By Fatima Halloum
Mason Smith has barely held the title of Australian Super Middleweight champion for one week, yet the Werribee boxer is already thinking about when he’ll be back in the gym.
Following a “few bumps in the road” throughout the year, Smith said it was “good to prove a lot of people wrong” when he defeated Lachlan Higgins on December 9 at Melbourne Pavilion.
“We were probably not taken seriously, and doubted,” he said.
“We just really believed in putting in some really hard work in preparation for this fight, I felt like I was in the best shape I’ve ever been in.”
Smith says it was the “extremely good support network, resilience, and self-belief” that fuelled him to keep moving.
“I suffered my first loss this year and a lot of people were saying, ‘you should maybe change this, or do that’ and I just stuck to it and didn’t doubt myself for a second, even though a lot of people may have,” he said.
“You’ve just got to keep going when it doesn’t seem too good.”
Despite his successes, Smith doesn’t consider himself “a superior athlete by any means”, and says he focuses primarily on maintaining small, frequent, habits.
“Compound all the small things that you do, whether it be yoga, swimming, running, they’re all things that I do,” he said.
“Doing all these things over time it’s obviously going to benefit you, I don’t miss a session, I’m just a firm believer in working hard, consistently, but also smart, and looking after your body as well.”
Smith said he “definitely hopes” his win can resonate with other people in Werribee.
“I left full-time work to pursue this full time, so it was a big risk for me,” he said.
As for the future, Smith says he would “definitely love to travel abroad” and see what doors could open for him overseas.
“I don’t like to say ‘I want to win a world title, I want to be the best in the world’, because I like to do things one step at a time,” he said.
“I just want to get back in the gym.”
