LIKE the vast majority who follow boxing, I first became aware of Paddy Fitzpatrick in the lead-up to the first Carl Froch-George Groves fight.

[[{"fid":"25675","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]This was back in 2013, when, injecting even more drama into this hugely anticipated contest with just nine weeks to go came the stunning announcement that Groves and his long-time trainer, Adam Booth, had split.

In Groves’s corner for this the biggest fight of his career to date would now be Fitzpatrick, a hitherto relatively unknown trainer based in Swindon.

If Groves was the underdog up to this point, he was even more so now.

But that was before you watched your first interview on the fight with Fitzpatrick, listened to him calmly and eloquently breaking down Froch’s strengths and weaknesses, analysing with uncommon surety how the former could be nullified and the latter exploited.

With his signature fedora hat and Irish brogue, the man spoke with old school authority, sharing knowledge that can only ever be garnered from years spent in countless gyms in different places among champions and top contenders.
   
You realised then that this guy knew his stuff and that Groves had chosen well Booth’s replacement at short notice.
   
Even so, leading up to the fight it was impossible to shake the perception that was Paddy Fitzpatrick and Groves against the boxing world, written off as they were by so many “experts,” boxing writers and pundits for whom the odds were stacked way too high against them being anything than KO fodder for Froch, who at this point was riding so high as a world champion with so many elite scalps to his name he was about as close to boxing royalty as they come.

The man himself, meanwhile, could not have made clearer his disdain for his younger challenger and new trainer, almost as if insulted that they dared even think that Groves had earned the right to share a ring with him, much less believe he could actually win.

Then finally arrived the fight itself, which was one of the few in the sport that outdid the hype in the sheer edge-of-your-seat-excitement and action it produced.

Groves, it’s no exaggeration to state, put in one of the most audacious and courageous performances ever witnessed in a British boxing ring on that unforgettable night in Manchester.

Not only did he put a fighter who was celebrated for his chin down in the first round, he went on to fight his heart out with relentless pressure, touching greatness in the process of making the champion look ordinary for long stretches before he rallied in the later rounds and won by a controversial stoppage in the ninth.

All of the above and much, much more is unpacked in Hats, Handwraps and Headaches, the recently published account of Paddy Fitzpatrick’s life in boxing. And make no mistake, what a life it is.

Co-written by Lee “Teach” Simpson, Fitzpatrick’s story is as gripping as it’s inspiring, charting the highs and lows of a man who comes over as the living embodiment of the truism that “you can’t avoid the waves, but you can learn how to surf.”

It starts with a chance meeting with Freddie Roach in a gym in Jersey in The Channel Islands in 1996, where Roach is getting Steve Collins ready to face Nigel Benn. Out of the blue, Roach offers Fitzpatrick the opportunity of a lifetime when he invites him to move to LA to work as his assistant at his renowned Wild Card gym in Hollywood.

As Fitzpatrick puts it: “That was like Santa Claus asking a kid if he wanted to come to his grotto in the North Pole and play with all the toys.”

What ensues is a boxing roller-coaster ride, involving a guy with no significant boxing resumé to his name rubbing shoulders and working with some of the greats of that era — the likes of James Toney, Lamon Brewster, Laila Ali (daughter of Mohammad Ali), Lucia Rijker and many others.

Throughout the book Fitzpatrick’s self deprecation, humility and wisdom shines through, which in no small part is down to the wonderfully engaging writing of Lee Simpson in a story that swims beautifully between different seminal moments and periods in Fitzpatrick’s journey.

Paddy Fitzpatrick is more than a trainer, you learn, he’s a philosopher whose subject of choice happens to be boxing.

From it he extrapolates invaluable life-lessons, and reading the dialogue between him and Simpson, the trust and warmth between them is salutary.

On a personal note, as someone who spent five years in LA training at Wild Card, arriving a couple of years after Paddy left, it was great to be transported back and reminded of how special the place was.

But for me the two years Paddy spent training Groves are the most compelling parts of the book, providing a compelling insight into the emotional, fraught and fragile bonds that tie a fighter operating at the elite level to his trainer.

The acrimonious end to their partnership after Groves loses a split decision in his third world title attempt, this time in Vegas in 2015 against Badou Jack, has a real Shakespearean flavour to it and is superbly told.

Groves does not come out of this episode well, it has to be said, what with the manner in which he turned on a man who sacrificed being at the birth of his first child in order to train him for the Jack fight in Vegas.

This leaves a sour taste given that Groves was a wonderful fighter in his prime, whose high skillset made him easy on the eye.

Hopefully, one day, he’ll reflect on his time under Paddy Fitzpatrick’s tutelage and find it within himself to let bygones be bygones and pick up the phone.

Hats, Handwraps and Headaches by Paddy Fitzpatrick and Lee “Teach” Simpson is more than one man’s story inside boxing, it’s a welcome reminder that in life success and failure are both impostors, and that happiness and contentment resides within not without.

The book includes many humorous anecdotes and is commendably honest when it comes to Paddy Fitzpatrick’s personal life, much of which I identified with.

Anyone looking for ideas for a Christmas gift this year would do well to consider this book. After reading it you cannot but fail come away with respect and admiration for this personable Irishman with his signature fedora hat.

John Wight’s book - This Boxing Game: A Journey in Beautiful Brutality - is available from all major booksellers.