Brad Axe is back from a big KO setback and plans to continue fighting fires by day and fighting men on Saturday nights.
Watch a PREVIEW of the chat below:
Watch or listen to the FULL CHAT below:
A tough loss
On a sunny September morning, I found Brad Axe bright-eyed and in good spirts. I was glad.
And maybe a little surprised. Less than six weeks before our conversation he’d been clinically knocked out by Sam Hickey in Dublin.
“I’m excited to get back into camp and I’m sure I’ll have the fire in my belly.”
“I’m ok. It was a big shot. It was tough to get off the canvas and start training again,” Axe told Sport and Life.
“My wife and I had a debrief. She said it wasn’t very nice.
“But she says as long as I’m happy. And that’s the same for me. I’m excited to get back into camp and I’m sure I’ll have the fire in my belly.”
Unfinished boxing business
Axe is a busy man. Professional boxing is a side-hustle to him. His day job also takes guts and requires him to be in good shape – he’s an RAF firefighter.
“I don’t want to be the guy who looks back and says ‘I could have done that’.”
Axe is also a happily married man with two beautiful boys. Time is precious but he doesn’t believe he’s fulfilled his boxing potential.
“In twenty years time, I don’t want to be the guy who looks back and says ‘I could have done that.’
“I’m excited to get going again. If I didn’t feel excited well there’s an issue isn’t there?”
Spend time with your kids or provide for them?
For many fathers, myself included, life is tinged with a sense of confusion and guilt.
Should I be focusing on spending time with my family or be out providing for them? If you’re working you feel bad you’re not with your kids and vice-versa.
Axe, who lives in Moreton-in-Marsh, knows this dilemma well.
“It’s hard to find the balance. My wife always picks up the pieces with school clubs, life stuff, dinner and bedtime routines.
“But I wrote down on one side of paper, what do I not get to do because of fighting?
“And on the other side, what do I get from fighting? Is it worth it?
“And the answer at the minute is yes.”
Facing fears requires effort even for the brave
Former American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly said you should “do something every day that scares you.”
‘The Axe Man’ seems to have taken that advice on steroids.
Fighting fires and fighting in a ring both require huge dollops of courage.
“I picture the flames as my nerves building and building and I push them back and control the fire.”
While most of us cower at the thought of anything out of our comfort zone, could Axe be addicted to facing fears?
Well, he says rest assured he works hard to summon courage.
“Your fight or flight kicks in when you’re chilling out, lying down before a flight.
“And I picture what it’s like being in an container when we do our training fighting fires and the flames are licking over.
“I picture the flames as my nerves building and building and I push them back and control the fire.
“Fire is an incredible thing, we can cook our food with it but it could burn your house down.”
If Brad Axe can face those flames – literally and metaphorically – maybe we can confront some of the more mundane parts of life that brown our underpants?
