Stephen ‘Tough is Not Enough’ Lovett has lived and breathed boxing for most of his life. Introduced to the sport by his grandfather, he attended his first training session at the age of thirteen, gloved up for his maiden fight as an amateur when he was sixteen and was accepted into the Australian Institute of Sport elite program soon after. By the time he was twenty-five, Stephen had turned pro and was living and training in Houston, Texas. Hard work and determined focus comes at a price though; Stephen’s price was his mental health – and this is where his real story begins and ends.

Stephen has worked as a fitness instructor and coach, with Certificate III and IV qualifications, and now works as a stonemason in Canberra. He completed his secondary schooling in Cowra but ‘academia’ is not ‘thing’. However, he felt compelled to write his story to show the public, that it can be harmful to your health to be so focused and driven by one aspect of your life. All I wanted was to be “known” for being a champion boxer, I wanted to be special, I wanted people to look at me and say he made it. I didn’t ‘make it’ and I missed out on a lot in life because of this one focus, I lost special relationships because all I cared about was ‘making it’.

Today, he lives in Canberra with his wife and three-year-old son. He has recently made the difficult decision to officially retire as a boxer.