BENGAL BOUTS: Hobbins emphasizes mental aspects of boxing
By KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Associate Sports Editor
For Brian Hobbins, physical strength has little to do with boxing.
The senior boxing club captain and team president contends that winning a bout depends on technique — who has the best strategy for luring his opponent in, whose tactics can outmaneuver the other fighter.
"It's almost more like chess than boxing for me," said Hobbins, a 165-pounder.
Stepping into the ring also lets Hobbins know he passed the gut check, the one that tested his mental resolve to fight.
"It's totally mental," Hobbins said. "Facing your fears and your doubts."
Four years in the Notre Dame Boxing Club have helped Hobbins stare down his fears. The physical beating Hobbins has been taking in six-day-a-week Boxing Club practices and spars prepared him to do more than just fight tough opponents. It also prepared him for life.
Hobbins used his Bengal Bouts experiences to battle through a fear of heights last spring. He, fellow captain Peter Ryan and several other friends traveled to West Virginia following Senior Week to go cliff climbing and white water rafting. Without his in-the-ring tests to steel his courage, Hobbins doubts he would have had the nerve to go through with the climb.
"I'm deathly afraid of heights," Hobbins said, "but I think the mental and physical training from boxing helped me. It was a total rush, but it was a challenge to make myself do it."
Hobbins credits boxing with boosting his confidence in other areas, from job searches to social situations.
Of course, it's paid off physically, too, for the fighter who made it all the way to the championship round a year ago where he faced his toughest foe. He lost to junior captain Rob Joyce, a finalist at 175 pounds this year, in last year's finals.
"Rob had just been pounding people, and he proceeded to pound me," Hobbins said. "I had a feeling it wasn't going to go my way, and it was a matter of making myself keep going and surviving the fight instead of winning it."
This year, Hobbins, who lost in the semifinals in each of his first two Bengal Bouts, hopes to come out a champion for the first time. Down to 165 pounds, he made his way to the finals Wednesday night with a unanimous decision over Justin "The ResLife Regular" Myers.
Hobbins started out quick and kept delivering punishment to Myers every time Myers came at him. Hobbins stayed patient and let Myers come to him, but made Myers pay when he did move in close. Although Hobbins, who goes by the nickname "Nightmare," tired at the end, he held a clear advantage over his opponent throughout the three rounds.
To win his first title, Hobbins will have to get past Thomas "Boom-Boom" Macias, who won a unanimous decision over Christopher "Can't We All Just Get Along?" Kitalong that saw more flung fists than a barroom brawl. Macias' "brawler" style may force Hobbins to change his style.
"I'm kind of a counter type boxer," Hobbins said. "They come to me instead of me going to them. They step to me, and I just punch them and I leave, and that's the best case scenario. I'm going to have to readjust myself."
Boxing became a part of Hobbins' life by chance. The Minnesota native played soccer all through high school and tried out for his dorm's soccer team freshman year. But after missing a couple practices early on, Hobbins got cut from the team and found himself searching for something to do.
He found a time-filler in Bengal Bouts after attending club activity night. At first he signed up for the physical workout boxing would give him, but the club soon meant more than just something to keep him in shape.
Boxing meant close friendships with his teammates, service to the community through the thousands of dollars Bengal Bouts raise for the poor in Bangladesh and a chance to challenge himself on a daily basis.
Hobbins even turned down an opportunity to study in Italy when former captain Tommy Will called him with the chance to be a team captain. Will's phone call came late in Hobbins' sophomore year, giving him a tough decision to make.
"I thought, `This is such a great honor and it's something I'm really starting to like. It's something that's just really starting to take hold of my existence at Notre Dame,'" Hobbins said of his choice. "Italy, not withstanding a natural disaster, will probably be there a couple of years down the road. The discipline and time it takes to be a boxing captain and boxer won't be there as long."
The American Studies major, who hopes to work with Alliance for Catholic Education next year, passed on the semester abroad in favor of Bengal Bouts. While he'd still like to travel the world, he doesn't regret his decision for a moment.
"The friendships I've made in Bengal Bouts I think are just as enriching," Hobbins said.
Just as a title would nicely adorn his boxing career.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, March 1, 2001
