richards.
Another defeat and who knew when the next opportunity would have presented itself for Woodhall. But, that night, everything came together for the 31-year-old who stopped and stunned the recently world-rated contender in the sixth round with an overwhelming determination that was prepared to do anything to win.
“Some say they’re willing to give it absolutely everything,” Woodall told Boxing News. “[But] I was happy to be carried out on a stretcher. And I know that sounds silly but after everything I’ve been through and just to be in there that night, to take that belt [WBO Inter-Continental] home to my daughter, it meant so much to me. I was going to put it all on the line.”
The happy ending continued with Woodall’s mum in attendance at the Bolton Whites Hotel to watch her son triumph. After sinking to his knees in victory, filled with emotion, Woodall had one thing left to do.
“When I got out of the ring, the first thing I did was put the belt over my mum,” said the Birmingham man.
“I was happy about winning the fight but it wasn’t out of surprise or shock or anything like that. I knew it almost in my mind that it was going to happen. I wasn’t doubtful of the outcome and if I could do it. I’ve known for a long time that I can beat that calibre of fighter.”
With the Friday over, and a weekend to enjoy his win with his family, Monday arrived and Woodall picked up his tools and got back to work at the flooring company he set up a few years ago.
“I fit hard flooring and fitted bedrooms,” he said. “Everyone’s got bills to pay and I’ve had a hard time with the boxing, getting the right opportunities and without the backing of a top promoter, you don’t really have any power in terms of the amount you get paid. There’s inconsistencies, you get short notice fights and things like that.”
Woodall must now wait and see what happens next, however. Nearly six weeks on from the win, Steed ‘The Stallion’ continues to graft away with training team Paul Counihan and his son Louie while manager Jon Pegg keeps his ear to the ground for another fight.
On July 11, Woodall used his platform on Instagram to call out rising super-middleweight stars Diego Pacheco, Edgar Berlanga and current European 168lbs champion Kévin Lele Sadjo.
“Sadjo was offered [before the Richards fight] but it fell through because I wasn’t ranked high enough,” Woodall revealed.
If Woodall were to be offered a fight in America, however, it wouldn’t be strange territory for the Brit who made his professional debut Stateside in 2014 and fought there on 11 more occasions with five fights in the Dominican Republic sandwiched in between. The story begins at the end of his amateur career, aged 18, and having fought at the World Championships in Armenia.
“I was ranked No.5 in the world. I had a win over the world No.2. And my ultimate goal was to get onto the GB squad and train for the Olympics. From the age of 16 until the end, I was assessed quite regularly, but the GB squad didn’t give me a place.
“Even after the World Championships, I was considered an unlucky loser. Even the coaches that were at my corner on the GB squad, they said I should have won the fight against the eventual world champion. So, I thought, surely now I’m going to be on the squad. And they told me again “maybe next year”.
“I knew a friend of mine was in America. He put me in touch with a manager who was into boxing. He had Peter ‘Kid Chocolate’ Quillin at the time when he was world champion. He was a similar weight, so he was someone that I was following.
“He flew me over there for a couple of weeks. I did some great sparring. And he was impressed with what he’d seen and he offered me a contract. After the first week of the two weeks being there, it was a real big, hard decision to make. I’m a real family man and I’m closest to all of my family and being halfway around the world, it’s not like you’re in Spain. It’s a nine-hour flight, so to get up and leave my family and only see them once a year… I remember thinking to myself at the time, I’m a man now. But when I look back and I think about how I was at 19, I think, no, I wasn’t a man.
“There was a lot that I had to experience. I’m obviously glad that I was brave enough to make the choice to go for it. It’s given me a lot of traits that I bring into the ring with me. In terms of mental strength, mental toughness, stuff like that.”
“I was a year-and-a-half in Miami to start with,” he continued. “And then I did a year-and-a-half in Houston, Texas, under Ronnie Shields. And then eventually went back to Miami for another half a year. And then the fights were really slowing down for me at that point. I decided to come back to England. I was really unfortunate. I slipped over in the snow and broke my leg. Freak accident. It put me out for a year. It was a long time before I was able to get back to training. For a long time, I thought, my career is over.”
Woodall has laced the gloves up in New York (at the enticingly named BB King Blues Club & Grill), lost to former Gennady Golovkin opponent Steve Rolls in Houston, had his hand raised in victory at the World Gym Arena in Texas City and picked up his first win inside the distance at Club Maquiteria in the Dominican Republican capital Santa Domingo.
“The main fight I had in Houston was the one that I lost against Steve Rolls. And that was the biggest learning curve of my career,” said Woodall (19-2-1, 12 KOs).
“It’s no excuse but in the lead up to it, I hadn’t seen my family in over a year. It was the first time my family were going to see me as a pro because they’d flown over. I had trained for a southpaw opponent. That was changed at the last minute. It was my first time making the middleweight limit and I had a really bad weight cut. Everything that could have went wrong for that fight, went wrong.
“I was up on the scorecards. I had Rolls down in the third round. In the fourth round, my eardrum was perforated. I just couldn’t recover from it and get through the round. I guess if I had to paraphrase that, I’d call it a learning curve.”
The Dominican Republic brought a less salubrious location and featured some unusual spectators at ringside.
“I would say ghetto. I remember getting there and, some of the fights, there would be chickens running around the venue. There would be a lot of homeless kids coming up looking for something. I would give them what I had. It was honestly a surreal experience.
“Two of the fights, there was no weigh-in. I think it was my last fight in the Dominican Republic. I had no idea who I was fighting. I got in the ring and I seen this guy walking to the ring. He must have been about 100 kilos. I’m not even joking. It’s on my Instagram. I actually stopped him in the fourth round and it was supposed to be an eight-round contest.”
And yet having been a professional fighter for over 10 years, and boxed in five different countries, the career of Steed Woodall is just getting started.
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