Meet the chartered accountant who sacked off rugby and pies to take up bare-knuckle boxing
Meet the chartered accountant who sacked off rugby and pies to take up bare-knuckle boxing
Share:
Chartered accountant Steven Rouke isn’t your average bare-knuckle boxer. But he has packed a fearsome punch after taking up the brutal combat sport, initially to get in shape before his wedding. Rouke, 34, from Wigan, had been a keen rugby player, but after his weight ballooned due to “drinking and eating pies all the time”, he decided to do something about it.
That something was bare-knuckle boxing, and he has proved to be rather good at it, securing fights on big shows, like the upcoming BYB 36: Cardiff Brawl II on Saturday, February 1. “I had my first bareknuckle fight a couple of months after I started my new job. I think the others in the office thought, ‘who is this guy?’ said Rouke, a management accountant at the Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles charity.
“I don’t give the impression I’m a bare-knuckle boxer. There are two sides to me. I go to work and earn a living but I need excitement too. “I was always sporty and rugby was my sport. Playing rugby, I was getting more out of shape as the season went on. I was drinking and eating pies all the time. I was 155kgs when I started boxing and I’m 90kgs now. I went to the gym because I wanted to lose weight for my wedding.”.
Rouke started out in gloved boxing in the white collar scene but soon got a chance to try out bare-knuckle and hasn’t looked back. He explained: “I had a few white collar boxing fights and then found a German promotion, and they asked me to have a bare-knuckle fight.
“I flew to Germany and lost on points. I thought I should have won it, but I probably didn’t throw enough punches. I was nervous. I wasn’t sure that I’d enjoy it, but I loved the energy it gave me and thought, ‘I’m too young not to do this’.
