Despite coming off a rare defeat, Ekow Essuman believes there is no pressure on him ahead of his bout with Jack Rafferty this weekend.
Essuman is a 37-year-old known for the “Engine” that inspired his ring name.
Last time out, in November, he was stopped for the first time in 24 fights by Jack Catterall, who has moved onto a world title fight as a consequence.
“It's not a position I find myself in much,” Essuman told BoxingScene ahead of his return in Manchester. “But how much is on the line? To me, nothing’s on the line. It’s just go out and do what I do. I’m not boxing for anyone aside from myself and my family. I’m going to go out there, do what I do, enjoy it, and do it well and get paid for it.”
Since early 2023, Essuman has boxed Chris Kongo, Harry Scarff, Owen Cooper, Ben Vaughan, Josh Taylor and Catterall.
He is now 22-2 (8 KOs) and Frank Warren has called him one of the most stubborn boxers in his stable. That’s a compliment.
“Even so, after the last match, I said, ‘I don't want to get an easy match to come down to,’” Essuman said. “I don’t want to drop down a level. ‘Put me back in.’ This is the level I belong at. This is the level I’ll succeed at. This is the level where people will predict some and a certain version of me is going to show up and then a different version shows up and the world shatters.”
Essuman knows Rafferty presents a formidable challenge, but the experience he’s gained in particular against Taylor and Catterall will stand him in good stead.
“He’s good at what he does,” Essuman said of Rafferty.
“I think the way he was fighting, he was probably more of big for the weight, so that allowed him to do what he wanted to do or what he did at the weight. I think the fight that he thinks he’s going to have with me [having moved up to 147lbs], he is going to have a real epiphany that he was wrong. And I think timing is a great thing. People’s perception of timing is also a great thing. And I’ll leave it at that.”
Against Catterall, Essuman said he was beaten by “a high-level trick” and that he won’t make the same mistake twice and he believes that education will now help him bridge the gap to world class.
He already has the fitness, that is indisputable.
But he is loath to share the secrets behind the “Engine.”
“The foundation of my fitness is just, it’s a state of mind,” he said, broadly.
“I’ve been blessed to have good lungs on me. I’ve been blessed in other areas. I can’t give away too much, but let’s say you wouldn’t think I’d have a good engine from my genetic makeup, but it’s more the mindset and knowing certain things in sports science that has earned me the moniker, The Engine.” I prefer the Hyrox kind of S&C [strength and conditioning] to a traditional just get in the gym and push weights. If I got in the gym and I pushed weights, just like a lot of other people do, I’d probably be a middleweight. I can look at a weight and put on muscle, I’ll put it that way.”
For some, though, a good engine is not dictated purely by a state of mind.
“I know being born in Africa [in Botswana], certain people do things in a different way,” he said.
“And when you look into sports studies, that different way makes sense. Like I told another boxer, he asked me, ‘Oh, bro, like how do you do it?’ And I was just like, ‘I don’t know. I just do it.’
“But there’s certain things that definitely help the same protocols on like, say, if you’ve done like sprints or an hour of cardio, how to actually get that registered on a cellular level in your body rather than just doing it and then doing certain things that you know you’re supposed to do straight after. But yeah, there’s a mad science to it.”
Is the mad science the recovery side of it, and the nutritional aspect?
“Not quite,” he said, before adding, “Yes, in a certain way, but not quite. But it’s more understanding how your body reacts to what you do when you do it and how to make your body find a way to adapt and get better at what it’s doing to help you achieve what you what you’re doing. You go to the gym, you lift weights, you break muscle tissues. You have that window where your body’s creating DOMS [Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness].
“Some people will jump in a ice bath and they don’t realize that because they jumped in an ice bath one or two hours after they’ve lifted the weights, they’ve diminished all the gains that they would get because they’ve sent the wrong signal to all the enzymes and the muscle, skeletal system to stop regenerating because they’ve killed off all of that. And it’s just knowing certain things, like the times to do things, when to do things, why it’s okay to have DOMS, that it’s your it’s your body’s way of knowing, ‘Okay, I’ll push myself so I need to recover and be better for next time.”
When Essuman is away from the gym, he spends time with his young family and he’s a keen gamer. He’s a fan of Assassin’s Creed, and enjoys a quiet afternoon at home after training. He also makes his own music – with a grime, garage vibe – and has made his own ring walk songs.
He’s got a fully-functional music set up at home, speakers, music computer, microphone, the lot.
“It just helps me switch off completely from boxing,” he said.
He’s also a dubstep fan.
“I love my drum and bass. I love a lot of music. I just take from everything,” he said.
