Luther Clay: “I Considered Stopping”
South African boxer, Luther Clay sits with COSeezy in England on an episode of Africans In Sports to discuss his life and career, and the journey into the world of professional boxing.
“I was born in Durban, Pine town in the city, then we moved out of there and moved into like an Eastern Cape small town, kinda like a rural farming town, and it was hard over there.”
Luther further speaks on the difficulties he faced growing up in South Africa “I won’t say it’s like the hood or anything, but it’s just real poor. Everything there is poor, like the people, property, everything”.
The financial difficulties of his childhood changed when his family relocated. According to Luther, “In 2000, my mom got like a job offer to come over to England as a nurse, I think that time there was a shortage of nurses in England and Europe in general.”
“It was very different coming over, compared to where you’ve been in Africa, and then you come to England, it’s just everything is different.”
Luther cited the change of environment as the challenges he faced early on as the major reason he’s a fighter today. “When I moved to England, it was weird because I went to a private school over there and I was facing racism, and I got hit, a little bit of bullying and I just used to fight”.
According to Luther Clay, fighting started as a defence mechanism for him, “I didn’t really talk much, if someone says something to me, I’ll just punch him”.
Inevitably he got into a lot of fights in school which prompted his dad to push him towards boxing so that he could use his energy and ability more productively in the local gym.
From the interview, it is clear that Luther Clay is a very driven and motivated young man. He talks further about his desire to be the best is the main reason he’s still pushing very hard.
“I just had that competitive nature where I wanted to be better than you, I wanted to be good, but whenever I saw somebody better than me, it made me want to excel and beat them, and I think that’s what’s good with boxing.”
“With boxing, it is about wanting to be the best you can be, but in order to do that, you have to have people that are better than you or at the same level to push you” Luther added.
He spoke on about the challenges he faced early on in his boxing career, ” I think the toughest challenge was getting someone to invest in me.”
“I considered stopping, but my gut was like at this point you already started, just keep going, and something will come up.” He added, “Doors weren’t opening, but people were seeing me in the gym working.”
Luther further speaks on the frustration of putting in the effort, time and resources into the sport without getting anything in return. “It was getting to the point where I was stressed with everything, I was just like, man, I’m ready to get a job.”
“To the point where like I was still winning fights, but I was just like, whatever, there was a point where I didn’t think I’d win fights, but I kept winning them.”
He would be glad he didn’t quit though, his turning point came in 2019 when WBO champion, Dario Morello picked him as an opponent because he expected it would be an easy fight, and opportunity Luther grabbed with both gloves.
“I thought I could beat him, but I was thinking if it goes to decision like I’m gonna lose so I went over there with a mentality like I’m just gonna walk through him and just try and knock him out”.
“I ended up knocking him down twice, in the 5th and the 7th rounds but he got up every time, and I won every round of the fight, and I got the belt” Luther explains his breakout moment with visible pride in his own accomplishment.
Clay further explains his mentality and approach to life that has brought him success. “You’ve got to live like a Spartan, it’s a war, not a battle, I’m realising that there’s really no time to celebrate until you’re finished.”
Luther Clay further defended his title with another unanimous decision win this time over Freddie Kiwitt, and even though he lost his last fight against Chris Kongo, he’s still one of the best fighters in the United Kingdom presently.
The South African gave words of encouragement to people in similar situations as he was, saying “it’s always gonna be hard, but it’s gonna be harder when you quit. You see a lot of people in life, they got something they wanted to do, that they loved, but they let the fear of failing or the fear of parents pressure stop them.”
Luther Clay urges people to use his story as an inspiration, “If there’s something that you love doing, even if you’re struggling or you’re in a bad place, do your best, keep going with it to the very end.”
“If it works, you’re gonna be happy, you’re gonna be making money doing what you love, and if it doesn’t, well you tried, and you’ve got no regrets.”