White Collar Boxing in Singapore

The Vanda Boxing Club Team. Photo: Vanda Boxing Club Facebook
The Vanda Boxing Club Team. Photo: Vanda Boxing Club Facebook

White-collar boxing is a form of boxing in which men and women in white-collar professions – mainly banking, legal, technology or media – train to fight at special events. Most have had no prior boxing experience or are amateur boxers. In Singapore, the boxers are professionally trained in a 12-week program, to go on to participate in a 3-round fight in a white-collar event sanctioned by the World White Collar Boxing Association (WWCBA).

This event will take place on the 17th of October and the Dane Lars Skov Christensen will be one of the participants. He is a project manager for Blue Water Shipping – an international transport, shipping and freight forwarding company with head quarters in Esbjerg, Denmark. Together with the 19 other participants from different parts of the world he has been training three times a week in Vanda Boxing Club over the last three months.

“Most of all it’s for the challenge of it, but it certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s also for a good cause. Furthermore, some friends have also been pushing me a bit to do it,” Lars Skov Christensen says when asked why he has decided to participate.

Lars Skov Christens weigh-in. Photo: Vanda Boxing Club Facebook
Lars Skov Christensens weigh-in. Photo: Vanda Boxing Club Facebook

The White Collar Boxing had it’s beginning in New York City in the late 1980s, and has since become popular in Asian countries like Hong Kong and Singapore. Here one of the prominent promoters of white-collar boxing is Vanda Promotions. Vanda Boxing Club has trained over 390 White Collar boxers in the last three years.

Vanda Boxing Club hosts the White Collar Boxing event in Singapore two times a year, which is a black tie sell-out and attracts a large number of applications from people who wants to participate.

Tuesday on the 29th of September, the weigh-in for the match took place at the Exchange Bar in Singapore where Lars Skov Christensen and the rest of the participants would discover whom they were fighting on the 17th of October. Lars Skov Christensen had at this point reached a weight of 81 kg, which is due to some lifestyle changes over the last three months.

“I’ve chosen to do this a 100 percent, which means, that I’m not consuming any alcohol for the whole duration of the program. I’ve also cut back on the sweet stuff, but that comes naturally when you train as much as I do,” he says.

Lars Skov Christensens’ opponent was revealed as Oscar Forero, a 40-year old Colombian working for the Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore.

“My chances against Oscar are good, but I take nothing for granted. It is going to be a tough fight and I’m sure both of us wants to win,” Lars Skov Christensen says.

Oscar Forero and Lars Skov Christensen. Photo: Vanda Boxing Club Facebook
Oscar Forero and Lars Skov Christensen. Photo: Vanda Boxing Club Facebook

One of the reasons why Lars Skov Christens isn’t taking anything for granted is the style of boxing, in which him and his opponent is different.

“Oscar is a southpaw – a left-handed boxer – which can become a challenge for me, because his movements are inverted from mine as I am a right-handed boxer, called an orthodox,” Lars Skov Christensen explains.
On the Vanda Boxing Club team there is only one southpaw, which means, that Lars Skov Christensen won’t be able to practise fighting against this type of boxer.

As Lars Skov Christensen has already mentioned, The White Collar Boxing (WBC) event in Singapore is a charity event. The event is arranged to raise money for he Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC) in Cambodia. The Centre provides a range of specialised rehabilitation surgical services, surgical training, and direct support to the people of Cambodia – free of charge. CSC is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) recognised by the Cambodian Royal Government. CSC aims to improve the quality of life for disabled poor people by providing free rehabilitation surgery. Vanda Boxing has raised $2 million for children’s charities in Asia over the years. So far the current White Collar Boxing team has raised more than USD 26,000 for the cause.

 

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