Up and down life of a serial loser

Martin Jolley has lost 53 times in 70 contests but loves fighting and shows no inclination to retire from the ring. By Steve Bunce.

29 May 2000:

THE bar was dark, everybody was merry and Martin Jolley had just ordered a drink when he felt the edges of a glass and tasted his blood as it fell from a cut on his brow and passed across his lips. Jolley lost three pints of blood and was unable to box for six weeks.

The fighter had been cut before in the ring and on the street but he knew this was serious and it would keep him away from earning a living as a boxer. "I had fights booked and I needed the money," he said.

When he finally got back in to the ring in early January, just two weeks after the stitches were removed, the fight ended in the first round when the cut opened. It was his 49th loss; there have been four more since.

Jolley is one of British boxing's most prolific losers and last Sunday afternoon at the Pennine Hotel in Derby he lost for the 53rd time in his 70th fight and the cut opened again.

Jolley once fought 32 times during a four-year period without a win. It never discouraged him, nothing discourages him, and he is unique among the dozen or so British boxers who share similarly terrible records because of his conviction that a win is possible even when he has accepted a fight at 24-hours notice against an unbeaten fighter.

"I never think 'Damn it'. Never. They are only human," Jolley said after Sunday's points loss to Damon Hague. "It doesn't matter how good they think they are I will always try. A lot of good fighters are brilliant when they are on top but as soon as you hit them they start to back up."

Jolley has fought dozens of top fighters, including three world champions - Glen Catley, Robin Reid and Jason Matthews. "They all punch hard and move well but I never give up and they can see that in my eyes. They have to beat me and hurt me for their win," Jolley insisted.

Hague was unbeaten in 12 fights and had sold more than £5,000 worth of tickets for Sunday's show in his home town. When he emerged from the changing room, the entire crowd of 700 seemed to be behind him. Jolley had entered a few seconds earlier to the applause of the 46 people he had sold tickets to. No other loser sells tickets.

John Ingle, the promoter, likes to use Jolley. He said: "If you turn up to lose you don't sell tickets to all your mates. I sometimes look at him in the changing room and it's obvious
he thinks he will win. He has more confidence than most of the winners."

The fight, like most Jolley encounters, was not a classic, but at the end of each round he smiled and tapped Hague on the shoulder and when it was over he smiled and nodded to his friends at ringside. Hague was too busy, but Jolley showed his experience with a good fifth round. On Friday he travelled down from Chesterfield to Derby to have a drink with Hague.

"I could fight my best mate," Jolley said. "When it is over we would shake hands and then I could go to work with him in the morning. It is never personal with me. I just like the buzz of fighting.

"I know I'm more of a street fighter than a stylist but even the most skillful boxer has to know how to fight. I started to box because fighting on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night for nothing was a waste. I was going nowhere and just getting a reputation.

"I never go out to find trouble but I don't look like much in my clothes and drunk people and people on drugs pick on me. When I was glassed the guy was pissed off because I got
served first. I was having an innocent drink."

Jolley and Hague met before, but not in the ring. Six years ago Jolley was a probation officer in Derbyshire and on his last day in the job Hague was one of his clients. "I remember him," said Hague. "That was a different part of my life but I remember Jolley."

Hague, who has the word "Saved" tattooed above his left breast, spent two periods in prison before devoting his life to boxing.

"There are a lot of boxers like Jolley with deceptive records," Hague said. "They lose a lot but they are good fighters and strong and if you show them a weakness they will come at
you."

In 1992 Jolley won his first fight and its conclusion has now become one of small-hall boxing's most notorious tales. The fight was in Bury against Gypsy Johnny Price and in the third round Jolley pulled back from a clinch and was violently sick. "I had been working in a paint factory and my throat was full of shit, I just had to get it out."

Poor Price was stunned and as he looked on in amazement and disgust Jolley landed a right and knocked him out. It is a true story.

This Friday Jolley will be back in the boxing ring looking for win number 14 when he travels to Kent to fight Steven Bendall, who has won each of his seven fights. "I will go down and do what I do best. I will have a fight and to be honest I would fight for nothing in the ring like I did in the past on the streets because I just love to fight," Jolley said.