JOHN DOCHERTY is not one to shirk from pressure.
The 22-year-old freely admits that boxing is everything to him and if he loses, he has no idea what he is going to do next.
This evening, Docherty will take to the ring for his eighth professional fight having notched up a 7-0 record so far.
And he admits that is he were to lose, he does not know what he would do.
“I don’t have anything other than boxing – all my eggs are in one basket. I’ve got no other options other than this,” he said.
“If I get beaten as a pro in one of these kinds of fights, I won’t be able to come back from it. If I get beaten in the future in a world title fight or something, that would be different but if I got beaten now, I just feel like I wouldn’t come back from it.
“It is a lot of pressure I’m putting on myself but that’s my motivation when I train.”
Docherty is due to fight Stanislav Eschner in Sheffield on the Kell Brook undercard although with his recent run of opponents pulling out – his last fight saw eight prospective opponents pull out while this fight, already three have withdrawn - he admits he focuses entirely on himself in his preparations.
And so far at least, that method has worked. Docherty won his first five pro fights with knock-outs, including one in just eight seconds.
But he is looking for a tougher test this evening which, he hopes, will help prepare him for a title fight later in the year.
“I want someone who can test me – someone who wants to win the fight,” said the super-middleweight, whose family hail from Montrose.
“These journeymen I’ve fought, they know how to survive, they know how to get through the rounds but they don’t try to win the fight.
“I actually think if I go up against someone who tries to win the fight, I’ll knock them out even quicker.
“Hopefully I’ll get a knockout and then I’ll fight for some titles later in the year, possibly the British title.”
Docherty has a successful pedigree as an amateur, with his highlight being a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast in 2018. However, he admits that he didn’t take the sport nearly as seriously as he could have during his amateur days. Since turning professional in the aftermath of those Commonwealth Games though, his attitude has changed entirely and so there is no messing around from the London-based man these days.
“When I was an amateur, I didn’t really take it seriously,” he said.
“I wasn’t training anywhere near as hard as I am now when I was an amateur. My weight was terrible, and I didn’t do anything professionally. I got far in the amateurs but I didn’t treat it all that serious.
“But now, things are different. I know I have to give it everything. I train so hard now and I’m doing everything I can.”
Docherty believes he can reach the pinnacle of his sport but his main driver at the moment is not, in fact, wanting to win. It is his fear of failure that pushes him on, with his desperation not to lose the primary thought in his head. And with a 9-month-old son also in tow these days, Docherty knows failure is not an option as he is not only striving for success for himself now, he is doing it for his family.
“I’ve definitely got a fear of failure,” admits Docherty.
“If I don’t succeed in this, I don’t know what I’ll do. So that’s why I cannot lose. All I know is boxing, boxing, boxing. If I got beaten, I don’t know what I’d do. But I believe I’ll get to where I want to be.
“I think I’m motivated by not wanting to lose.
“With my little boy being here, I’m not just doing it for myself anymore and that really motivates me even more to want to win.
“I believe in myself that I’m going to go right to the top – I believe I’m going to be word champion one day.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here