14 Living the dream and changing lives through boxing Colin Nathan, the winner of the Arts, Sport, Science, and Culture Award, has turned unknown fighters, including ones from disadvantaged backgrounds, into boxing champions and international stars. This lifelong boxing fanatic says his involvement in the sport, as a boxing trainer, manager, promoter, and commentator, is “genuinely to change lives”. For Nathan, his task as a coach is about more than producing world championships for South African boxing, a feat he has accomplished five times in the past five years. “It’s about really changing the trajectory of someone’s life. Some fighters could have landed up in jail for crime but got into boxing and now are champions and role models for other people. This is what I live for.” Nathan, a multiple Boxing South Africa Trainer of the Year, helped transform his signature fighter, Hekkie Budler, from an amateur boxing teenager into a professional boxer and multiple world champion. Nathan had seen a young Budler at an amateur event in 2006. “It was like love at first fight. I saw a kid who had a lot of heart and a real desire to win. He was the youngest fighter in South African boxing history ever to win a senior title at the age of 17. I went up to him and introduced myself.” The Johannesburg-born Budler soon came under Nathan’s tutelage. “My boxing knowledge was exceptionally vast at the time, but my coaching ability and my track record were largely unproven,” Nathan recalls. One of Nathan’s mottos is that success is built on relationships. “I grew with Hekkie. He mentored me, and I mentored him. When he had his first loss, I realised that maybe it’s not him, maybe it’s me, so I went to learn from the esteemed Freddie Roach, one of the greatest trainers in boxing history.” Nathan has been described in the media as being on the same level as Roach, and as the go-to man in South African boxing. He puts this down to his evolution to being more than just a coach. “I’m promoting, managing fights, working with broadcasters, putting fights together internationally, getting the best possible deal for my athletes, and so on. Besides forming successful relationships in boxing, my passion and the fact that I’m a fan at heart are kind of where I get the edge from.” “I brought South Africa a legitimate world championship defence for the first time in several years when Sivenathi Nontshinga defended his championship last year,” says Nathan, who inspired Nontshinga to victory with his “nineminutes-to-turn-your-life-around” speech, which gained acclaim across the boxing world. “When you spark emotion in someone or you get a physical mental shift and change from their actions, that’s the difference between winning and losing,” Nathan says. “You think to yourself, ‘You dreamed of this when you were a kid.’” Nathan relishes coaching in a big fight in front of thousands of spectators. “I love the feeling in your gut when you are in the dressing room and the floor manager opens the door and says, ‘Five minutes [until the fight].’” Nathan struggled to deal with his pre-fight nerves back in the day, but now loves going into “hostile territory where you’re not supposed to win. The biggest thing for me, since I was a kid, and it still drives me today, is don’t tell me I can’t do something when I know I can because I’m going to prove you wrong,” says the man nicknamed “Nomakanjani” (No matter what). “Boxing will teach you about life more than life will teach you about life.” Away from boxing, “I enjoy staying home with my kids, Jamie, Kyla, and Daniel, and watching sport, particularly boxing. I’m fascinated by boxing to this day. “I’m absolutely living my dream. I got my first pair of gloves at the age of two. I started being fascinated then. I used to watch great corner men like Teddy Atlas, Emanuel Steward, and Angelo Dundee, and I thought that maybe one day that could be me.” “My late grandfather, Clarence Nathan, was involved in a public gym with a boxing ring, where my late dad boxed.” Nathan’s mother became the first white woman professional boxing judge in South African boxing history in 1993. Nathan himself became the youngest licensed corner man in South African boxing history at the age of 12, a record that will never be broken due to a subsequent 18-year-old age requirement. “I got taken to boxing because I nagged my late father,” he reminisces. Nathan was a judoka for about 10 years. “I was doing really well, and won the nationals.” However, his main love was boxing, and although he never boxed competitively, he sees this as a blessing in disguise “because a lot of trainers who were fighters coached the fighters the way they used to fight. I’m going to work with what you give me.” Reflecting on the Boxing South Africa challenges last year, Nathan says, “People were getting suspended. It was such an injustice. I went on national broadcaster and radio interviews and let rip on what was going on inside of South African boxing. I’m proud of being one of the activists. Fights were being cancelled, and I just couldn’t deal with it. I’m glad that I used my voice to fight for a serious cause.” Nathan believes his boxing company, No Doubt Management, is probably the most diverse boxing company in South Africa. His Hot Box Gym in Johannesburg “is probably also the most diverse boxing gym in South Africa. I love the unity among the fighters,” he says. Judaism intertwines with Nathan’s career. “I always cover my head in the dressing room and say the Shema, asking Hashem to protect my fighters and the opponent. My tefillin bag is probably one of the most travelled in the country.” Nathan, whose career has taken him to 30 countries, was moved by his nomination for the Absa Jewish Achiever Award. “The biggest thing was my community recognising my work in the realm of sport, and the lives I’ve changed. If you ask me what I do for a living, the answer is, I make dreams come true.” Colin Nathan When you spark emotion in someone or you get a physical mental shift and change from their actions, that’s the difference between winning and losing. Arts, Sport, Science, and Culture Award winner “
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