AFTER GETTING?knocked out in his very first bout, Shawn Terry Cox vowed it would never happen again, but one of the biggest defeats he suffered actually came on points several years later at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Getting to the Olympics was a major achievement for the Collymore Rock, St Michael resident.
He wanted to box while he was at school, but his mother refused to sign the forms, pointing out he was too hot-headed and had anger problems.
“So I had to wait until I was old enough to do stuff on my own,” Cox said. Boxer Kelly Thomas put him in contact with national coach Gary Bowen, but he didn’t stick around for very long.
The persistent Bowen sent messages by Thomas, another Olympian, Marcus Thomas and Christopher “Shaka” Henry.
“It took me a while before I decided to go back and when I did, he told me he wanted me to go into the [Barbados Defence Force Sports] Programme so I could focus more because I was working and I wasn’t getting much time to train,” he said.
Cox balked at going in a place where people told him what he had to do, but it started a very successful amateur career.
“Marcus Thomas was the guy that I really started to follow because he was the best in the gym at the time. I saw him train and I wanted to be just like him.
“That’s when I started putting in so many extra days of training,” he reasoned.
His first fight was in the open division in Guyana. “I drew this Trini guy. In the first two rounds I knocked him down and I felt wonderful. All I had to do was knock him down one more time and I would have won the fight, but he caught me with an overhand right and the next thing I remember,
I was in my room laying down asking what happened,” he said.
He was never knocked out again over a career where he was a nine-time Caribbean champion in the light heavyweight division.
He won gold, silver and bronze medals in three separate Central American and Caribbean Games; was a gold medallist at the Commonwealth Boxing Championships and the Military Games.
He also attended three Pan American Games, three Commonwealth Games and even fought for a World Championship title.
But only certain boxers were being picked to go to Olympic trials, and Cox was determined to be there.
“The first one I got beaten. The second one, I got beaten. The third time, the Barbados Defence Force did not support me to go to the last Olympic trials in Argentina because they said I lost and they didn’t have the money to send me because they figured I lost the first two,” he recalled.
James Marshall, president of the Boxing Association at that time, raised funds so Cox could attend. He had lost both trials to the same boxer. The night before he travelled, he spent hours with a friend watching the fight.
“He was sleepy. I was sleepy. We were just sitting down watching my fight over and over. Why is this guy beating me? What is it that I’m doing wrong? I’m training, I’m fit, I’m strong, I’m punching, but there is something I am not doing in the ring when I get a chance to fight this guy.
“Seconds before we fell asleep, he said ‘You know what Shawn, you’re going back too much. For the whole three rounds, go forward’.”
As luck would have it, Cox met the same boxer in Argentina and decided to go forward. Before the result was announced, he saw Marshall jumping up and down and shaking hands.
He had won 8-7 on points, the only boxer from the English-speaking Caribbean who would be going to Sydney.
After a training stint in Canada, he was off to Sydney, where he drew the world champion. “I was so nervous and so scared. So much stuff went through my head. Here a Caribbean boxer going up against the world champion.
“I went in there with the mindset that I was lasting because I don’t want him to knock me out at the Olympics, because I have to represent the whole Caribbean not just Barbados.
“So after two rounds, I realized I could take him and when he realized I was coming after him in the last round, he started running. The bout finished at 13-9. I didn’t know that I was so close to him. He was not scoring that many points. After the bout I felt very, very bad.”
Disappointed that he had lost – the official result is 14-10 – and feeling as though he had let down Barbados and the Caribbean, he didn’t want to go anywhere or see anyone. Obadele Thompson was the only person who came to offer commiserations.
Ironically, when Thompson won a bronze medal in the men’s 100 metres, Cox was not in the stadium. It was only when Muhammad Ali entered the Olympic Village that he roused himself to go and see one of his sporting idols. He took hundreds of pictures that day.
“Barbadians have to know it is not easy being a sportsman in Barbados. It will never be easy if people don’t wake up and realize being a sportsman takes a lot of discipline, a lot of dedication, a lot of commitment, and a lot of sacrifice. I have made a lot of sacrifices in my boxing career, both amateur and professional and I don’t regret making those sacrifices,” Cox said.
“I love this sport and when I am finished I will give back. I would like to see parents get more involved in their children’s boxing careers. We have a lot of talent out there, but people are not taking boxing seriously,” he said.