For Shepparton lawyer-turned-boxer Luke Slater this Saturday night serves as the culmination of months of blood, sweat and tears.
After triumphing over Mick Bau in a Masters Mayhem eliminator in December, the GV Boxing Academy graduate will finally get his shot at the lightweight title when he faces Nam Quach in the 40-45 age group championship bout at the Ferntree Gully amphitheatre.
With his date with destiny now just more than 24 hours away, Slater said he could not be in better nick.
“I am looking forward to this fight, we have had a pretty good lead up to it and after winning in December I have built up some pretty good momentum,” Slater said.
“I trained fairly consistently over Christmas and New Year’s; the weight certainly won’t be a problem being at the right number already.
“We have had a pretty good all-round training camp, in boxing a lot of it is about confidence and mental strength, so I come into this fight feeling confident that I have ticked all the boxes.”
During the past two months, Slater has had the task of juggling his hectic work schedule with his intense boxing training in the hope of getting himself into mint condition for this championship opportunity.
He outlined what a usual day’s training consists of and how beneficial boxing has been for his daily routine.
“I have been getting to the Goulburn Valley Academy probably about five times a week, in the last couple of weeks we have been stepping up the sparring a little bit and I’ve been doing a fair bit of running and trackwork to hopefully increase my cardio capacity,” he said.
“To be honest, I think being a lawyer and an amateur boxer both things have helped the other, being a lawyer, you learn to be prepared and as a boxer it gives you really good discipline.
“It has given me a really good balance and it takes my mind off work, when I go boxing, I can get all the stress out and it has been very helpful.”
With preparations now complete, Slater said he was completely locked into the fight and wasn’t too fazed by the opponent that stands in his way.
“We don’t know much about him, I think he has a few more fights than me and is a southpaw which can be a little bit tricky, but other than that we don’t know a great deal,” he said.
“We have just been focusing on getting myself up to where I need to be and hopefully that will be enough to get me over the line on Saturday night.”
As for what a win would mean for the 42-year-old fighter, he said being able to bring a maiden championship to Zedda Harrington and the entire crew at GV Boxing Academy was his main source of motivation.
“I will be hoping to go down to Melbourne and bring the first belt back for our gym, Zedda has been coaching me so hard over the past couple of years and I want to give him that reward,” he said.
“At the end of the day, if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be competing in boxing, so having the opportunity to represent him and the gym is a massive motivator for me.
“There has been a lot of hard work over the last few years, plenty of long nights, blood, sweat and tears – I wouldn’t say Saturday night is the end of my boxing, but it would be a good way to cap off all the hard work.”