Kicking Off the Week Right... Monday, June 30

It's been decided upon, I have a new set sparring partner.  My sparring partner isn't a she but instead is a he.  He weighs in with about 20kgs more than me, stands at 22cms taller than me, and in addition to the excessive number of pro bouts he has over me he also sports the title of former Super Light Champion.  Coming from a background of mean street fighting and even hard time, my new sparring partner has a bountiful amount of in and out of the ring experience and even some in cage experience. 

My new sparring partner is Snickers.

We agreed to this today after much scoping out of possible sparring prospects both at our club and other clubs.  It's not just a matter of stepping into the ring with just anyone who has learned a thing or two about boxing.  Me stepping into the ring to spar with a beginner or amateur may risk them hurting me if they punch wildly or can't control their strength.  I need a sparring partner whose boxing level is above mine so that it's as challenging as it is educational for me.  Snickers is that to me.  He's defended his championship title numerous times and me sparring with him will ultimately set me up just as it did for Kako this past month.  When Kato stepped into the ring for his debut amateur fight, I told him that there was no way this fight would be harder than his practice sparring with Snickers.  I knew his opponent probably didn't have the benefit of sparring with a champion on a weekly bases and I knew that his training was always super hard.  The phrase "hard time now, easy time later" definitely captures the mentality and bases we trained Kato with.

So with my sparring partner agreed upon, I geared up for boxing today.

Everyday at 2pm three specific Hulkies arrive for training knowing full well that I too train at 2pm most days and knowing that this means I'll train with them -- two guys and a female.  After my boxing I usually do some kind of weight training, whether that be a crossfit circuit, counting circuit or pyramid training.  That's when these three particular members join in on my training.  Today they asked for a more challenging crossfit circuit so I bumped us up to the next level.  And let me tell you, woozers, pumping out 12 release push-ups and then 12 burpees within a minute is one thing but to then have to do it for an additional 3 minutes, ouch.  Today's training word was definitely "fire" and by the fourth minute that's always we could manage to catch our breath and yell out -- "fire, fire, F-I-R-E!!!" 

My love/hate relationship with burpees is at an all time high but my relationship regarding training with my Hulkies will always be a huge love.  I yell at them to try harder, they yell at me to keep going, and then Snickers yells at us for yelling so much and so loudly... hahaha.