Nerdcore Boxing

I have two trainers which has some advantages and disadvantages. The one who’s watched my sparring recently has been very pleased with my progress. But the other one gave me a big kick in the pants Friday night.

The conversation started with him asking me to remind him of the timetable to fight before my 35th birthday (6 weeks out). Then he makes a face, shakes his head and says I need to get moving. He wants to see my weight go down 10 lbs at least and my punch output go up, way up.

His concern is that I’ll fight a taller fighter and I need to outwork him. I’m a little surprised at this because every sparring partner I’ve had in my weight class has been within a few inches, which doesn’t bother me at all. I can’t tell if he’s just a worrier, his concern is legit, or he’s playing mind games to push me harder. Either way I’m just going to work harder.

After the david vs. goliath matchup I heard there was another guy around that was actually in my weight class and the same height. So I asked for a few more rounds.

This guy had 10 fights and he fell for less of my tricks, but I could tell he grossly underestimated me and without fear of the 30 lbs weigh difference I threw down. After the dust settled my trainer said I was actually “more skilled” than him.

Highlights:

Ok, when a trainer hitches a ride with one of his boxers to a gym for said boxer to spar, he shouldn’t tell the story of some dude that had a brain aneurysm and died while sparring. I don’t want to hear that shit before I get in the ring.  Are you f-ing kidding me!

Ok rant over. Onto the action. Got some more of the tall athletic heavyweight:

• Did 3 rounds with the timer on 30 sec breaks. This means I likely have the endurance for competition.
• I went with the approach of staying on the outside, working my lateral movement and waiting for him to come to me. It worked in that I got hit a lot less and utilized less energy. But I felt like I was doing terribly because my punch output was so low. I guess his was lower too though.
• My lateral movement was great. Circle right, abrupt change left, change again, do a stutter step and pretend to change but continue. When he comes forward, one step back and out to the side. By doing all the above I made him “chase” me for 2 rounds. He expended more energy and his feet were rarely set.
• After two rounds of his trainer explaining how I made him chase me he finally started cutting the ring off.
• I realized one reason I got out boxed on the inside our last time sparring: I was dropping down to punch his body and he was killing me with uppercuts. When a guy is 5 inches taller than you, you don’t need to drop down…
• Now that I’m not squatting down on the inside I catch him with body hooks when he exits the side, a lot . Need to follow with hooks to the head.
• Landed lots of body punches. Hooks and straight rights.
• On the bad side, I ate a number of combos and some of my hooks missed so wide it was embarrassing.
• Nose swelled up and bled, big bruise on the bridge and kind of a small knot. Can’t tell if he dinged the hard cartilage or it’s just swelling, unfortunately it takes so long for nasal swelling to subside, and with future weeks of sparring, I probably won’t know for a couple months.
• On one hand I’m pondering my trainer’s decision to continually throw me in with a guy 30 lbs heavier. On the other hand I’m enjoying that he’s forcing me to develop my defenses and toughness, and I do like working with a super tall guy.

Due to my vacation I missed sparring all of last week. Last night my trainer dropped a bomb on me and said we didn’t have a trip lined up to spar at our partner gym tonight. Apparently they couldn’t line up partners for my teammates in the lower weight classes and cancelled.

Of course I freaked out and pushed my trainers to try and reschedule. I can’t miss a second week in a row, this would be disastrous. One trainer said there is a possibility they can make it happen tonight, and I’m supposed to call this afternoon to find out if it’s back on.

I’m crossing my fingers…

I get this high from working out that lasts many hours. Screw coffee, this high is like taking a powerful stimulant without negative side effects, only positive ones. Thus I’ve always admired morning people who run before work.

If I could do most of my workouts in the morning, my schedule would free up so much. I could train hard in the evenings solely in boxing or even add in some weight lifting. When not training for a fight even take on another hobby. Plus I’d get more time with my wife and son.

That burst of physical and mental energy I’d bring to work in the mornings would definitely enhance my productivity and career.

Minus my vacation, during my last two weeks of training I’ve been running in the mornings. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I hope this is the beginning of a long daily ritual that I’ll take with me to old age.

Despite being a somewhat dangerous sport, we should do a better job promoting the fact that the demands of extreme endurance and weight classes tend to give boxers a very healthy lifestyle.

I got off the plane at 6PM Saturday night and went right to the track to run 2 miles of sprints. Sunday morning I jogged 3 miles, did 3 rounds of jump rope push up intervals (3 min rounds with push ups on breaks),and 7 rounds of bag work.

This week I need to run every morning. My trainer wants me to run an 8 minute mile then finish with 2 miles of alternating jogging/sprints. I’m not up to sprints and a 3 mile run at the same time yet, but it would be awesome if I got there this week.

I’ll do 2 hr sessions with my trainer Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I’m going to be traveling for sparring on Tuesday and/or Thursday. This will be a long week especially with taking off training last week.

I just got back from a week long trip to Kansas City Saturday night.

This trip to KC to visit my in-laws was set in stone for many months. My trainer wasn’t too worried about it, but I feared the weight gain and drop in performance from missing a week of training. I hoped to do some running, jump rope or shadow boxing, but I did nothing. I was surrounded by good cooks, BBQ and peach cobbler, so my diet was terrible. I’m only consoled by the fact that a man can only gain so many pounds in one week of bad eating.

I have 8 more weeks to fit in a fight or so before my 35th birthday. It should be plenty of time especially since before leaving I was only 9-10 lbs off my targeted weight. I’m not even going to bother weighing in until next weekend. Hopefully with another week of hard work I’ll be back where I was before I left, 184 lbs.

I drove out to this other boxing gym for some more sparring tonight. Got 2 rounds with one of the same dudes as last time. This time I did 10x better, the ring rust is literally melting off:

• I was reaching less, coming forward and landing solid single-double-triple jabs with my lead shoulder high and tight and without being countered
• Landed a number of 2 punch combos, but nowhere near as many as I should be. I need to get back to landing 3, 4 or 5 punch combos.
• Caught him anticipating my jab, so in the 2nd round I stepped forward threw and landed a clean lead right. I love this trick.
• Worked the body, couple straight rights, jab-right hook and a sweet jab-left-hook combo.
• When coming forward he kept catching me with a check hook. I had to admire his counter, I need to learn this too.
• Controlled the fight with my footwork and general foot speed, if I want to engage we punch, if I don’t want to he can’t catch me. My coach is now referring to my new footwork as a, “major weapon”

So the first guy goes home and I’m itching for some more work. I’m 5′10″ and an out of shape 183-ish pounds but I’m desperate for more rounds. One of the heavyweights is hanging around cause his sparring partners left. He’s at least 6′3″, advertised 215 lbs, super fast and mobile. I’ve worked with a few 6′1″ boxers, but never guys this tall so I ask for some of the big guy despite the 30 lbs difference.

I had a lot of trouble with him. My trainers said I looked really good and did most everything right, but he just wasn’t a fair boxer to compare my performance against so not to worry about it. Here are the highlights:

• I landed a few jabs and some body hooks,
• Using my footwork and head movement I actually was able to get inside. Sometimes I got countered on the way in, sometimes not.
• What sucked was when I got inside he outboxed me. Dude shined the shoes and exited the side before I got off much. Isn’t the short guy supposed to have the advantage inside!?!? Not fair I say!
• One trainer explained that when I get past his jab and change levels to fight inside and work the body I have to hit him with something solid on the way in to stun him. Without stunning him he was ready to shine the shoes and exit sideways.
• He laded a few stiff jabs right on my left cheek bone and two right hands. One right hand was really hard, I felt every one of the 30 pounds of weight difference. Now I have a most excellent black eye for work tomorrow.
• Oddly enough I had success sitting right outside his punch range, slipping jabs and avoiding his offense with my footwork. His feet where fast, but my lateral movement keeps me safe. I would have done this for all of the 2 rounds, but I was afraid I’d never get a punch off this way, so I went Frazier to his Ali and experimented with closing the distance.

I’m not sure I’m going to volunteer to spar tall fast heavyweights again, but my trainer said I should have stayed on the outside next time and dropped his punch output way down and tried to counter him when he came forward. He also told me to study Paul Williams vs. Sergio Martinez to see how to implement the strategy of the short guy hanging outside and countering the tall fast guy when he comes forward.

“He Was a Poet, A Scholar and a Mighty Warrior” is a quote said at the funeral scene in the classic movie Lawrence of Arabia. If you’re not familiar with the movie or the life of T.E. Lawrence, he was a Brit that single handedly lead an extremely successful Arab rebellion against the Germans in World War II.

I always wanted somebody to say that about me, but I’ve never written a poem. I had a case of the nerves while driving to a foreign gym last week, so to keep my mind limber I composed the first poem of my life:

Please Cure My Disease

Fear is my affliction

I’m going for the cure

The infirmary is no use

My hospital is the ring

No shots in the arm

I take them in the face

Side effects are cosmetic and dementia

I don’t want to go

Without a cure disease lives on

Take my medicine and fear turns

Turns to accomplishment and pride

I could run away and ignore it

The thought is tempting, peaceful

If I don’t treat it, it will haunt me forever

I’m amazed that everybody doesn’t use this around their eyes and on their nose before sparring. My gym is big on vaseline. Hell, we even put it on our opponent’s gloves. Why? Yeah it could prevent cuts, but headgear already does that well. The real benefit is preventing abrasions, which really mark up your face.

A guy from my gym forgot the vaseline the other night and he’s got this massive abrasion under his eye. I too forgot the vaseline last time I sparred. Looking at him is a good reminder to use vaseline next time.