Three professional fights, three men down! We had the opportunity to have a quick chat with one of Croatian big promises boxers of the heavyweight division, Alen Babić, currently in Portugal preparing for his next clash. During this challenging period with competitions and fights getting canceled, Alen keeps the focus and continues training as hard as before.
JabtoJab: How do you think boxing could impact the young men and women life’s in Croatia?
Alen Babić: We are a proud nation with many top class athletes, boxing is a part of that elite team and I would love to show them that we are tough and every one of my countrymen can make it!
We are a proud nation with many top class athletes, boxing is a part of that elite team and I would love to show them that we are tough and every one of my countrymen can make it!
What Croatian boxing style has that other nationalities don’t have and where is it going in the future? We have very deep roots in boxing, George Chuvalo was a Croat, Mate Parlov and many others olympic medalist come from Croatia. We are all fighters in Croatia!
Sports at close doors are arrived. It will be a completely different challenge. We were in quarantine for several months. No competition rhythm. Less training. How do you think it will be the physical and mental impact in an athlete like yourself? Four of my fights was cancelled, so I felt corona pretty hard but it didn’t disrupt me a bit. I trained all the time and even got some time to think and improve myself mentally.
How can professional athletes and coaches that depend of the events revenue, survive and overcome these difficult times? Did the Croatian government give any kind of support? No, not really. I was on my own but my coach helped me all the way through lockdown and I am grateful for that. It’s always hard to live just out of boxing, I think that is the bigger problem that will come to light soon.
my country is beautiful and we didn’t have a full lock down so I was swimming and running a lot, as soon as the gym opened I was back in sparring.
How has been your trainings during this period and what’s your secret to keep in shape? My training was fantastic, my country is beautiful and we didn’t have a full lock down so I was swimming and running a lot, as soon as the gym opened I was back in sparring. I’m one of those boxers who train all year round so it was nothing new to me to train without fight dates.
What are your professional goals for the rest of the year? Get as tough opponents as I can. 22/08 is the first step and after that I want even better opponents till end of the year. Want to make up on the lost time.
