BOXING
There is a fire burning within Joel Brunker.
It is raging and all consuming.
He is burning for redemption.
The 29-year-old is waiting to find out his next move in the ring after stopping Filipino brawler Rey Las Pinas in round two of his last fight at the Richmond Club in February.
The bout was his comeback from his only professional defeat – a ninth-round technical knockout at the hands of Welshman Lee Selby in October.
It is that night at the Millennium Dome in London that eats away at the Richmond boy known as “Aussie Joel”.
That fight, an IBF featherweight title eliminator, was to be the fight to take him one step closer to his ultimate goal – winning a belt.
Sadly for Brunker it wasn’t to be. More than 14 months out of the ring before the biggest fight of his career was hardly the ideal preparation. And it showed.
“It makes me angry,” he said.
“I didn’t get the right prep being inactive. It tears me up.
“I wish my management had fixed it or given me a few fights in between so I wasn’t sitting in the paddock for so long.
“That’s what annoys me. Because if I lost the fight and I was prepared right and everything I could deal with it.
“But losing the fight and also being out of the ring, which might contributed or not, that’s what gets at me.”
He has watched the fight again and again. And Brunker knows it could easily have been him advancing to a shot at the IBF featherweight title.
“It’s a fight I could have won,” he said.
“The first five rounds I was just shell shocked because I hadn’t fought for so long.
“It took me a while to come back and then rounds six, seven and eight it was all going well but then I got tired.
“Match fitness got to me but if I’d been active maybe it could have been different.”
It hasn’t helped Brunker that he is still waiting to hear when his next fight will be.
“That’s the difficult part,” he said.
“We had one organised for the first of May. But the stuff was organised with Mayweather and Pacquiao which put a can on that card because it was also meant to be in Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan which is just down the road.
“So that was canned and now I’ve just been waiting for my management to get back to me on a final date.”
Brunker says he is lucky he has such a strong family to support him through the tough times.
He married his partner of nine years in November and says his two brothers and three sisters are his best friends.
“It’s been pretty stressful the last couple of months,” he said.
“About the only good thing about not fighting is I get to catch up with my brothers and have a beer on the weekend with them.
“I missed out on that for a lot of years...but I’d prefer to be fighting. I’ve got plenty of years I can catch up with them.
“(Being married) is great. Everything’s going good. We’ve been together for nine years so it’s the same thing to me. It hasn’t made much difference.”
The best part about Brunker is that he isn’t just a boxer. He’s also a smart bloke. He recognised early on he would need a trade for life after boxing – or for times like now.
“I’ve been back on the trade bricklaying,” he said.
“I don’t mind it. That’s why I did my trade so I always had something to fall back on to.
“It’d be good if I was making the money off the fights so I could get back to training properly but you’ve got to keep bringing the money in and paying the bills.”
But there is only one thing on the horizon for Brunker – extinguishing the fire - and claiming a title belt that he has worked for his entire career.
“I’m not too fussed as long as it’s a rating fight and it helps me get back up the ratings,” he said.
“That’s the main thing. Obviously to get a shot at the title is a good thing but I’ve got to get my ratings back up after the loss.
“As long as I’m still improving I want to get another title shot. I want to get another one before the end of my days are done.
“That’s what I’m in it for. I want a belt. I can get back there.”
It would take a brave man to bet against him.