On his road back to a world title fight against Deontay Wilder, the British heavyweight has become an unlikely but powerful advocate on mental health issues
In 1990 the poet Robert Bly wrote a runaway American bestseller called Iron John: A Book About Men. Iron John was about the weird, mystical power of the “deep male”. It became a key text in something called the Mythopoetic Men’s Movement, a shared urge for men to retreat into the woods, bare their woad-smeared chests and generally nurture their inner scowling, bearded masculinity.
Naturally this went down well with 1990s American men, who were delighted to discover they were in fact reservoirs of vibrant male “Zeus power” (High five! Brewskis!). But Blyism wasn’t about ruling the boardroom, or sculpting your abs. It was instead concerned with retreat and mud and melancholy, with becoming a kind of brooding fuzz-encrusted bear.
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