Earlier this month, we interviewed Kieran Gething, a pro boxer out of Whales. During that interview, Gething brought up the fact that he wrote a book and has an idea for several more. I immedately went out and bought said book. It’s title, “Insight,” is the entire theme of the book.
If you’re a spoiler guy, there will be mild spoilers from here on. Not the whole books, but I will be discussing major points.
Insight attempts to give the layman and the aspiring boxer a little insight, for lack of a better word, on the life of a boxer. Gething isn’t world famous so he juggles his boxing career with his business and family.
The book is broken into two parts. The first, Kieran Gething attempts to tell us what he’s seen are important parts of life to take care of as a boxer. From family to proper training regimines, he goes through what’s given him trouble and how he dealt with each.
One thing Gething does well in the book is give you insight from his point of view, a young man with a family of boxers that hails from Wales. His dad and grandfather were both boxers as well. He tells the story of how he wanted to box, but not until later in life.
Then, Gething wrenches your gut out and tells you about the passing of his father. “He shot himself in the head with a shotgun,” Gething said as your soul left your body. That sentence alone gave me pause and sent chills down my spine as I tried to put myself in Gething’s shoes in that moment, something I couldn’t fully wrap my head around. I felt myself hurting for Kieran. Gething was completely vunerable with the reader, not hiding anything from his life.
The first part, overall, provided young boxers and those interested with several pillars of life to work on. Gething showed that balance was important in your work and everyday life.
Part Two: Kieran Gething Training Camp
Part two of Insight was a different delve into the mind of an up and coming boxer. Gething kept a journal of the leadup to his most recent fight. The event was an MTK Global fight with 500,000 pounds on the line.
In the journal, Gething goes over the training process and how his rounds at the gym weren’t a set time every day. He still had a construction business run by him and a family with kids that needed tending to. Gething showed that he has taken his advice from part one and put them into practice in real life.
He’s a boxer, but also a husband, dad and business owner. Most of the days, Gething successfully juggled the aspects of his life, often not getting in at the late hours of the night.
It was odd to read, too. Gething is a professional boxer. But he still had to walk his dogs. Often times, boxing fans get this disillusion of a boxer spending all day in the gym, hitting pads, and having little things taken care for them. Gething shows that’s not the case.
His book shows the reality that is true for most boxers: it’s not all glitz and glamour. Not every boxer is Canelo Alvarez and Tyson Fury. The reality is, most boxers are regular people that have a really great talent. But that talent doesn’t lead them into being just boxers. Insight shows the common fan that all boxers start out at one point where they have to juggle things around.
In the second section of Kieran Gething’s Insight, he goes through his training camp. Gething tells the tale of how everything went right and how well training camp and the weight cut went. There was almost nothing wrong in the training camp for Gething.
Gething even goes through the nerves leading up the day before and hours before the fight. He goes over his ritual for the day of a fight as well, which is surprisingly relaxing.
Then when you think Kieran Gething is going to go in there and dominate and end the book on a high, victorious note. Instead, he flips the script on you. The fight doesn’t go Gething’s way. But, he doesn’t lose. The fight was ruled a split draw with one judge ruling in favor of his opponent. With the fight being a tournament, Gething was eliminated without truly losing the fight.
It’s the raw honestly from Kieran Gething that makes this book such a fun read. He opens up about the loss in the last couple of journal entries and talks about the embarassment and emotion he goes through with everything.
In the last entry, Gething comes to terms with his loss and then says it’s back to the real world. “Back to the real world” is an odd thought for a professional boxer. We often think these guys are ready to get back in the gym to become better. But after a couple months away from his family full time, the one thing Gething wants to get back to is that, his family.
Kieran Gething’s Insight is a fantastic read. It isn’t long, just over 100 pages, and does a good job giving you a look inside an up-and-coming boxer and how his day to day life works.
Pick up Insight by Kieran Gething on Amazon here!
