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Former Australian heavyweight boxing contender Justin Fortune has helped guide Manny Pacquaio to three consecutive victories since 2013.
But while Fortune is currently busy preparing for Pacquiao’s May 2 megafight with Floyd Mayweather, he is also battling a different fight: throat and neck cancer.
Fortune, 49, who last saw action in the ring in 2009, has been under chemotherapy and radiation.
James Hooper of The Daily Telegraph wrote that doctors had removed some of the nodules from Fortune’s throat, who had recently undergone a bone graft from his forearm.
“They say it’s the worst cancer treatment, throat cancer. I didn’t believe them, but they were spot on,” Fortune said. “The only way to treat cancer is to cut, burn and poison. You lose your taste buds, your saliva glands, it’s horrible.
“It’s all about your mindset. If you want to roll over and die, you will. But if you want to fight it, then fight. I’ve stood toe-to-toe my whole life, so that’s what I’m still doing,” said Fortune, who lost 35 kilograms.
Despite his condition, Fortune continues to work at the famed Wild Card training gym in Los Angeles, California, where Pacquiao is training for his Mayweather showdown.
Since retiring from boxing, Fortune has set up a gym in Los Angeles. He came to know Pacquiao through trainer Freddie Roach and then helped the Filipino legend to notable victories against Mexican greats Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez in the early 2000s.
But in 2007, the Australian parted ways with the Hall of Fame American trainer following a bitter disagreement.
Since rejoining the Wild Card Gym in 2013, Fortune has helped Roach stir the eight-division champion Pacquiao back in the win column, following a devastating knockout loss to Marquez in December 2012.
In his heavyweight career from 1990 to 2009, Fortune won 15 of his 26 fights. His opponents included British icon Lennox Lewis, who defeated him in their Dublin, Ireland, match in 1995.
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