Like most young Greek Australian boys, Terry Tzouramanis’ first sport was soccer. He enjoyed playing it but found himself wanting to do something that was purely based on his abilities and skills. By coincidence, he stumbled across Big Ben's boxing, a gym/physical fitness centre in Victoria, Australia and this changed everything. Being taught discipline quite early on was challenging and rewarding and he now holds the current title of the World Boxing Council Asia Continental Champion.
This month, the young boxer added to his achievements, earning the WBA Oceania title after fighting Brandon Ogilvie in Perth.
Before the fight, Terry said that his contender was tough and was really challenging himself with this fight. This didn’t stop the determined boxer from putting in a lot of hard work before and during the fight, which paid off. “I'm very satisfied with my performance, I trained like a beast these past 8 weeks so I'm very happy,” he proudly said after the match.
For this fight, Terry trained everyday for 2-3 sessions which included a 5km interval run in the morning, followed by an intense strength circuit session and to finish off, he would go to the boxing gym for pads/bag, skipping or sparring. After that he would return home for dinner and rest, which is just as important as the rest of his day, he mentioned.
Spanning a ten year career, Terry has over 29 professional fights and feels that his best is ahead of him especially after winning this fight.
“In the ring I feel alive and thought of your opponent trying to take what I've worked hard for echoes throughout my whole camp. Every strength session, sparring, all the gruelling runs, I think about all I've worked hard for, so by the time the fight comes around, it's engrained into me and my mind starts to make moves like on a chess board, and I begin to work.”
Just like everybody else, he also notes the biggest challenge in his career is balancing work, training and his family. “Most fights I'm still working full time so that has been very challenging, but I'm grateful I have a great support network.”
During every fight, Terry tries to create a better version of himself. If he could have a dream fight it would be with someone from the World Champions in his division. “That's the ultimate goal once I get my World ranking,” he added.
After following his passion and being where he is today because of his discipline and hard work, Terry has some advice to those who inspire to box: “If you are passionate about boxing, first find yourself a good trainer, one who will look after you, you want to also make sure you have a good team behind you. You have to work extremely hard in the gym, be consistent, gritty and also make sure to have fun and enjoy the journey, if you don't love it don't do it. That goes for anything you want to pursue in life.”
