Drunk ‘n’ dis Audley
Excuse the title but Friday night saw all round good egg Getty photographer Dan Berehulak have his farewell drinks before he heads out to India. With a slightly fragile head, I rocked up to the ExCel Centre to see a roll-call of chaps prepared to inflict a similar feeling on each other.
Having only shot boxing once before, the undercards are always handy target practise for blowing away the technical cobwebs. As you can imagine, shooting boxing depends on fast shutter speeds, fast autofocus, high ISO and hoping that you’re on the best side when the knockout blow is thrown.
As usual, I arrived with a whole batch of lenses and ended up just using one. For those interested, the 24-70mm f2.8 is perfect for boxing. Wide enough for decent full-lengths but long enough for decent close-ups, it gains the TabascoKid nomination for the ultimate boxing lens.. 
After a series of average matches, Enzo Maccarinelli ramped up the excitement with a somewhat decisive victory over Matthew Ellis. Not being much of a sports follower, it’s always good to see someone who is very good at their chosen field, particularly when you don’t know what to expect from them.
Now. Audley Harrison. Never having seen him box before I was expecting to see a decent fight but I was surprised at how nervous he looked throughout the whole thing. My first impression was that it may be part of his “stage persona” but it didn’t take long to reach the conclusion that he just simply looked scared.
With their bout going for the full ten rounds, Martin Rogan ended up the eventual winner.
Apparently Audley’s a lovely chap but when you’re facing someone like Rogan (below), you’ll need a bit more than that.
Finally, it was Amir Khan‘s time to shine. Following his shock defeat to Colombian Breidis Prescott in September, Oisin Fagan stepped up to the mark to see whether Khan’s days of victory were over.
Following the obligatory Spearmint Rhino girls, lycra and wolf-whistles, it was time for the moment of truth. Has he still got it?
Yup. No problem. One minute and 37 seconds into the second round and after a whole bunch of moments with Fagan on his backside, the referee stopped the fight and declared Khan the winner. Welcome back, squire!
Hey Leon, really nice work (as always). When you shoot events like this are you working on contract, on assignment or just freelance? Also are you given free reign to climb around all sides of the ring as you please, or are you limited in your coverage? It seems you are rather close for the 2nd to last shot (wide angle, color shot of Fagan lunging) Once again, great work. It seems like a fun and challenging assignment.
Cheers for your kind words, Daniel.
I’m a staff photographer for Agence France-Presse in London so shoot my work on assignment. When shooting boxing, my limited experience has luckily included ringside position both times but there are generally two options; ringside or balcony.
From balcony, you will be shooting on a 400mm lens from a raised elevation and is definitely not as desirable as ringside.
By comparison, the close access granted by ringside results in you really getting to shoot from “within” the fight (often TOO close as they fall against the ropes). In both of my shoots, the promoter has pre-allocated a seat to me and the photographer has to shoot from that position for the duration of the fights.
The hardest thing about shooting boxing to me is the working position. To get the correct angle, you are leaning onto the canvas at a height that means you are neither stood upright or kneeling. Then you’re angling your neck back at virtually a right angle to shoot up between the ropes. To allow the media behind to see, you have to remain in this position for all of the time that you are actually shooting. After shooting my first fight earlier this year, I had head and neck aches for days afterwards. Last night, being aware of it, I made sure I did my best to avoid screwing myself up again and it thankfully seems to have paid off today!
Hope that helps with your questions and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have anything else to ask.
Leon, I was talking about this post to some people I know today – I should tell you it knocked my socks off (no pun intended). Mind if I link to it in a couple of places?
Of course you can! The more people who read this blog, the easier my mind control experiment will be when I iron out the teething issues.
Some super dooper shots here, Leon – very Raging Bull. I’ve rented that exact lens for this weekend to do a wedding so now I’m just hoping it all kicks off!
haha Bring it on, ya wedded mofos!
Truly amazing images as good as neil leifer’s work. I photographed some boxing, had the same problem as you with position, in the end I had to pull out my 70-200 and get some tight action shots. Not the best images from my nikon d2h, but I got valuable experience from it, just shot too many images at 8fps. but damn it sounds sexy when it rattles of those frames
Good Lord! Having just proved myself an ignorant fool by having to look up Neil Leifer, I can only say “Thanks very much!” High praise indeed!
As for the motor drives, I just enjoyed the games that the boxers play with each other that go on to catch the photographers out. It’s a fun challenge to see if you can discern the “feint” from the finisher by ONLY shooting when a connection is made. First one to fall for a fake punch is out!