Martin Hillman returns from Togo with belt in hand and dreams fulfilled trucc
“I’M delighted. Yeah, very happy. Still a bit sore. But, you know, what a mad one!” summarises Martin Hillman on the phone back home in Orpington following last week’s adventure in Togo. The boxing gods were rightly smiling on him as he had the Commonwealth Silver belt strapped across his middle on a chaotic and balmy African evening.
To have travelled all that way and to have steadfastly overcome so many pre-fight obstacles, to then not leave with the belt would have been more than unjustly cruel. Those familiar with the ever-likeable Hillman’s story will know that his challenge for the vacant title against Anwary Twaha was originally planned for London’s Tolworth Leisure Centre but was cancelled at the last minute due to the Tanzanian being refused a visa.
Following a fight last year in Ghana, Hillman enterprisingly sought out the same promoters to take the fight to Accra, before a temporary suspension of boxing in the West African country scuppered that plan as well.
Fortunately for Hillman, that same promoter was able to move the show to neighbouring Togo, and thus keep Hillman’s Commonwealth dreams alive. And so it was that the 34-year-old boarded a flight from Gatwick to Accra last Wednesday ahead of a five-hour bus journey to the Togolese capital of Lomé.
“You couldn’t buy that experience,” says Hillman of his Lonely Planet journey far beyond any established tourist routes. “We went to all the outer regions and really rural places and villages. That bus ride was a real eye-opener, and everything was very different from the city of Accra.
“I think people were a bit amazed to see us when we got out at the stops [Hillman, Dad & trainer Martin Sr, sponsor and mate Lloyd Campbell, and Hillman’s three cousins] but it was just a mad experience travelling through the Volta region. And then we had all the police stops and that as you get closer to the border. I was determined to just sit back and enjoy it all.”
The venue for fight night consisted of a ring thrown up in the middle of the beach at the Akusa Park Resort. Hillman can’t resist laughing about his designated changing area. “It was an outdoor patio alongside a bar and tables where people were sat down drinking cocktails.
“It was funny,” he continues. “These people enjoying their drinks and then us at the end wrapping hands and doing pads. Everything about it was a bit surreal.”
But when the action commenced in the ring, Twaha was determined to make him work hard for the belt. The Tanzanian may have appeared unprepossessing and slightly built but, unbeaten, with eight mostly early knockouts from ten wins, he certainly proved able to pack a coruscating punch. “I’d seen a few of his fights on YouTube and knew he had power,” reveals Hillman. “But his hands were way quicker than I thought. And with those long arms he was really strong. When he hit me, I felt it, no doubt about that.”
With Twaha opening the contest like a runaway locomotive, the Orpington man’s plans were nearly derailed as early as the first round. Determined to stick behind his jab and not get pulled into the kind of free-swinging street fight that would have advanced the cause of his African foe, Hillman was forced to readily recount his dad’s pre-fight advice. “He reiterated to me several times before the fight that I needed to be careful about not getting sucked in and dropping to his [Twaha’s] level. I had the better boxing skills, so I needed to make sure I used them.”
However, just a little over ninety seconds into a fight that Hillman had spent the better part of a year trying to make happen, he got caught with a head-butt by his freewheeling opponent. “I just couldn’t believe it,” says the 34-year-old. “The butt really hurt and there was a load of blood pouring into my eye. It totally buzzed me as well and I just had to dig deep and get through it.”
But with the ringside doctor taking a long and careful look at the injury, Hillman’s biggest concern was that the fight was going to be stopped. “It would have been the end of it all. What a disaster that would have been. To come all that way and for it to end before it had started.”
Just to ram home the point, Twaha caught him with another head-butt in the next round, with the referee opting to deduct a further point. “He had a hard head,” is all Hillman will say of Twaha’s frequent rule-book transgressions. But all the while he was able to outbox the often-frenetic Twaha by sticking to strong fundamentals. At one point in the third he dropped his opponent for a short count, landing a cuffing left hand that caught the Tanzanian off-balance and sent him to the canvas.
By the end of the fifth round, he was beginning to tire, and Hillman was achieving solid success by sticking to the basics. But at one point he admits to getting tempted into a trade-off with the other corner. “He had come out like a train again at the start of the round. I should have just boxed him really but at one point I got into a little bit of a war with him. But I did catch him with some clean jabs and right crosses. There was one good counter left hook as well.
“By that point I started to feel him breathing heavy. It would have been really interesting to see what shape he was in coming out for the sixth,” he speculates.
But with blood continuing to pour out of Hillman’s injured eye, it wasn’t to be. The ringside doctor had seen enough and, despite the knockdown and his opponent’s two-point deductions, this news was still met with a certain panic and trepidation. “I just couldn’t remember the rules. I was thinking if it is stopped, ‘do I lose? How many rounds do you need for a decision?’” he reveals.
“When the ref came over and told me we were going to points, I thought: ‘surely, I’ve got this’ – but in that moment it was still panic stations. I was thinking I’m a long way from home and all that. But to be honest the officials were very fair. They all did a great job.”
With the fight meeting the minimum requirement of four completed rounds, Hillman’s name was read out as an emphatic 49–43 winner by Technical Decision.
But there was little time or energy for Hillman to enjoy this longed-for moment. Vomiting three times shortly after the fight, initial concerns over a potential concussion were then diagnosed as heatstroke. An early night was followed by an early start as Hillman and his team had to catch the bus back to Accra and then make their return flight to Gatwick. “It all just happened too quickly,” he says.
“I’ve not really had a chance to properly celebrate yet. I landed at 4:30 am on Tuesday and had to be back at work for 8 am. Somebody else had booked the day off and I couldn’t get any extra leave. After that I just went home and crashed,” says the newly minted Commonwealth Silver super-bantamweight champion and full-time mechanic.
It’s been one hell of a journey for Hillman. You have to wonder if he wakes up in the blackness of these autumnal nights and wonders if it was all a dream. A dream that by his own hard work and perseverance, and despite all the odds, he has made come true.
And for that it is probably all the sweeter.
Emily Simpson Accuses Tamra Judge of Leaking RHOC Storylines: ‘The Details Were Too Specific!’ trucc
Is everyone talking to bloggers these days? After the shocking finale of The Real Housewives of Orange County seemingly exposed Tamra Judge for leaking storylines, Emily Simpson has admitted that she completely believes the anonymous source. She thinks they finally caught Tamra red-handed. The audience, on the other hand? They have a slightly different take.
Tamra Judge was seemingly exposed in the RHOC Season 19 finale
The final moments of RHOC Season 19 showed Jennifer Pedranti, Shannon Beador, and Gina Kirschenheiter getting tea from an anonymous source, who said that Tamra was talking to bloggers and leaking information. We’re still trying to figure out who this RHOC Deep Throat is, but Emily doesn’t seem to care. She told Us Weekly that she believes everything they said.
“I’m sure she did, because the amount of information that this person knew — it was detailed,” Emily said.
Specifically, Emily found it odd that the source knew about Gretchen Rossi’s alleged anti-LBGTQ+ social media activity.
“That’s detailed information that only cast and production would know about,” Emily claimed. “So, clearly, someone leaked it, and the fact that they said it was Tamra? I mean, I believe them. I’m sure that she does or has done it for years. I think it just caught up with her. There’s no reason for me not to believe that it was her. It seemed very black and white.”
Emily’s stance on the situation seems to mirror that of the rest of the RHOC cast. However, on social media, viewers didn’t seem as compelled by this new ‘evidence’ against Tamra. Plenty of fans are just frustrated that “leaking storylines” has become a storyline on so many franchises.
One person wrote, “All this last scene from #RHOC proved was the group’s ‘grudge’ against Katie [Ginella] was dumb and unfounded. They ALL leak stories to bloggers, but Katie had to fall on the sword.”
Clearly, everyone is processing this information differently. Regardless of how it landed for you, we can at least breathe a sigh of relief knowing they have something new to discuss at the upcoming reunion. It will be three parts, and now, they plenty to talk about.
The Real Housewives of Orange County reunion kicks off next Thursday at 8/7c on Bravo.
