By Elliot Worsell
MY long-held concern of ever changing into Editor of Boxing News had nothing to do with seeing Matt Christie on the cellphone with irate promoters berating him for permitting certainly one of his writers to name their present a two-star present when it was “clearly a f**king three-star show”. It had nothing to do with me seeing Matt Christie, on a Tuesday afternoon, study that the combat he had assigned to that week’s cowl had simply been cancelled as a consequence of one of many two boxers getting injured. It wasn’t even something to do with seeing Matt Christie get pushed to the brink of despair when both (a) somebody within the workplace unaffiliated with Boxing News would interrupt him hours earlier than the journal went to press to ask him what he considered Tyson Fury retiring, or (b) he tried and did not get a easy efficiency from BoxRec.com forward of writing the following subject’s schedule.
Instead, the second I realised it was not the job for me got here at an awards ceremony in Westminster in 2021. It was there, among the many large hitters of the media world, we, the Boxing News crew, each took our place and knew our place, but would, to our shock, depart otherwise than we had entered. It was there, not content material with giving us awards for our web site and bookazines, the Sports Journalists’ Association (SJA) that 12 months recognised Matt Christie with the Special Correspondent honour.
In profitable this award, Matt had bested journalists from far greater publications, and would now should method the stage, take the microphone, and communicate. He must maintain it collectively and signify not solely Boxing News however the sport itself; a sport so many are fast to knock or just view as a foul behavior; a baby not at all times simple to defend, even for its mother and father.
Still, this wasn’t his first time. In 2018, in truth, Matt spoke with each assurance and eloquence on the identical stage and even remembered, amid all the joy of BN profitable an award, to pay tribute to Scott Westgarth, a boxer who had just lately handed. Following that, the room knew what all of us knew: no person cared extra about both Boxing News or boxers than Matt Christie.
Matt Christie, Boxing News Editor (Action Images / Andrew Couldridge)
Three years on, he was the identical however higher. Three years on, what was now each noticeable and admirable was how Matt’s love for the game and its individuals had by no means as soon as clouded his judgement, challenged his objectivity, or diminished him to the state of fawning fan. This was proven every time he spoke in public or tackled contentious points in his Editor’s Letter. The tone, at all times, was simply excellent.
Which is why that evening in 2021 I made a decision there was no person higher fitted to the job of Boxing News Editor than Matt Christie. That evening, in each profitable his award and addressing the viewers, he had managed to signify Boxing News so nicely it virtually felt like we belonged in that room and deserved every of the accolades we had, round that point, made a behavior of profitable.
Indeed, when folks discuss concerning the “award-winning Boxing News”, the truth is that this: most, if not all, of these awards have been collected throughout Matt Christie’s tenure. Why? Because of the requirements he set, primarily. There was, inside his small workforce, a want to each work for him and be higher than the remainder. In a time of flux, when everyone else seemed to be decreasing requirements and focusing on the bottom frequent denominator, the demand from Matt was at all times and refreshingly the alternative. That is, he needed us to rise above, not decrease ourselves simply because it was simpler or the “way things are going”. As a outcome, throughout his time at BN we discovered ourselves changing into distanced from what’s now thought-about boxing media – our supposed competitors – and shifting in direction of the sort of journalism each Matt and I learn, cherished, and revered.
There was a freedom, too. A freedom to precise your self. A freedom, born of belief, to do issues your personal manner. That, for a author, might be the best reward you could be given and from day one at BN it was mine. Ahead of protecting a combat week, I might be informed, “Just go and do what you do,” at all times with full belief. You would then after all, due to this, need to make him completely happy, even proud. You would go the additional mile.
For six and a half years Matt was my boss, but his respect for my writing by no means as soon as made me really feel inferior or in service to him. In truth, when he informed me at the beginning of my time at BN that convincing me to affix was his biggest achievement as Editor, I used to be then, from that day ahead, decided to ensure these phrases didn’t appear as frankly ludicrous as they sounded when first mentioned. I needed to be worthy of such an exorbitant assertion. I needed to make him appear rather less insane.
Thankfully, he facilitated this effort. Encouraged at each flip, I might write for him; to impress him; to justify his resolution to deliver me on board and say good issues about me. It was, in that sense, no totally different than how I’ve through the years written for my mother and father, if simply to remind them of the job they did; or for a lady, if simply to have them see one thing in me I can not.
As a author, that you just want greater than the rest. You want your reader, the rationale for doing it. Get that and you’ll write. Get that and inspiration won’t ever be out of attain.
For a time, too, that was all I had. When, as an illustration, Matt introduced me to BN in 2017, my life was not going nicely and the lengthy stroll to and from work was one fraught with dread and what-ifs? Every day I might arrive within the workplace, sit dead-eyed at my desk, and start the morning considering, How is it attainable for me to summon the power or care sufficient to put in writing about Anthony Joshua and Canelo Alvarez? Whenever this occurred, Matt, whether or not acutely aware of it or not, would then have interaction me someway and once more I might strive (to come back in; to put in writing; to maintain going). He may, for instance, have praised a chunk I had written or distracted me for 10 minutes within the kitchen by asking concerning the “proper writing” I did in my spare time. There was even one Monday in March when he needed to know all concerning the inventive writing course I had been doing on weekends, the satisfaction in his voice sufficient to get me to Friday.
With Matt, you see, there was at all times an understanding. An understanding of his workforce, and of human beings, and an understanding of each the problem and energy of a great sentence. Respect, due to this fact, was from him a pure factor; nothing pressured, nothing performative. Despite the rise of content material creators and varied new methods of protecting the game, nonetheless I used to be made to really feel as if my worth was in what I believed and the way these ideas have been expressed. For that I’ll perpetually be grateful to him.
Even past our workplace you discovered solely respect for Matt Christie, Editor of Boxing News, in these days. His temperament commanded it. His management commanded it. The high quality of his work, and the authoritative voice, commanded it.
Recently, in truth, and by sheer coincidence, the identify Matt Christie has been talked about to me by folks within the commerce, each of them trainers, throughout cellphone calls. One of them, having defined that he wasn’t chatting with any YouTubers presently however would give a while to me (that’s, us, Boxing News), mentioned: “The day the likes of Matt Christie are gone from boxing won’t be a good day. Soon, there won’t be any proper journalists left.”
In response, I simply agreed. I had neither the guts to inform him what I knew nor what was to come back. Perhaps, in some respects, he already knew himself.
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