Photo by Alan Lander
COMMUNITY
STREET FIGHTER TO GENTLE GIANT S C H O O L O F H A R D K N O C KO U T S B E C O M E S ST R I N G O F B I G H I T S MARK Evans’ destiny could have been a train-wreck, had it not been for some self-discipline, and a helping hand from ‘Kerry Packer’. The now-highly awarded boxing coach, who runs Impact Boxing in Cooroy, has come a long way from the angry young man he started out in life as. Born in Melbourne suburb Preston, with family members “well connected and pretty heavy”, Evans was spirited away at a young age with his family to safer grounds. “We moved to Adelaide; were we spent a lot of time in housing commission areas. I was never a bad kid myself, but I was disengaged, angry. I grew up in a home with an alcoholic father in a not so favourable domestic situation. “At a very young age I was forced to stand up and help my family.” Page 4 | Your Local Lifestyle April 2021
Evans got into his fair share of minor trouble with the law, but other than a couple of watch-house sleepovers, he avoided serving at Her Majesty’s pleasure. But it was a close thing. “I was never one who snatched handbags or broke into houses – I just grew up on the streets dealing with sh*t,” he said. And street fighting was always going to be part of that gig. “My mum was the softest, most beautiful kind-hearted woman you could meet. It used to break my heart when she saw the trouble I got into, and she had enough to deal with with what was going on at home, but I think she also understood I was troubled. “I was an A-grade student to about year 8 – then I was just over it.” But that’s when he met a Salvation Army
captain by the name of Kerry Packer, a social worker appointed by the courts to help sort Evans out. “If anything, it was him who turned me around. He never preached; he spoke to you like a man. “He said ‘You’re at a crossroads: if you turn left you’ll have nothing left, if you turn right you’ll be alright. “I had mates in juvenile detention and later, jail, and I was starting to get caught up in ‘who cares anymore’, with peer pressure. I was stuck in the middle.” But at least he was establishing a reputation you ‘didn’t mess with Mark’, to help him survive the streets. “I was quite wiry back then. I did martial arts and was into boxing for a while, and one of my uncles who was well connected said ‘as soon as you see
By Alan Lander
the fire in their eyes, put that fire out’. I carried that attitude around for a while.” Maybe not the best advice, but Evans admits the competition and the primal sense of fighting to win was motivating and helped him acquire some self-discipline and boundaries. “(Packer’s) voice stuck in my head. I actually thought about becoming a social worker, but I had blown my school grades by then.” After a few confused years traveling the country and not doing very much, Evans went back to boxing, quite by chance. He was in his mid-twenties when a mate suggested he travel up to Gympie “and see a couple of old blokes running a gym up there”. “So I went there, and within three weeks the trainer, Dennis Manger said
