To the slighty older members!

[MickyHatton]

What regrets do you have?

I have two main ones.

The first is that I didn't leave the Army and turn pro when I had the chance.
I coach amateurs these days and I can still handle 90% of them with ease, I look at the likes of Sprott and Skelton and think yeah, my amateur career was good but broken up by tours of duty etc and my style was built around fast hands and power so I would have suited the pro game better IMO, I regret it almost every day (there are probably thousands thinking the same thing)

The second is that I was asked to invest in a Close Protection company (Bodyguards) a few years ago and help run it, at the time I had just got out the Army and played it safe by saying no. Needless to say the company took off and now has arms in Dubai and London.
The three who started it are well on their way to becoming millionaires!!!
Happy for them truly but gutted for my bad choice!

[Jimmy The Gent]

What regrets do you have?

I have two main ones.

The first is that I didn't leave the Army and turn pro when I had the chance.
I coach amateurs these days and I can still handle 90% of them with ease, I look at the likes of Sprott and Skelton and think yeah, my amateur career was good but broken up by tours of duty etc and my style was built around fast hands and power so I would have suited the pro game better IMO, I regret it almost every day (there are probably thousands thinking the same thing)

The second is that I was asked to invest in a Close Protection company (Bodyguards) a few years ago and help run it, at the time I had just got out the Army and played it safe by saying no. Needless to say the company took off and now has arms in Dubai and London.
The three who started it are well on their way to becoming millionaires!!!
Happy for them truly but gutted for my bad choice!

were the army good in their support for you in boxing?

[porlie]

I've no regrets, lifes too short for regrets.

[MickyHatton]

were the army good in their support for you in boxing?

Not really mate.

If there was a tour coming up then I had to go (fair enough that was my job) but it meant I lost 6 - 12 months.

Even when I was representing either the Army or the Combined Services they harassed me and always wanted me back.

Like anywhere really it depended on my CO. I had one who allowed me full time training between fights but he moved on after two years, his successor made me train in my own time, which would be fair enough but I had to do the PT with everyone else and sports when I could have been training.

Originally I was posted to 50 Missile Regt RA as that was a sporting Regiment so that I could box but the Regiment was disbanded after I had been there 2 months!

[MickyHatton]

I've no regrets, lifes too short for regrets.

Fair enough, I do though!

[porlie]

Fair enough, I do though!

Aye mate you'll be gutted bout the CP company thing but nowts to stop you starting one of your own up.
As for the boxing even if you havent went as far as youd like to you in a position now where you can help other boxers get to the top of their game. Training champions thatd be a real buzz and theres nowt to stop you from doing that.
Always look ahead cos if you look behind ya there'll be a ****ing lamp post there when you look forwards again that you'll knock into lol.

[Jimmy The Gent]

Not really mate.

If there was a tour coming up then I had to go (fair enough that was my job) but it meant I lost 6 - 12 months.

Even when I was representing either the Army or the Combined Services they harassed me and always wanted me back.

Like anywhere really it depended on my CO. I had one who allowed me full time training between fights but he moved on after two years, his successor made me train in my own time, which would be fair enough but I had to do the PT with everyone else and sports when I could have been training.

Originally I was posted to 50 Missile Regt RA as that was a sporting Regiment so that I could box but the Regiment was disbanded after I had been there 2 months!

poor, i got the impression that the army pushed you if you showed talent in a sport especially boxing

[MickyHatton]

Aye mate you'll be gutted bout the CP company thing but nowts to stop you starting one of your own up.
As for the boxing even if you havent went as far as youd like to you in a position now where you can help other boxers get to the top of their game. Training champions thatd be a real buzz and theres nowt to stop you from doing that.
Always look ahead cos if you look behind ya there'll be a ****ing lamp post there when you look forwards again that you'll knock into lol.

Your right pal of course, I wont lose sleep over these things but I cant help but wonder what if......

[MickyHatton]

poor, i got the impression that the army pushed you if you showed talent in a sport especially boxing

Like I said Jim it depends on the unit you join and the workload. Dont forget the Army is really stretched at the minute so they cannot afford to let all the sportsman go off training!

A more positive example is when I first joined I joined as a Junior Soldier (16 years old) and had to spend 12 months in basic training.
Because I won the Jnr Army title (L/Middle then!!!) quite early on in the process I spent about six months on extra rations and in a tracksuit training most days so it worked out well.

The problems arose when 50 Missile disbanded but dont be put off as you will still be encouraged to box and will receive some form of bonus for doing it.

I still managed to get in over 50 fights so......

[Exige Jr]

I got respect for you Micky, in what you have done with your life... and i'm still gonna come to your club to train/spar one day. Although I wont be able to tell when, cos i'm off to uni in September.

As far as regrets I dont have many... my life has turned out as I planned it up until now. Any regrets I have are very trivial compared.