Tommy Browne’s relationship with boxing is one of love and hate
TOMMY Browne, the man who will go toe-to-toe with Anthony Mundine on Wednesday, vowed never to fight again after his brother died in the ring. But as time passed, he began to feel the ring’s pull once more.
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HE buried his younger brother, and vowed never to fight again.
Hated boxing, and what it took from him.
Tommy Browne still can’t forgive the sport that took the life of Davey Browne Jr, but then, as time passed, he began to feel the ring’s pull once more.
“I am not satisfied, I feel the sport owes me a lot,” Browne says.
In September 2015 the siblings fought on the same card in Ingleburn.
Tommy won his fight against Alex Ah Tong, then showered and was ringside for 28-year-old Davey’s title bout against Filipino Carlo Magali.
It was a brutal fight, combat sport at its most vicious.
Davey took heavy blows to his chin in the 10th and 11th rounds, yet somehow remained on his feet, dazed yet throwing back reflex shots with little power on them.
There is no question the fight should have been stopped at this point, but it went on to the final, fateful, 12th round when Davey was knocked unconscious and never recovered, passing away four days later.
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How does an older brother recover from that?
And by what means does he overcome his hatred for the game, and fear of the consequences, to lace up his gloves and step back in the ring?
“It was something I was scared of, but at the same time I knew if anything happened I had someone up there waiting for me,” Browne says.
For most, it’s a difficult mindset to understand.
But if you’ve ever sat ringside at a fight night, watching men thump each others’ heads and livers, the sanity of the pursuit always remains questionable.
If you’re closer to the sport, and look at fighters in dressing rooms afterwards, broken noses and eye sockets, hear them tell you how there was blood in their stool but hopefully it passes by the morning, questions grow louder.
But there is undoubtedly a primitive appeal to witnessing the tussle, why we flock to watch it, why boxing has staged the richest sporting events in the world for the past decade.
Or as Browne puts it from a fighter’s perspective: “Having your hands raised at the final bell is a great feeling, especially when you know how much hard work you’ve put in.
“Unless you’ve experienced it, it’s hard to explain.
“The best way I can put it, is if you’ve ever been married, when you walk down that aisle, it’s all about you.
“Everyone is there for you, and that’s what it feels like on fight night.
“You’ve got all that support, all eyes are on you and your opponent.”
So here he is, back at it, and fighting – of all people – Anthony Mundine on Wednesday night at Sydney’ Star Casino.
“After my brother, the sport could never give back what it owes me and my family,” Browne says.
“You put 20 years into the sport and get very little out of it.
“You can’t replace what I’ve lost, but I know that after I get this win next week, that will be a big tick on the box.
“I have unfinished business in boxing.
“Even when Davey was around, I looked at the stars in our sport here that had recognition but hadn’t done half the things my brother and I had achieved.
“I have been involved in 16 title fights, won 13 of them, and still people in Australia don’t know who I am, and other guys come through and suddenly have a name.”
Davey’s name lives on in memory, and in Tommy’s 18-month-old son.
Tommy was always going to keep “David” in the family, it is his father’s name, but it took on more significance in the circumstances.
Young Davey has battled pneumonia, been in hospital 10 times, but is fighting strong like his late uncle did.
Tommy fights for him, wife Emma and five-year-old daughter Maddy, despite protestations from his extended fraternity.
“I’ve got a lot of family and friends who say to me, ‘Why are you still boxing? You’ve got nothing to prove, you don’t need to box anymore’,” Browne says.
“Those people didn’t say this to me 20 years ago, they didn’t worry about the dangers 20 years ago.
“This is all I know how to do.
“They want to turn around now and say the sport is dangerous. Don’t tell me this now.”
Browne is not running around talking about his grief to promote this fight, in fact he has been reticent to discuss the topic.
But when asked, he responds honestly and thoughtfully.
With the noise around Wednesday’s bout increasing, Browne and his team decided to finish their training camp in the isolated surrounds of Dunedin in New Zealand, where wind is the loudest sound and phones are switched off.
It is the quiet before the storm.
Mundine has been vocal in his attempts to land a big-money fight against Australia’s welterweight world champion Jeff Horn, and Browne had picked up on that before he went under the radar.
“If he wants that fight, he needs to put in a good performance against me, but that could possibly be a fight for me,” Browne says.
“I am only one division heavier than Horn, and there are two divisions between Horn and Mundine. I am the only one in the middle.”
Browne (36-6-2, 13KO) starts as the underdog against Mundine (47-8, 27KO), but the odds have shortened significantly in the past fortnight.
“He is obviously heavier and bigger, he thinks he’s just going to push me around and that his strength will get over the top of me,” Browne says.
“But I’ll tell you now, if he makes it back to his corner after that first round, he won’t be thinking that.
“I have sparred heavier guys in preparation, weight isn’t going to be an issue, we’ve really worked hard on strength and that isn’t going to be an issue either.”
On fight night, Browne will take centre stage for the biggest fight of his career.
He’ll think of a million things in the dressing room. Slam his gloves into pads and walls. Bite down on his mouthguard. Want to do it for himself, his family, his late brother - use the anger of his loss - burst into the bright lights, barely swallow the fear and the adrenaline.
It’s a love/hate relationship.