By Jarrod Potter
SIX days a week, two times a day, you’ll find Berwick boxer Jason Whateley in the ring.
A gruelling training regime is the only way the 24-year-old can keep in peak condition in a crucial period with the World Championships and Olympic Games around the corner.
Turning his 196cm, 90kg frame from the footballing world, Whateley threw his weight behind his boxing ambitions and has been pushing towards the peak of the amateur ranks ever since.
He hasn’t always been a south-easterner, though, as Gippsland life didn’t provide enough boxing opportunities for the butcher-turned-boxer.
He packed up his butcher’s knifes and boxing gloves and book traded life in Lakes Entrance for better sparring opportunities in the city, settling in Narre Warren South before recently moving to Berwick.
It’s been a winning move for Whateley who has been knocking off achievements on his boxing journey – ranging from a World Championships campaign in 2013, gold at the Arafura Games in Darwin and also a medal-winning effort in New Caledonia.
Adding his biggest achievement to the resume recently, Whateley was crowned the Australian heavyweight (91kg) amateur champion at the Australian Amateur Boxing Championships which was held on the Gold Coast earlier this month.
Despite his incredible size, Whateley sees himself as a quicker, more tactical boxer than some of his brutish, power-packed opponents.
An orthodox right hander – he focuses on his stamina and trying to last out a match but said he will take the opportunity for a knockout when it arises.
He smashed aside former Olympian Daniel Beahan in a unanimous decision to claim the gold – finally putting a national title into his trophy cabinet after falling just short in four other national championship campaigns.
“Over the moon – I’ve had four silver medals now ’cause I’ve been going to the nationals for the last six years now, and I just missed out on a couple of close decisions that could have gone either way,” Whateley said.“To have a win – I was stoked as a lot of hard work has gone into it.”
It’s the first part of a qualifying process to get to the World Championships, held in October in Qatar, as he aims for the biggest international competitions.
He’ll head to the Middle East this week for the first facet of his World Championships bid before a challenge bout later in the year in Canberra.
Then it’s off to Samoa and as part of an amazingly international existence – taking his boxing from Berwick to all points on the globe.
If he doesn’t excel at the World Championships, there is another, far more stringent qualifying requirement standing between Whateley and his Olympic dream.
He’ll need to win gold at the Oceania Championships and get a top-three spot at the Asian Games to go with his Australian championship victory just to get a spot on the Rio-bound Australian team.
Despite the significant obstacle thrown in his way, he knows there’s only one way forward and that’s to keep working and, hopefully, the stars continue to align.
“It’s made the quota a little bit harder for the rest of us – it’s possible, it’s very doable in my position and I’m still very confident with all of the Asian countries – just have to work hard and get in there,” Whateley said.
For more on Whateley’s boxing journey, visit his Facebook or Instagram page by searching for “Pure Boxing”.
