“Fighting proves nothing. Unless you absolutely have to fight to protect yourself, other than that you should never fight.
“This unnecessary violence where people are just hitting people for no reason when they’re out and then blaming it on alcohol, blaming it on drugs, blaming it on depression – it’s not good enough.
“If you’ve got a friend who thinks he’s a tough guy or is always fighting, it’s your job to tell him not to do it.”
Danny Green is incredibly well-known for his professional boxing career, spanning 11 and a half years and four world titles – the only Australian boxer to ever achieve this feat.
In recent years, aside from his rivalry with Anthony Mundine, the Green Machine has been better known for his strong activist work to change the legislation of one-punch assaults and to urge governments around Australia to take a tougher stance on the issue.
When the 44-year-old addressed more than 500 young people at YMCA Serpentine Jarrahdale Community Recreation Centre on Monday, his message was crystal clear; it doesn’t matter what the issue is, if you’re passionate about it, if you strongly believe in something – be loud, proud and stand up for it.
“My daughter wants to be an Olympic gold medallist – she’s a swimmer and she’s very dedicated,” Danny shared.
“When I tell people her dream and you see them almost go ‘yeah whatever’ because it’s such a massive dream – but your dreams have got to start from somewhere.”
Danny added: “It doesn’t matter whether you want to be an Olympic gold medallist, you might want to be a police officer, a social worker, a school teacher, a headmaster – there’s probably a young kid here who might be the Mayor of Byford one day! You can never give up on your dreams.”
With the event generously funded by the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale as part of YTime, the main message organisers wanted young people to take away from it was apparent throughout Danny’s entire time on stage, with him encouraging and inspiring young people to give themselves a voice.
“If you see someone who is struggling with something, look out for them – it actually feels very good to make someone feel very good,” Danny said.
“You guys have got a great community out here, I can see it, it’s refreshing to see a group of young kids in a community that sticks together.”
With extreme relevance to Danny’s key message, the event was opened by upcoming artist Tobias; a WAAPA student who is already an internationally-recognised performer at the age of 18. Tobias’ impressive dancing, singing and MC-ing captivated the young people before Danny’s arrival and received high praise from our special guest.
“I never thought to this day that I’d be up here talking about what I did, how I did it, and winning world title fights. But I just always had that firm vision, that passion, that love, that determination – like Tobias has got. He’s got the determination, the will, the vision and the dream – you can never give up on your dreams kids,” Danny said.
After speaking, Danny was asked hard-hitting questions from the Youth Advisory Committee, before the young people from the eight schools in attendance flocked for autographs, photos and even high-fives from the superstar.