As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Friday, January 12, 2018

Frustration Overdose... Friday, January 12

I updated my Facebook status with the following...
You know what's worse than adding a 8.6km commute run to my daily boxing training, it's killing myself at training for over 9 months in the Philippines in the hopes of a fight but still no fight. I've got the equivalency of blue balls for a boxer.
Possibly accepting a fight in Korea.
It's true, I have the equivancy of blue balls for a boxer, I mean, why would I be killing myself training this bloody hard if a fight wasn't my goal?! I'm not interested in losing weight, abs would be sweet but I'm an athlete in a fighting sport and my core is already super strong. I'm not into visuals, I'm into strength and skills specific to my sport, the sport of boxing. 

I reached a moment of pure frustration today. 

Glimpses of it, of my frustration, peaked today through out my training and during my run. There I was, super exhausted from having already ran over 4kms just to get to the boxing club and I still had to run back. I mentally just couldn't push myself to run the full route. I couldn't shake the frustration inside of me that was building up and about to bubble over. Adding my commute run to the boxing club has added an extra hour plus some to my training time, bringing it from already a lengthy 1.5-2hrs to over 3hrs. Today I swallowed up 4 solid hours of my day. That's a part time job. Through in the fact that I then have to unpack my gear when I get home, throw my training clothes into the laundry, shower and then eat when I already am then running on close to empty... it's rough. There's only an hour window after I return from boxing that I'm actually functional. After that hour, it's zombie mode for a good hour and a half, sometimes more, as my body starts to feel all it went through during training and tries to shut down so it can recover.

I had a fight arranged here in the Philippines, back when I lived in Eastwood. But then my opponent canceled and I moved to Makati. Elite Boxing has made it clear they don't deal with pro fighters so I've ventured out and have contacted various influential individuals within the professional boxing community here in the Philippines. Lots of support but no such luck, just a lot of talk. 

Talk is cheap. The supply exceeds the demand.

Getting a fight in the Philippines would be awesome for not only building my brand but also for my business, for Empowered. And since I've been here I have been offered a few other fights. One in Canada, another in Korea and then one in Mexico. I've said no to all three of them because fighting outside of the Philippines wouldn't really do much for me as a fighter, as a coach and as a business owner here in the Philippines. It's in my best interest to have the people here see me in their ring, on their turf, among their fighters, fighting. 

I feel like I'm shooting myself in the foot with holding my breath and waiting for the Philippines. In a country where practically every weekend there's fights and the cities are littered with fighters, it's hard to accept that they can't get me a fight. I know who I want to fight, I want to fight Gretel De Paz, like I was suppose to until she called off the fight.

Coach, put me in the ring. 

At this point I don't even care if it's in the Philippines or not, just get me a fight.

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