Started boxing July 1st (one month of notes inside)

Deafheaven

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You remember that? :mjgrin:

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


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 :jbhmm: ). 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?

I commented before you posted this.


with this attitude and hubris you are 100000% going to get fukked up at some point :dead:
 

Deafheaven

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OP needs to just practice on the double end bag so he can ingrain it in his skull that he needs to move his head.

cuz with the way you talking in here, best believe ppl gonna try they hardest to move it for you. :mjlol:

nikka said he be cheesing envisioning he ALI in there, yeah somebody gon dribble cuz head off the ropes. the look on my guys face the first time someone cut him off into a corner :bryan:
 

Higher Tech

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I started boxing when I was 36. I'm 42. I think you're sparring too early. It's counter productive to me but it depends on your goals. Are you trying to get into it full time, and get some fights under your belt? It sounds like your gym is throwing you in unprepared. Are they giving specific instructions while sparring, like showing you how to work your jab or slip or step around, or are you just in there going toe to toe (lightly) with whoever is next in line?
 

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Third sparring day, first with headgear

I was put in a drill where someone was meant to only defend themselves from me for a full round. All of my headshots were intentionally missed overhead because if I didn’t I’d have hit him too many times for sparring, he was leaving his face wide open

I sparred Mr. Horseshoe circle guy (stance looks like Hagler) and he caught me once, light-medium head

And I remember thinking “that literally felt like a reset”

Then I sparred another travel team vibe youth in his early 20s, he went light on me and didn’t seem to make an offensive effort

Then another round with the guy who is always right next to coach giving examples


He immediately got me with a double hook, didn’t lighten up at all. And said something about me keeping myself open. I was mildly offended that he was throwing punches incrementally harder than everyone else despite knowing that I am at a learning level and I obviously can’t learn while taking headshots like that, after the second shot he looked proud of himself. I could see the pride was over face. I threw an overhand right cross through his guard and landed flush. I’m literally paddy cake punching in sparring so when I landed this it was easily 10x harder and I’d estimate it was 20-30 percent harder than he hit me, I could’ve put a lot more on it without losing any accuracy

I saw the reset happen on his face and the round finished shortly after he give me a few pointers, I nodded along but he took a new partner next sparring round. My vibe was likely giving off the fact that I’m not too thrilled with his conduct

After class someone said something about how you should rarely be going all out and sparring hard because and he agreed so it makes me wonder if dude is one of those psychopaths that was doing what he felt he could get away with because I’m new

This fact remain: I smile and laugh whenever a punch makes contact with me, and in the whole class that was 5 punches from 3 opponents

One who connected connects with these perfect strikes as if his shots are specially attuned to the headgear, like it’s more of a strike than a punch
 

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I started boxing when I was 36. I'm 42. I think you're sparring too early. It's counter productive to me but it depends on your goals. Are you trying to get into it full time, and get some fights under your belt? It sounds like your gym is throwing you in unprepared. Are they giving specific instructions while sparring, like showing you how to work your jab or slip or step around, or are you just in there going toe to toe (lightly) with whoever is next in line?
There’s pieces of instruction coming to me from the drills we’re doing but there are things I still don’t know like how to effectively defend against a swarming attack

I’m not sparring that way so when it happens I kinds retreat and put my hand up out of habit but then I started to move around it. I also have an issue if using both hands to parry, I will break that habit over time
 

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U either the greatest natural talent ever or that gym is ass if you that new, sparring that early and got hit 5 times in a sparring session😂

Coach was in the ring repeatedly getting rocked by a pre-teen boxer. After coach that same kid was sparring some dude that’s like 300 pounds and looked like CC Sabathia

I didn’t want anything to do with what that kid was doing, he was shifting, changing position shifting direction and stringing combos together. His punches were landing hard and shaking sweat off people :whoa:

He was the youngest person there by a large margin but seemed to be serious in boxing

There’s a section of the gym I don’t venture toward it’s more competitive in that section and I know better, it’s nice to observe - it’s real boxing right in front of you but there’s some boxers of the gym the venture between both sections. One guy seems to not know the difference though and he’s throwing with the same intensity that he is over there

I’m doing reduced intensity sparring
 

Deafheaven

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Coach was in the ring repeatedly getting rocked by a pre-teen boxer. After coach that same kid was sparring some dude that’s like 300 pounds and looked like CC Sabathia

I didn’t want anything to do with what that kid was doing, he was shifting, changing position shifting direction and stringing combos together. His punches were landing hard and shaking sweat off people :whoa:

He was the youngest person there by a large margin but seemed to be serious in boxing

There’s a section of the gym I don’t venture toward it’s more competitive in that section and I know better, it’s nice to observe - it’s real boxing right in front of you but there’s some boxers of the gym the venture between both sections. One guy seems to not know the difference though and he’s throwing with the same intensity that he is over there

I’m doing reduced intensity sparring

No cap the hardest I ever got hit was by some uber talented 14 year old. My defense is pretty cold for a non pro but lil buddy could crack caught me with a shot I legit didnt see. Didnt help I was out of training in general.

I kept a good poker face so I doubt he knee he got me that good but inside my head I was seeing kaleidoscopes :dead:
 

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Today I got 3 sparring sessions in

First boxer was super light but higher skill level
Second boxer was medium intensity, higher skill level. Caught me twice
Third boxer Biggie Fury again, we did some drills last week together so I felt we might have some rapport that would lend to sportsmanship

He was picking his shots so it was difficult to tell what he was doing but he caught me and I just walked off the sparring area and then another round and we went again, I pick up my intensity levek to get in the inside but I wan’t throwing to land anything just moving and feinting

He caught me and I experienced what must be a flash knockdown, I fell collapsed down, still on my feet and I wasn’t down for even a fraction of a second I just got up and said “nahh man that’s too much for sparring” nobody seemed to notice or say anything but I doubt someone got knocked down in sparring without people noticing

It was a Deontay Wilder style punch

When I see this guy sparring the more skilled people his intensity level is super low and he’s practically throwing slow motion punches

After I took my headgear, gloves, wraps and swapped shoes off I stepped to him and asked “yo, how much do you weigh”, he says “200 and something”

I said “yeah, I’m 150 if spar again you gotta take the intensity level down or we’re not gonna be able to do it again” - he seemed to understand

Honestly that was my first punch from a 200+ pounder human and it landed so well on the top of the head that I don’t even think it really connected if that makes sense *drives by the bank trying to deposit the phone book into my checking account*
 

Deafheaven

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Today I got 3 sparring sessions in

First boxer was super light but higher skill level
Second boxer was medium intensity, higher skill level. Caught me twice
Third boxer Biggie Fury again, we did some drills last week together so I felt we might have some rapport that would lend to sportsmanship

He was picking his shots so it was difficult to tell what he was doing but he caught me and I just walked off the sparring area and then another round and we went again, I pick up my intensity levek to get in the inside but I wan’t throwing to land anything just moving and feinting

He caught me and I experienced what must be a flash knockdown, I fell collapsed down, still on my feet and I wasn’t down for even a fraction of a second I just got up and said “nahh man that’s too much for sparring” nobody seemed to notice or say anything but I doubt someone got knocked down in sparring without people noticing

It was a Deontay Wilder style punch

When I see this guy sparring the more skilled people his intensity level is super low and he’s practically throwing slow motion punches

After I took my headgear, gloves, wraps and swapped shoes off I stepped to him and asked “yo, how much do you weigh”, he says “200 and something”

I said “yeah, I’m 150 if spar again you gotta take the intensity level down or we’re not gonna be able to do it again” - he seemed to understand

Honestly that was my first punch from a 200+ pounder human and it landed so well on the top of the head that I don’t even think it really connected if that makes sense *drives by the bank trying to deposit the phone book into my checking account*

perfect way to handle this :ehh:

If he still rocking ur shyt gotta speak to the coach. Can't have the heavies taking out sparring partners
 

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Did Fight Club USA yesterday, footage should be online somewhere
Alright brehs so I reviewed the footage


First of all my opponent was trained way more than I have been

He had just been in two rougher fights earlier with bigger guys, weight classes were not respected

They tried to put me in there with someone 180 and I said “nahhhhhh” :whoa:

Literally if I did not have the experience a few days prior with the heavyweight in sparring I may have not known to avoid this. When I was about 18 years old I had beat a 180 pounder but this was based in the opportunity of landing first. It’s come to my attention that a 150 pound man is not meant to fight a 200 pound man unless their skill level greatly exceeds their opponent, in which case each punch still comes with added risk that will accumulate through the fight

I reviewed the footage and I did some really good things defensively. He was shorter than me with a shorter reach,

I regularly changed levels, I used a jab to keep distance

In video game terms this guy clearly wanted to throw the L1 + O punch

I mitigated his aggression by using my longer arms to push off him when he threw. So I essentially check him when he threw limiting his power and range

He almost got me with a left hook to the chin that was so vicious and spot on looking that I literally went like “woooooooooooo”:whoo:

I sensed a mild fear in him and used a showy sidewinding hook that I had no intention of landing but wanted to use it to keep him back, this looked embarrassing in the footage. I’m grateful none of my other punches looked like this

He took note of that and got me with the best punch of the round the second time I threw that. But I landed more punches and did more in more exchanges, he was plodding and trying to get a knockout punch

The thing is I learned my worst habits by engaging in uncoached sparring over this previous month. This includes throwing punches with sportsmanship intentions and even giving my partner something ti respond to hanging a punch out there (I noticed in sparring people actually didn’t respond to this and I didn’t know if it was their skill level or if I was offending them by making it so obvious)


So I may look to travel further to a better more serious gym

Coach is a professional fighter and he’s good, don’t get me wrong but I don’t wanna be at a gym where a majority of the people would consider Mayweather a p*ssy because they wanna use their head for crash dummy purposes

I literally saw coach getting rocked to the head over and over by a 12 year old and 12 year old was cracking hard, sweat was flying off coaches head

Yeah he’s good because he’s willing to move forward and take a lot of punches to get a few off and he will position he feet to the inside of bigger opponents to limit their strength

Will have footage soon it was the least exciting fight of the night but that’s because of my defensive strategy, in which case I dictated pace

I took one punch to the chin and punch to the back of the head

Sportsmanship was a higher level than you’d expect for a random Los Angeles “Fight Club” event
 
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