Unfinished business for Paul

“I have played the scenario over and over in my mind. It is very hard to realise a cut just above my eyebrow ended my dreams in the Commonwealth Games.”

For South Africa’s super-heavyweight Paul Schafer this is a hard pill to swallow.
Hours of training were ended when Paul and his opponent, Efe Ajagba of Nigeria bumped heads. The fight was stopped because of blood in the second round of their quarterfinal bout.

Like all Commonwealth boxing events, the competition that was held from July 25 to August 2 was a straight single-elimination tournament.
Paul’s first fight had his fan base in eMalahleni glued to the television. Huge cheers went up when he beat Paddy Leuii of Samoa 3-0 with good solid punches. Paddy was no competition for the top-fit Paul who danced around him.

Paul, who is his own worst critic, said he was extremely nervous before the first bout.
“I was engaged in an emotional warfare. The adrenaline coupled with stress factors is not a good combination when climbing into the boxing ring. The only way to balance this out is with experience, and that is something I do not have enough of,” he said.

He said he was much calmer before the second bout.
“My opponent was much taller than me and I realized I had to keep the distance between us small. The moment we bumped heads I knew it was over,” Paul sketched the final outcome of his dream in Scotland.

Paul, who celebrated his 30th birthday on August 16, said he is not giving up so easily, “I have some unfinished business in the ring.”

He is going to concentrate on his studies for the remainder of the year and as for next year he has a list of goals set up.
“In theory we need to approach boxing in a more scientific way. I am going to prepare and put more hours into training and looking at boxing more scientifically. I am ready to once again start at the beginning and go back to the drawing board. There are the Olympics winking on my horizon and that is where I want to go.”