When we were Champs
Woke to the news this morning of Ricky Hatton's failed quest to capture the WBC welterweight title from Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s
Commiserations Hatton, but in sporting tradition, a tipped hat to Mayweather.
The event made me reflect on my involvement with another champ, Lennox Lewis, before his title fight with Tyson.
His camp had seen and heard about my work and together with an acclaimed video director, Ken, brought me into camp base for a three month run that intensified nearer to the date.
Life Experiences
There are few experiences I will never forget and this was one of them.
The unswerving attutude of his camp, I'd imagine similar to Hatton.
The training regime: I got onto the canvas with him soon after the shoot above where he's working his rotations.
He's a quiet man, and reserved but if he likes your vibe he'll give you some good shots said his crew, disregarding the fact that this was their video.
During one train session he simulated punches to my camera and ribs: the video's in my archive somewhere and if you watch carefully you see me wince the camera.
Lennox got so close I thought crikey he's going to hit me.
I'm pretty sure the Lennox Camp, they're still close to one another, would have watched the fight willing Hatton as much as Mayweather on.
The King and Champ
In the home of Elvis, Memphis, where Lennox' fight took place I doubled the evening up by flitting first from the fight to a sports cafe and back again, shooting furiously and interviewing on the fly.
All the footage is now with Lennox; he acquired the rights or shot his own footage for what may well be a definitive doc in the future.
The above and one or two other minutes were shot on another mini-dv; yep I had two with me, sometimes shooting simultaneously.
That evening or early morning at three oclock I was writing copy for his site; it's here somewhere if I can find it, and then creating some flash promos.
Bleary eyed through lack of sleep, we then set off to the party driving along a stretch of road, his minder/driver so tired that I had to drive the 4x4 part of the way.
The project had taken me form the UK, Pocono Mountains, UK, and Memphis with the option to go to Ghana where he was due to celebrate with his business manager, junior, who is Ghanaian.
Anyhow's just some random thoughts.
I have never really written about it; I should.
But I do recall one amusing story ringing up two nationals in the UK to give a live eye witness account in the inner circle - they both turned me down.
That's life huh!
No comments:
Post a Comment