Weekly News: Boxer Peter McDonagh, Ireland

Big fists and powerful biceps are the mark of a boxer, but when a fighter delivers a knockout blow, he’s punching with his mind.
I’ve met some of the greatest names in boxing, including Naseem Hamed, Lennox Lewis and Lloyd Honeyghan, and I know that their brains were the deadliest weapons in their arsenals.

Most of all, I helped the greatest athlete of all time, Muhammad Ali, to train at his New Jersey camp in 1977. Ali exuded an aura of invincibility so powerful that it protected him from harm — his opponents had to punch through his aura before they could lay a glove on him.

Ali was fascinated by the concept of telepathy. He drew a picture which arrived in my brain like a fist punching through a paper screen.
“I just looked in your eyes,” Ali marvelled, “and wham, I put a picture in your mind. Can I look in a fighter’s eyes and wham, I put defeat in there? Can I make him see how hard he’s gonna get hit? Can I knock him out before I ever lay a glove in him?”

I believe that’s exactly how he intimidated his victims, with immense psychic energy. It’s a skill I try to teach to every sportsman I work with, from the Premiership defender Tal ben Heim to the fighter Peter McDonagh, who this weekend (Sat 28 Jan) is challenging for the vacant Irish lightweight title.

We met on a flight to Dublin, and it was immediately clear that he respected the power of the mind. There are those who treat it as a slightly embarrassing joke, and I’ve learned to let them go their own way — they’re like the drivers who go to the Motor Show but won’t look at the Ferraris because Ferraris are cars for dreamers. There’s no arguing with some people.

Peter isn’t afraid to dream. He visualises all his boxing skills as components in a Ferrari, and every one has to be tuned to the highest
degree if he’s going to achieve maximum speed. His heart is the engine, his legs are the driveshaft, his arms are the pistons — but his brain is the brilliant, fearless racing driver.

I could see the determination in his eyes as he told me he was booked to fight the formidable Michael Gomez at Dublin’s National Stadium. “Irespect Gomez,” he told me later, at his Bermondsey gym, “but this time he’s bitten off more than he can chew. I have to knock him out, to show all the doubters in the media that I am a truly great fighter in the making. I can do that. I believe I can take him down in the seventh.”
I asked him where that belief was rooted and he thumped his chest.
“That’s good,” I told him, “but I can instil that belief in every inch of your body. You need the belief in your knuckles, in your forearms, in your feet. And you need belief burning very bright in your brain.
“I want you to use your imagination. Switch on all your senses. You can hear the crowd, you can smell the sweat and the blood, you can taste the acrid atmosphere, you can feel your fists battering his body.
And under the dazzling lights, with the flashbulbs exploding, you can see the instant when your fist connects and knocks Gomez out.
“At the instant his body hits the canvas, that’s the moment you become Irish lightweight champion. Savour the victory. Experience the elation. Hold that in your mind, because that’s what will propel you to victory.”

And it’s that self belief, that determination to triumph, which I want to share with everyone, especially my Weekly News readers. You might never have watched a boxing match on TV, let alone stepped into a ring... and I don’t recommend you start throwing punches in Tescos. But those mindpower techniques can help you win at everything in life.

Use your imagination, and switch on all your senses when you dream.
Above all, believe in yourself, with every fibre of your being.