For most people, getting in a ring in front of a large crowd to face off against a trained opponent is the stuff of nightmares. For Joe Hopkins, aka Joey Soufpaw, “it's an addiction. It's like a drug. There's something in me that just loves it”.
Joe Hopkins aka Joey Soufpaw (Right). Photo: Calden Jamieson
The 26-year-old kickboxer is a former middleweight national champion and has a record of 18 wins (six by knock-out), eight losses and one draw.
Joe describes the feeling he gets before a big fight as “surreal”.
“I turn up to the stadium with my bags and sit down and listen to music. Then I get taped up, have a stretch, put my shorts on and my groin guard and get a massage to warm the body up. Then we get into doing some light rounds on the pads, start thinking of the combos you’re going to throw. The last part is putting the fight robe on and a mong kong, the head dress. Then you get Vaselined up, say a little prayer with your trainer and walk out to your favourite song.”
When he steps out into the ring, it’s the culmination of six weeks of hard training. “This is what you’re here for, all eyes on you. It's pretty nerve-wracking. You get the shakes, butterflies, and then you jump in the ring and you're ready to fight. It goes away and I'm in my happy place.”
At 75kg, Joe isn't exactly an imposing figure, but he has the confidence of someone who knows how to handle themselves.
He first started training as a teenager in the hard knock West Auckland suburb of Ranui where he was “jumped on runs a couple of times”.
Kickboxing offered him the discipline he otherwise lacked in his daily life. “I was a bit naughty when I was young and I thought I'd get to have a fight, get tough, and learn how to punch people properly. Then I progressed into a being a proper fighter.”
He was soon cycling for an hour each way to the gym from his home in Grey Lynn, and in 2005 had his first fight.
Being a full contact sport, there is of course a fair degree of risk. Fighters are regularly suffering cuts, black eyes, broken ribs, broken knuckles, and concussions, amongst other injuries.
Statistically, it’s not that bad of a sport in terms of brain damage. Boxing is a lot worse, cause your head gets so beat up, but, as a kick boxer you get hit in the body and legs, as well as the head.
According to a 2012 study ACC conducted on kick boxing and boxing, injury rates are steadily increasing with the popularity of both sports, the cost of treating injuries has risen from $952,219 in 2007 to $2.5 million in 2011.
Other sports might have the camaraderie and discipline without the risk of injury, but Joe doesn’t think kickboxing is so bad. “Statistically, it’s not that bad of a sport in terms of brain damage. Boxing is a lot worse, cause your head gets so beat up, but, as a kick boxer you get hit in the body and legs, as well as the head.”
Joe insists he's been lucky. “My worst injuries are broken knuckles, and cuts. I got 15 stitches in my head.”
Even at Joe's level, a fighter’s pay rate (approximately $2000 per fight) calculated on an hourly basis, is below minimum wage. Joe, like most pro fighters, still has to hold down a day job to make ends meet. Clearly the motivation isn't financial. So, what is it that would make him regularly put himself in harm’s way? “There is something about six weeks of anticipation, building your strength and fitness up, then, it's like fight night, time to show off what you've learned.”
Joe is also the father of a six-year-old boy and one-year-old girl. In a way, they’ve given him motivation. “I don't know why, but it always goes through my head that I'm fighting for my kids.”
His son hasn’t started training yet, but he keeps asking to come to the gym, Joe says. “He's got too much energy, that boy. He does jujitsu. When he's angry at me he tells me, ‘I’m not going to be a kick boxer!’ But he's slowly coming round.”
Joe's gym is City Lee Gar, where he’s now responsible for training other people for both fitness and fighting.
When it comes to fighter safety, the most important factor is training; conditioning the body to take the abuse dished out in the ring. Some older fighters have had to retire early because of injuries sustained through training as much as fighting.
Joe says the way training is done has become more "scientific”. “It's changed in a big way in the last 10 to 15 years. People know so much more about the muscles. So it’s not like we'll just go run 10km in the morning and then kick pads for five hours. It's more like, let’s simulate a fight.”
That said, Joe admits that he worries more about injury during training than in the ring, “Most of the people I spar with are bigger than me. They're all my friends but there's almost more ego amongst friends. Like, I'm going to beat you up tonight!”
WATCH highlights of Joe Hopkins in a championship bout:
Leading up to a fight, kickboxers usually train twice a day for at least six weeks. On fight night there is a medic who checks the fighters before they enter the ring. All participants also have to be tested for Hepatitis A, B and C and HIV. Aside from that, the only protection the fighters have is a groin guard, mouth guard, hand wraps and dabs of Vaseline applied to their faces by their trainers to prevent cuts.
Joe has levelled his fair share of punishment on his opponents, and due to the small size of the kickboxing community, he often fights people he knows. “I feel bad after. Especially if I hurt someone. If you end up fighting someone and you hurt them, you're like, ‘Sorry dude, but at the same time you were trying to do that to me.'”
In September, Joe is heading to Thailand for three weeks of uninterrupted training. “Here you have to work in between training; train, go to work and then train again. Over there you just train, go to the beach, have a sleep.” In the same month he is hoping for a match-up with one of the big names in his weight class. “I want to fight the biggest names before I get too old.”
With some pro fighter’s careers stretching into their 40s Joe still has a few years ahead of him, but, he isn't one to rest on his laurels. Even without a fight in the near future he's keen to get back to his gym and train.
“I try to stay as active as possible just for my head. It clears the head just punching something. It’s actually quite therapeutic after a hard day at work to go beat the shit out of a punching bag.”
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