This is the writing of emerging legends ..........
Quote:............... tells him: ``Mate you rip this big bloke up the guts with some body shots and you’ll cut him down to size. Don’t matter how big they are, you’ve got the power to bowl him over.’’
The ``big bloke’’ is the 198cm Klitschko, who has a 15cm height advantage over Leapai, has been unbeaten for 10 years and has loomed over world boxing like a colossus since winning the 1996 Olympic super-heavyweight gold medal.
Klitschko is the son of a Soviet air force general and the brother of former boxing champ Vitali Klitschko, now one of Ukraine’s major political leaders.
While Leapai has until recently boxed in anonymous penury, Klitschko has made $100 million and divides his time between luxury homes in Europe and America.
While the champion finishes his fight preparations at a plush ski resort in the Austrian Alps and says victory is crucial for the morale of all Ukrainians facing a fight with Russia, Leapai is out here in the bush in a place synonymous with hard times................
..............Thornberry first laid eyes on him. It was 10 years ago at the Mansfield Tavern and Leapai, training occasionally in Brisbane on a diet of hamburgers and pies, lumbered to a points loss against Russian journeyman Yan Kulkov.
``Alex lost but I but I saw raw power in him that I knew could be developed,’’ Thornberry says. ``I knew that deep down he was a good person. Dedicated. With the right training and a proper diet I thought he could be a world champion.’’
After he was finally released from jail, Leapai would drive two hours to Gatton and two hours back, three times a week, up what was to become Darren Lockyer Way and down boxing’s long and wounding road. It was always a struggle. When he got to the shed he would train like a man possessed, refining his explosive power as he waited year after year for the opportunity to unload on the world stage.
Thornberry promoted most of his fights and almost always lost money..........
.............. Even though he was losing money hand over fist, Thornberry spent most nights and early mornings at the farmhouse in Gatton, on the phone and in battles with overseas promoters in New York and Berlin trying to jag one big opportunity.
It finally came when Leapai was matched with Russian Denis Boytsov, who like Klitschko, hadn’t lost in 10 years.Leapai was supposed to be the patsy in the Denis Boytsov story but last November in Germany the hulking truck driver defied a torn calf muscle to drop the Russian twice. As he was declared the winner Leapai cried like he had done that first night in jail,...............
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/boxing-mma/alex-leapai-puts-a-trouble-past-b...Sports - Where the fairytale comes true at times.