I TOLD my wife to go home and take the kids. I said I’ll stay here and work hard. She said, ‘no, I know what you’re going to do’.
“She was right – I was going to kill myself.”
And so Tsolmon, wife of the boxer known as Shinny Bayaar (real name Shinebayar Sukhbaatar) did not retreat with their children to Mongolia, and he was not given a chance to commit suicide.
Bayaar explains his mindset: “I had no money, couldn’t support my family, there were people who hated me, and my boxing career was over, my dreams ruined.
“As a man, when you can’t provide for your family… I just felt they would be better off without me. In Mongolia, they would have had support.
“My wife read my mind, stuck with me and said: ‘I’m never going anywhere without you.’ Then I got back on my feet. I owe my life to my wife.”
It’s hard to imagine the smiling, enthusiastic man in front of me ever occupying such a low point, especially as he presides over Shinny’s Gym, a big and busy facility in Stockport, Greater Manchester, that is visibly his pride and joy. And with his fluent English, complete with Mancunian accent, it is also hard to imagine he’d ever lived anywhere else, much less grew up 6,000 miles away
ambition that was, in some circles, frowned upon in both his native country
