Nerdcore Boxing

I’m a big Cro Cop fan (throwing the kick above). He’s a very interesting guy: an amateur boxer with 40+ fights, elite kickboxer in K-1 and former Pride MMA champion. He is/was also a member of the Croatian special forces and a member of parliament. Apparently a scholar and a mighty warrior.

Last night Cro Cop got shocked in his UFC fight. His fight with Gonzolas was supposed to be a sure thing before getting a shot at the UFC heavyweight champ Randy Couture. Instead Gonzalos, who isn’t noted for his kicking skills, landing a high kick knocking Cro Cop out cold.

This isn’t the first time Cro Cop got KO’ed by a inferior striker. Wrestler and 2nd tier MMA fighter Randleman shocked the world scoring an early 1st round KO via punch. It just goes to show you how slim a margin of error there is in a sport like MMA, where the fighters are so well rounded and there are so many ways to win.

Weighing in is a Saturday morning ritual for me. Because of the weight classes, competitive boxing heavily involves weight management, diet, etc. At this point I probably fret over my weight and diet more than most women.

Everybody has an ideal weight class, where they are at their fastest, have their best strength-to-weight ratio and can take the punches. In the past when I’ve trained rigorously, I’ve been able to get down to 178 lbs, which for me was about 10% body fat and gave me a 4 pack (damn those persistent love handles!).

Yesterday I weighed in at 182.4 lbs. Last week I weighed 183.8 and 186.4 the week before!  Four lbs lost in 2 weeks and I’m almost in the 170’s!!!

As of about Thursday night I was in serious despair. My calf was not healed and I was starting to fear that this would be one of those long term nagging injuries. But Friday was better and Saturday I was able to go through most of my boxing workout. I haven’t jumped rope for over a week, but I anticipate this next week to be a full week of hard boxing.

Even though I took a bunch of days off, I chose some specific things to work on that wouldn’t affect my calf. I worked on ways to shrug off punches without blocking or slipping: shoulder rolls and rocking back on my rear leg. I also worked on getting some more range and mobility in my right shoulder when doing straight rights and hooks. And finally I continued to work on my pivots and fwd/back/lateral movement during v-slips.