Flintoff Swaps Lord's For The Ring
Updated: 12:46pm UK, Saturday 01 December 2012
By Charlie Thomas, Sports Presenter
What to do when you hang up the boots? It's the perennial dilemma for the professional sportsman. And the answer these days comes in a variety of forms.
You might choose to replace the discipline of training by going into coaching, or management.
Miss the dressing room banter? You could head for the studio and take up punditry.
There's always the celebrity circuit of dancing in sequined suits or eating bugs in Australian jungles.
And if you're a cricketer you might well think about becoming a correspondent, as Mike Atherton and Derek Pringle have done with notable success.
Few, though, plunge feet first into a completely different sport, which was what made Freddie Flintoff's desire to take up boxing so compelling.
Would he fall flat on his face or would he reveal skills hitherto hidden? In other words, was this just reality TV in another guise?
But then Freddie's life has never run according to most normal rules.
Comparisons with that other great England all-rounder Ian Botham followed him throughout his playing career, and Freddie also seems to share Sir Ian's maverick appetite for new experiences.
Where Beefy replaced life on the road with marathon charity walks over the Alps or the length of Britain, Freddie chose to raise money for Sport Relief by breaking various unlikely world records, like the farthest distance to score a bullseye and popping the most party poppers in a minute.
To his credit, Flintoff appears to have thrown himself into his latest sporting incarnation with complete professionalism.
Few expected him to win last night; most, especially his wife Rachel and trainer Barry McGuigan, were simply hoping he didn't get badly hurt.
But while there was scant evidence that Freddie had missed his calling by becoming a cricketer rather than a boxer, Super Middleweight champion Carl Froch told Sky News he was impressed by Flintoff's fitness and dedication.
The irony is that Freddie is probably fitter now than at any time during his professional cricketing career.
Had he shown such dedication to the gym in his younger years it's probable that he wouldn't have suffered the weight-related injuries that cut short his playing days.
But then again, he wouldn't have been Freddie Flintoff then would he?
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