Bartender Boxing Fight Night: Daniel Hilton vs Jonothan Carr

Jonathan Carr from Liquid Larder.Photo: Christopher Pearce

During Bar Week this month, the Bartender Boxing Organization comes to Sydney for the first time — and what a huge night it is set to be. After some three-odd months of regular training, of diet plans, and a whole load of ducking, weaving, stepping and sparring, these Sydney bartenders will take to the ring at Home and slug it out for charity.

Hear, hear, we say.

Two of the bartenders who will pull on the gloves are Daniel Hilton and Jonathan Carr — below, get to know them a little better and understand just what the Bartender Boxing Organization’s training has done for them.

This is just one of the 36-plus great events lined up over five days of Sydney Bar Week, taking place between Saturday the 14th and Wednesday the 18th of September. It’s set to be the biggest Bar Week ever — get over to barweek.com.au and get your RSVPs and tickets sorted before they run out.

Take a look at the details for the Bartender Boxing event below.

What: Bartender Boxing
Date: Sunday, 15 September 2019
Time: 8:00pm to 11:00pm
Where: Home Nightclub
Tickets: $20 + booking fee — proceeds go to the Black Dog Institute $20 + booking fee — proceeds go to the Black Dog Institute — click here to get yours.

Jonathan Carr from Liquid Larder.Photo: Christopher Pearce

Jono Carr
Liquid & Larder

How has competing in Bartender Boxing changed your daily routine and attitude towards your own health and wellness?
Most of my life I have lived a ‘late to bed, slow to rise’ lifestyle. Training for BBO was the catalyst I needed to be able to change my body clock and be able to get up earlier and achieve more from my day, then subsequently be exhausted enough to get to sleep before 3/4am in the morning.
Getting used to packing a gym bag the night before, getting up and eating well to make sure I was ready to train has been a huge positive change in my attitude towards my health mindset.

Boxing is such a fun and rewarding sport that you just want to be better at it so it makes you treat yourself with more drive and respect. I feel happier and healthier than I have in as long as I can remember.

You’re about to be involved in your first official boxing bout. Are you excited? Nervous?
I am both excited and nervous in equal measures. It’s actually a good feeling as it gives you the drive to get stuck in.

What was the most fun part of training? What was the most difficult? 
The team element to the training has been a lot of fun. Being there for each other and to see how each other has grown, mentally and physically.
We’ve all become closer as a group through being there for each other through triumphs and injuries.

Plus taking all your aggression out on a boxing bag is just fun and makes you more chill outside of boxing.

What should the people coming out to the Bartender Boxing event expect to see from you and your Sydney BBO Teammates??
A damn good show. There are some great matchups, and everyone is quietly competitive, as much as we are friends, no one’s doing this to lose.

What aspects from the BBO program will you continue on with in life? Will you continue to train boxing??
I am definitely continuing Boxing training, whether for a fight or not. It’s the best form of fitness I have come across, more enjoyable than gym sessions and it will make you heaps fitter.

Daniel Hilton from The Lobo Plantation. Photo: Christopher Pearce

Daniel Hilton
The Lobo Plantation

How has competing in Bartender Boxing changed your daily routine and attitude towards your own health and wellness?
I’ve never had an issue with my body, I’ve always been a bigger dude and I was fine with that. This program has changed me in so many ways, I’ve found respect for my body and what it can do, I eat and sleep better, I’m always filled with energy. I went as far as not having a single drink during the program and I’ve discovered just how capable and disciplined I can be (a concept I’ve always struggled with).

You’re about to be involved in your first official boxing bout. Are you excited? Nervous?
We’ve been sparring the last few weeks, you get nervous right up until you touch gloves. You know you’re going to get hit and you’re going to hit them. It turns to adrenalin and excitement, when you feel that combination connect its satisfaction, when you evolve your strategy mid fight and it catches them out, it sounds weird but even when your opponent does the same back it’s exciting. You walk away with more respect for one another, for what you’ve just accomplished and it’s sensational.

What was the most fun part of training? What was the most difficult??
Best part for me has always been bag work and learning combos, I loved learning technique, the worst? Coach Luke and his deck of cards. Each suit was assigned a grueling exercise, the number on the card was how many times we did it, aces were planks and jokers were tunnel crawls. It left us all digging deep and breaking through our limits. As rough as it was (and call me crazy me) but 10/10 would do it again.

What should the people coming out to the Bartender Boxing event expect to see from you and your Sydney BBO Teammates??
You should see smiles, you should see progress, you should see all the blood, sweat and tears we have given to get where we are. This has been life changing for all of us and you won’t be able to truly comprehend it until you’re there amongst the action. You’re going to see a group of people who have begun to realize there is a Mariana Trench of undiscovered strength and potential within them, and it’s going to take us all places.

What aspects from the BBO program will you continue on with in life? Will you continue to train boxing??
I’m personally continuing boxing with the gym we’re at, and what BBO has given me is a new energy and passion towards life. I was a broken man over 3 months ago and I had lost a lot of what made me who I was. I had to rebuild myself and find new pieces as the old ones didn’t fit the same. I now go out for runs, I’m challenging myself in new ways every day and I have become stronger and more confident in myself and my abilities. I’ve discovered who I am at the absolute core of my being and I’ve been able to apply the discipline and training from BBO to that core to redefine my values and outlook.