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| Human Interest | |
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Further Personal Information | |
| Residence | Brisbane, QLD, AUS |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Club / Team | Australian Institute of Sport [AIS] / The Boxing Shop Gym: Australia |
General Interest | |
| Hobbies | Spending time with friends. (ausport.gov.au, 20 Feb 2012) |
| Memorable sporting achievement | Winning a gold medal at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, and qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. (ausport.gov.au, 20 Feb 2012) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Why this sport? | Police constable Chris Seng, who ran boxing lessons, recommended that he take up the sport. He was also inspired by watching Roy Jones Jr on television. "I'd just got into boxing when I saw Roy Jones. From that day it was in my head that I wanted to go to the Olympics," he said. |
General Interest | |
| Hero / Idol | English footballer David Beckham. (singapore2010.olympics.com.au, 11 Sep 2010) |
| Ambitions | To win a medal at the Olympic Games and become a world champion in professional boxing. (ausport.gov.au, 20 Feb 2012) |
| Awards and honours | He became the first indigenous Australian boxer to win a junior world event when he won gold at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. (ausport.gov.au, 01 Oct 2010). |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Name of coach | Don Abnett, Gareth Williams |
| When and where did you begin this sport? | He took up boxing aged 11 after his uncle started a boxing academy. It was until age 13 that he started training seriously. |
General Interest | |
| Nicknames | Super Hooper. (theboxingshop.com.au, 11 Sep 2011) |
| Other information | EARLY LIFE He was raised by his grandmother and before being introduced to boxing by a local police constable he had been involved in criminality. "I was hanging around with a group of older street kids. We started with stealing lollies. But once we got into alcohol, things got more serious. I started stealing cars and breaking into houses and I ended up in juvy [juvenile detention] for a while." Senior Constable Chris Seng invited him to boxing lessons when he was 13. "He took me in, trained me, showed me respect. He was just a really good bloke, the best I know. He was helping me out and getting into trouble for it. When I matured a bit, I started thinking: 'This guy is showing me respect; I should show him respect by getting serious about boxing'." (theaustralian.com.au, 10 Jun 2010) CONTROVERSY He was sent home a week early from the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India due to an indiscretion where he was alleged to have dropped his trousers in front of an official. (dailytelegraph.com.au, 17 Oct 2010) |