Today’s Schedule:
8am-1pm Coaching/managing
the female-only gym downtown
3pm-5pm Coaching Team
Blue (sparring today) at Clancy’s
7pm-10pm Killer Bee’s
fight out at Battle Arts
In between coaching I was commuting – took me 25mins to get home from
the gym, 1hr to get to Clancy’s, and then 1hr hour to go by car from Clancy’s
in the east to Battle Arts way out in the far west… 4hrs of traveling today for boxing,
yikes.
All for the love of boxing, right?!
Right.
Despite it being a go, go, go kind of day today, I showed up for Killer
Bee’s fight so incredibly pumped to see her fight, so hyper and just so really
excited. It was her first fight. I’ve been trying to help her better prepare
for this fight – sparring and doing padwork with her, and trying to help her
get the mental edge on her fight via mentoring her and just really being a
supportive friend. She had to gain
weight for this fight, a choice I wouldn’t have opted for personally but given
that she’s like 97lbs dripping wet and it’s super hard to get Canadian female
fighters that small, her choices were to either gain weight for a fight or have
no fight. She choose the fight so she
gained weight.
It was great to see her backed by her coach, Coach Adrian of Jamestown
Boxing in Oshawa, and see her teammates come out. I have many of them on Facebook and have met
many of them beforehand. When I arrived
she was standing there, watching the other fight that had already started. With her braids all done and club sweater on,
she looked sharp and very poised. She’s
a fighter.
It’s an interesting thing, to watch those I’ve helped train step into
the ring. I always feel so incredibly
proud and whether they win or lose is really irrelevant to me. Tonight was no different. People can say whatever they want to say but
unless they’ve stepped into the ring and have slaved away at dragging
themselves through the emotional, mental and physical exhaustion that comes with
prepping for a fight, their words have absolutely no weight.
I’m proud of Killer Bee.
She didn’t win her bout, it got stopped, but her team and I greeted her
after her fight as a true winner.
Someone very dear to me texted, asking me how her fight went and when I
told him she had lost, he responded by saying “you either win or you learn”.
I love that – you either win or you learn.
Those words lingered in my head.
I shared his text message with Killer Bee and I know those words stuck
with her.
You either win or you learn… better than yesterday.
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