by Sahar Foladi<\/p>\n
A humble club with a traditional hardcore coach in Dandenong South is not new to creating boxing champions.<\/p>\n
The Team Hatton club has done it again with three of its champions claiming victory in the regional, state and national fights.<\/p>\n
Jawaad and Senad Alesevic, both Greater Dandenong locals, and Harley Stanway of Pakenham won their fights, but they were and still are committed to gruelling training and discipline.<\/p>\n
Jawaad has claimed the national title championship, dedicating his lifestyle towards the end goal for many, to fight professionally.<\/p>\n
He got hooked on the sport after his elder brother encouraged him to take it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think I would come this far into sport, but after just fighting and trying it out, I liked the peace in the sport and just wanted to keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Training morning and evening six times a week is not the toughest part. For Jawaad it\u2019s the weight cutting, resisting his mother\u2019s traditional mouth-watering Afghan cuisines like the mantu.<\/p>\n
This is the norm for those who are committed to their boxing journey. Training at least five to six times a week, sometimes double-training morning and evening.<\/p>\n
Harley has been boxing for 11 years overall and has been with Team Hatton for four, committing to an early morning commute via train from Pakenham to Dandenong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s costly, but before I was doing morning and night, so I was coming here 10 times a week. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d wake up 5.30 in the morning, catch a train around 6am, then get here before 7.30 every morning \u2013 and go straight to school after I get home, have a shower and everything. It was a mission, but it was worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve cut down to five times a week now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senad Alesevic is turning 17 aceing both school in advanced maths as well as boxing. He\u2019s aiming to become an engineer and a pro fighter.<\/p>\n
He played soccer at Dandenong Thunder, transitioned to kickboxing and then boxing at Team Hatton for five years.<\/p>\n
He has claimed eight wins in fights, including his first title win as a Champion in Amatuer Boxing League Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started my diet before the fight, had to train very hard. It was a close fight, but I came up better.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the hard work pays off.\u201d<\/p>\n
His father, Osman Alesevic, who is assistant treasurer at Springvale City Soccer Club, says his son made the switch from soccer to boxing because he didn\u2019t like losing.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously soccer is a team sport. He likes boxing more because he can handle pressure, he prefers the one-on-one, he likes the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fighting pro is not a far-fetched dream for these dedicated champions, with Melisa Murselovic as the prime example.<\/p>\n
One of Peter\u2019s long-term champions Melisa has been training and grew up under the guidance of Mr Hatton since the age of 9.<\/p>\n
She brought home gold twice in world championships and is qualified to represent Australia again on the world stage this year in October.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with Peter, pro is very achievable for anyone. You just put the work in and anyone can be a pro.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just got to have the heart, grit, and the determination and I\u2019ve had that for a long time. The only thing stopping me was turning 18.\u201d<\/p>\n
A decade into boxing, she has reached her ultimate goal of fighting pro, with another pro fight upcoming in November.<\/p>\n
As a pro fighter, the protective gear comes off, no shin guards, no head gear, gloves are minuscule, with only a mouth guard.<\/p>\n
She is also set to smash the world championships next year in March.<\/p>\n
All while studying psychological science at Deakin University and joking that she\u2019s \u201cmaking her own clients\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFunny, everyone asks how can you help people when you hurt them? And I say you got to have balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all fight alone, but we all work together. In here, we bleed together, we sweat together, tears, we starve, we do all that together. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut everyone\u2019s on their own path, we all have our own mental games, but we always support each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes to finish off her pro career after a few more titles including the World Heavyweight Champion before she can commit to her career in child psychology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Sahar Foladi A humble club with a traditional hardcore coach in Dandenong South is not new to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-155677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}