Words by Shayni Solanki
Occasionally, you meet a once-in-a-generation talent. Hard, passionate, undefeatable, and above all a solid guy, Viddal Riley is ready to take on the world.
Undefeated in his professional career so far, Viddal Riley has gone 10 bouts with extreme vigour. Big things are in store for Riley – and the title of British champion is in sight. He’s glad sport has recovered from the pandemic as “It was a lot harder to get opportunities”, especially as loads of big events were cancelled. Even if they were held, Riley said the atmosphere was so silent that he “could hear every punch” in the ring. For a sport like boxing, crowds make up such a big part of the atmosphere. Back when Riley was fighting in places like Bulgaria and Russia, he shared that the crowds cheering against him fuelled him: “Start winning. Because if they are winning, it will only get louder – it’s in my hands to control”.
We talked a lot about his mindset, both in and out of the ring. From what it sounds like, Viddal Riley has a winning mentality. It’s not about the stats: “I don’t have time to be thinking about trying to be the greatest because there’s no metric on who the greatest is. It’s an empty thing to invest in. I want to be the best I can be”. This also goes for everything outside of boxing. Riley has other passions like making music and designing a clothing brand that he also puts his full effort and his time into. He’s that guy that’s going to take a FIFA match seriously.
“You gotta have a good relationship with your team”, Riley explained. “There’s no point in feeling certain things in training and not communicating it… battling through because you’re the toughest guy on the planet”, he said. It’s so easy to overtrain and burn out – something that Riley has explained he’s learnt from overtime. Wildly self-aware of the consequences of holding everything in, what’s more important to Riley is being vocal. Riley may be getting punched in the face for a few hours every day, but there’s no ‘tough guy’ act around. The days of hypermasculinity are gone, even in the most brutal sports.
“I think I can always do a little bit more. When you think you can, then you know you can try and seek a way – if you can’t find that way then it’s time to do something else”. Riley is brutally honest about the path that athletes can take. He explains that time is always against them, but for him – he’s okay with it. He mentioned that he does “want people to understand that there’s another side of me, and appreciate that side of me”, especially when his time in the ring comes to an end. There’s always a plan for Viddal Riley. He’s got so much going on outside of the ring that he will be set for sure in the future.
We had the time old debate that you should have with every boxer: which Rocky movie is the best one? Riley passionately voted Rocky IV, arguing that “It’s a story of how many things he has to go through to get to where he gets to. And then when he gets to where he is, he has to deal with what comes with that – the successes of that”. It seems like Riley drew a lot of inspiration from the Rocky movies, especially having grown up watching them with his dad. He shared that they watched all sorts of boxing together, from live shows all the way through to movies.
“It’s just my journey”, Riley says about boxing. 10 years down the line from humble beginnings, he’s now sporting a silver medal and had an amazing start to his professional career. We should all be keeping an eye on Viddal Riley.