Just reading this story, I would suggest you never call anybody out to spar or anything again like you did with me
...You are not being properly trained at all and you will eventually get knocked out brutally if you do not escape that gym. If you are just learning the numbers, you shouldn't be sparring nobody
..that's facts
You remember that?
Are you 150?
My original goal in going to this gym was to show myself that nobody could hurt me, and to show that my dog’s training of me has resulted in acquired defensive skillset. I am glorious at moving out of someone’s line of movement but I’m not there because I wanna hurt anybody, I’m there to show that nobody can hurt me and that my dog is the greatest trainer of a 30+ year old boxer ever, this is the ultimate cinderella story
OP I'm being very serious when I say that it sounds like your coach/gym is prepping you to be a crash test dummy/can for one of their experienced fighters. From everything you're describing that sounds like the path that they have set you on. Be very careful. You are not being properly trained, and you should consider trying another gym that you know for sure is reputable after your membership ends.
Today will be another mitt day
One of the drills we do is taking body shots from a partner for a full round, and then vice-versa but so far in my experience people don’t have a uniform standard for the body shots, and the weight classes aren’t observed.
As far as sparring goes, early access to sparring was a selling point for me. I don’t have to show up on sparring day, I didn’t wear head gear so 3 of the 5 partners didn’t throw any head shots at me. Once was head hunting and I literally looked like Charlie Chaplin against him, the punches were so big I practically jumped up and just pushed myself off of them, and breh went past the round time and people seem to take that vert seriously there
My defensive tendencies are naturally very good, I just don’t know what will happen if I get caught, the ring gets cut off and my movement is limited.
One more experienced boxer offered to spar, I was reluctant mentioning the skill disparity, he insisted and swarmed me and then started lecturing me on what to do in this situation but he didn’t give me the opportunity to respond to the situation before launching into a lecture. It kind of pissed me off because I felt like he was posturing
My style is a lot like Muhammad Ali’s minus the offense, most of the people in this gym wanna box like Mike Tyson. The reason my offense is tempered is because I just realize that I’d hurt someone and it’s not appropriate for boxing, realistically these are 16 ounce gloves, you can put your gloves in football catching position grab the punches and push off them if you need to. I practically am a walking missile defense system, I am constantly impressing myself while sparring. Coach said I need to put combinations together to give them something to think about, I agree but I also know I’m not ready for that and don’t have much experience seeing the looks of the kinds of punches that would be coming back at me
The thing is someone is gonna test me since all they have to worry about is a harmless contact jab to the body when they get an opportunity to try to break down the showiest defense in the room (I can’t help it, I move. I smile, I laugh). I didn’t wear head gear my first time sparring multiple partners and only got hit twice - but I feel like some acknowledged an unspoken understanding and I was super respectful not to do anything showy offensively. I maintain a distance and jab length, if I close that distance and step-in I have the strength to shut someone down really quickly, my punches are very accurate and have been well-formed for a long time
But it’s my understanding that sparring should be medium-high intensity with focus on fundamentals and technicals
If you wanna work on the strength of your punch you should be using a heavybag
That’s the way I see it, I realize it’s important to make that clear with each sparring partner
There were a few guys who strictly sparred in the ring and they were full-on boxing
in this crash dummy scenario do I get my professional debut? Literally in such scenario I know boxing enough to realize I’m being used for that purpose. The skill level disparity between myself and someone who has been boxing since they were 6 years old will be readily evident, in such scenario I’d be forced to give it my all - but building a 7-0 record before being thrown to the wolves in the form of a prospect who’s potentially an all-time great, that’d be dope. You try to see if you can show then anything, maybe catch them once and get ready to play your role for the highlight fight finisher
Like literally nobody in my gym looks like Curmel Moton, it’d actually be wrong for me to beat someone like Curmel Moton. To get in the way of a potential all-time great career and all of the value that would come with it, I mostly wanna box with great favorable matchmaking. (I am Curmel Moton’s weight though
). I don’t wanna be in the gym boxing competitive young talent, just other laggards honestly. When the skill disparity is greater it gives you an opportunity to show off your skillset in a way you normally wouldn’t, think of Globetrotters vs Generals or Ennis versus his opponents
Can we get me in there with an opponent where my skill level is like Mike Tyson’s compared to the skill level of most of his opponents?
and get ya wind up