This weekend, One2Boxing will refocus on the basics.
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With three fighters set to compete on the Kara Toomey-Tremain Fight Night, held by Fighting Arts Gym, each of the Tamworth boxers hope to earn wins by zeroing in on the fundamentals of their styles.
But for Lemuel Silisia, Cody Vitalone, and Malachi Towns, going back to basics means something different for each.
As far as Silisia is concerned, he hopes to find the fire in his belly that will allow him to ruthlessly utilise his natural striking power against Wollongong's Chris Pecipajkovski, without being compromised by his equally inherent kindness.
![(From left) Cody Vitalone, Lemuel Silisia, and Malachi Towns will fight in Dubbo this weekend with refreshed mindsets. Picture by Zac Lowe. (From left) Cody Vitalone, Lemuel Silisia, and Malachi Towns will fight in Dubbo this weekend with refreshed mindsets. Picture by Zac Lowe.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ijfQKXbsEKgSKGW5xB5NiF/dd64d55c-c747-450d-9e93-a2732ce7bf86.jpg/r0_59_3276_2189_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"It's just in my mind," Silisia said.
"For me, outside the ring, hurting people is not in my nature. It's not what my family or my dad told me to do, but when I'm in the ring and I hit someone and they're knocked down, I feel sorry for them.
"[The coaches] don't want me to do this, they want me to get rid of it."
The key, he said, is flicking the same switch in his mind that he found during his knockout win over Luke Ugov in August, which secured Silisia the Northern NSW 67kg title.
By contrast, Towns is looking to rediscover the key to success against Sydney-based Tetenda Karuwa after a couple of tough losses.
The mercurial boxer, coach Jamie Carroll said, has it in him to be successful, but sometimes deviates from the game plan mid-fight.
"Mal can be up and down, he gets away from what we're teaching sometimes," Carroll said.
"But I'm really happy with where he's at now, we're taking it back to basics and we're just trying to get him to do those basics really well."
Towns himself is eager to see where this new focus takes him, and he said "that's where you get great boxers from, is from [doing those] fundamentals well."
Like Silisia, Vitalone is blessed with explosive power in his hands.
But unlike the Soloman Islands product, Vitalone has no problem getting fired up during his fights. In fact, he said "I just see red and just punch, but it doesn't work all the time."
This weekend, he will take part in an exhibition bout against a much more experienced fighter in John Hill Jr, during which Vitalone hopes to prove he is more than just a power puncher.
"This is going to be a really good learning curve for me," he said.
"It'll show me what I can do. Obviously I'm going to fight more experienced people in the future, and because this fight is an [exhibition], there's no loser.
"It's more about going in there to show what I can do."
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