Nerdcore Boxing

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.

I’ve now entered the intensive training period to get in shape for my fight, a real sanctioned amateur fight in the next month or so. Unlike my work the last year I’m not looking to tweak anything major except what comes up in sparring. My trainer is looking to give me 50 rounds of sparring before the fight. I’m mainly looking to get in fight shape and remove the ring rust.

Beginning of camp inventory check:

• I’m at 187 lbs, I need to drop to at least 175.
• I’m running 2 miles on a hilly trail 3 times/week, I need to add back in the sprints. Since my coach sometimes makes me do 3 miles on organized runs I might as well work up to it on my own.
• My left rotator cuff hurts as always, but I’m doing my physical therapy exercises and range of motion work to mitigate it. By keeping my elbows tucked in I’ve been doing pain free pushups for the first time in years, which is a major victory for me. I’m confident the shoulder will hold up ok for the fight.
• Recently my knuckles have been hurting, this is a new disconcerting injury,  but it mainly occurs on hard heavybag work, which I can easily limit.
• Overall moral is high and I’m feeling optimistic.

I was going to do a dramatic post about heading into one of the tougher ghettos of Los Angeles for some sparring at an unfriendly gym, but that would be disingenuous because the guys at this gym were cool as hell.

While the fitness crowd often gets the evil eye from boxers, once your willing to step in the ring to mix it up, you’ll find boxing gyms are some of the friendliest places around. It’s a very tight knit community where everybody looks out for each other, at this gym even looking out for sparring partners from other gyms.

I had the pleasure of working with two excellent boxers tonight for 3 rounds. The ring rust was so thick I felt really frustrated upon exiting the ring. But looking back it wasn’t that bad. Here’s the good and bad:

The Good

• My footwork improvements from this past year have been substantial. Even with the ring rust my footwork tonight was 10X better than at my peak 2 years ago.
• I moved backwards smoothly, creating space with a single step back, and switched to lateral movement as needed so they couldn’t catch me.
• I was slipping the first and second punch well.
• I started landing a sweet counter left hook, stepping and leaning back while the guys charged in. This is cool because I never really tried this before. It was one of the major weapons of one of my old sparring partners, he was actually one of my toughest opponents, so this is a welcomed weapon. One counter hook I landed really clean, another I landed just alright.
• My trainer originally said I’d get 2 rounds, but they accidentally left me in for 3.
• I’m still pretty. Not a mark on me.

The Bad

• I was reaching like hell on my punches (throwing them before being in range). As a result I got countered a lot.
• I felt like I could never reach the guys. I’d double or triple the jab, and even if I didn’t get countered they’d lean off to a side and I’d forget to follow with an uppercut.
• One guy kept switching leads and I pivoted out once or twice to my left and ate big left hooks. I need to be careful doing this or lean to my right with my shoulder raised so it slides off.
• I was pretty angry at how much I either closed my eyes or was looking off somewhere, not sure which? I felt like I was starting over a few times completely oblivious to punches coming my way.
• While facing the southpaw, when I couldn’t reach him with a straight right lead I just got confused and pawed his lead hand.
• I ate a big body punch which really stuck with me. Don’t remember the circumstances, but I want to start landing those punches.
• I can never ever get off a lead left hook, I always eat a jab counter when trying. Tried once tonight same result.

I was pretty encouraged by my performance last night, my recent work to get up my punch output and my roadwork is working. My arms and shoulders held up well after throwing lots of punches, my legs were strong and my cardiovascular system was sound. I’m getting the snap back in my punches and my foot speed is returning.

Tonight I’m going to be rolling into a really bad neighborhood in Los Angeles to visit a gym for some sparring. Recently all I’ve been able to get is some light situational sparring or just work on my defense, so this is going to be trial by fire jumping back in at a strange gym. Despite the heavy coat of ring rust my main concern is my car being stolen.

I was derailed in my attempt at switching gyms. I called up my leading prospect and in the process of talking to the trainer I found out their guys only compete a few time each year. My current club has guys fighting every few weeks, often every weekend. I guess this is not surprising since theirs is an MMA gym and they’re dividing their resources scheduling fights in several sports. Still I will consider them in the future when I migrate back to MMA, but not right now.

I turn 35 in April, which means I’d have to compete in the Masters division if I don’t fight by then. So this is my last chance to compete in the main pool of amateur boxers. Lining up fights can actually be tough and disappointing if your opponent drops out, so to ensure I can fight by April I need a gym plugged into the local boxing community.

I’m coming to the conclusion that changing gyms is not a good idea right now. I think I need to have “one for the road,” a fight with my current club and then move on. This means I’m going to have to do the travel for sparring thing, and go with my trainer to other gyms for sparring partners. I’m not a big fan of this, because on foreign soil where other guy is not on your “team” it’s sometimes not sparring but an actual fight. Most guys are cool but sometimes your opponent is looking to practice KO’ing strangers with his big right hand.

My trainer is spinning the situation saying the road warrior route helps him train better boxers. He said it toughens us up and shows us lots of styles of opponents. I’m not sure if he believe it, but it’s a good bit of rah rah propaganda nevertheless.

This new gym I found has much nicer facilities than my current local, I could actually do all my strength and conditioning there too. Plus it’s an MMA gym.

In theory I’ve wanted to get back into MMA, but MMA gyms usually offer limited boxing programs and are super expensive. The problem with them is that they need to offer MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Muay Thai classes in addition to Boxing and Wrestling. This means that they employ 4X the number of trainers, and their boxing classes are usually 1 hr slots 2-3 times/week. This is not enough training time for me.

I hope I don’t piss off the Muay Thai and BJJ advocates with what I’m about to say, and I preface my comments by saying that I’ve been out of the MMA game recently so my perspective may be ignorant. But it seems to me that MMA gyms focus too much on BJJ and Muay Thai classes when in their MMA training they’re most likely to be boxing and wrestling along with MMA specific skills. Yeah there’s kicking, kneeing and submissions in MMA, but those things are far less common than the other components. So why not focus more on Boxing, Wrestling and integrated MMA classes, and make BJJ and Muay Thai secondary?

Well this new gym I’m thinking about takes this Boxing/Wrestling/MMA approach. This is great for me because there’s lots of Boxing classes and people competing in pro/am Boxing to spar with. And there is the additional advantage that when I go back to MMA I already wanted to focus on developing Wrestling skill so I can impose my Boxing. Wrestling, while it doesn’t include submissions, teaches one to control the transition between striking and grappling. Basically if you have superior Wrestling you get to decide if it’s a grappling or striking match.

Apparently I’m not the only guy who likes this approach because 3 former UFC and two current WEC fighters train at this gym. In a week or two I’m going to visit this gym, then if I like it decide when/how to break it off with my trainer.