1. Before I had to race off to my game location for the pre-fight weigh-in, I had an early morning meeting with the Cheonan Trump. He's pretty brutal for morning meetings lately and so I pretty much napped on his couch while he fought the morning traffic and showed up just as I was leaving. I didn't get to talk to him much but he gave me a quick pep talk about tomorrow's fight and asked if he could touch my head... as did many of his workers... hahaha.
2. Turns out I was totally left in the dark with the game plan for today's trip down to the fight location (a two hour drive). When Junior Mint asked me where my boxing trucks where and why I had packed so incredibly light (only had my wallet and book with me), I knew something was up. Apparently he was under the assumption that I knew we'd be staying over night... and that I knew Q would be coming along. I totally was clueless about it though and so we ended up getting into a huge argument about it in front of everyone.
3. There was no way I was going to stay overnight at some ghetto chilly motel way out in the sticks where I'd be bored out of my skull for the rest of the day and would struggle sleeping when what I really needed was a good night's rest and to be left on my own to get my head focused. Moreover, I have Mi Nam... he's not like a cat you know. You can't just leave him food and water. That little boy needs to be walked twice a day and leaving him home alone for such a long period of time will leave me with peeled wallpaper, exploded cushions and chewed up shoes. Our arguement concluded with me telling him that I'll bus it back to Cheonan and then bus it out again tomorrow. What ended up happening though was we all came back together and then agreed to travel out again in the morning. I felt somewhat responsible for the hassle but honestly, I had no idea. And had he told me earlier, I would have still refused to sleep there over night.
4. So we all piled into the truck and headed off for weigh-in. I didn't think I was so nervous until we arrived and entered the building. I opened the door and there, in one of the private offices, stood all the fighters for tomorrow's show. I immediately scanned the room for my opponent, Kim Bo Young, but much to my surprise there were five other female fighters: one Chinese girl, a Thai girl, and three Korean girls. Turns out each Korean female fighter was scheduled to fight a foreign girl... what's up with that?!!! Seriously... don't even get me started on that subject cause well, I love Korea but I've been in Korea long enough to catch on to a couple of things that I really don't respect and agree with. But anyways....
5. To the right, there was a doctor and a nurse taking every one's blood pressure count, checking their eye sight, and taking their pulses. To the left, there was one of the Korean Boxing Commission officials weighing in fighter. I lined up for my turn with the doctor and tried my hardest to calm myself down. I could feel my heart pounding.
6. And then it happened.... "Kim Bo Young" the official called out. My head spun around and my eyes instantly scanned the room to see who'd be responding to him. There, to my far right, stood up a short girl. She smiled, told the doctor to wait and then she rushed out of the room to change into some shorts and a tank top. Junior Mint told me later that Bo Young had a really hard time losing so much weight in such little time. When she came back into the room, Junior Mint and I instantly looked at each other and mouthed the words "body shots" to each other. It was clear that her mid section was lacking and so we figured that'd be one of her weaknesses. If I could get in there and break her down with body shots then it'd help to tire her out in the ring.
7. Bo Young looked like a cute girl with her teddy bear sweater, pants and her hair in a playful ponytail but if there's anything I've learned it's to never underestimate your opponent. After all, maybe Bo Young's cute girl image is all a part of her plan... her plan to deceive me. I don't know. Regardless, so she may look like the girl next door today, it's tomorrow what matters. Maybe she looks super hardcore in the ring... maybe she is hardcore in the ring and wouldn't I just be a fool for underestimating her from the get-go?!
8. I took it upon myself to be polite and so I introduced myself to her, to Bo Young. We shook hands and I told her that I was honored to met her. I congratulated her on her previous wins and told her that I looked forward to seeing her again tomorrow. She smiled, bowed, and then we parted our own separate ways.
9. After weigh-in all us fighters are officially allowed to freely eat to our heart's desire as we no longer have the responsibility of owning up to the scale. Junior Mint tried to tempt me with hand fulls of candies and cookies but I chose to stick to my diet. My body has become so accustomed to eating clean and I really didn't want to jolt it by drowning my stomach with sugary things and loaded carbs that'd only leave me feeling heavy and bloated.
10. Junior Mint insisted that I get my corn rows redone but I knew he had no idea of how big of a hassle that'd be. I phoned around to a couple of places, actually Q did, and they all insisted I'd have to give more notice than an hour or so. Leechard Hair, which is a trendy but cheap (in more ways than one) hair shop in Korea, insisted that I'd have to pay $300 for my corn rows to be done... oh my gosh!!! Q tried to stay calm with them on the phone while he had to listen to the Leechard Hair girl rant and rave about how good Leechard Hair is and how it'd be worth the $300. "But you're the McDonald's of hair!" I blurted into the phone. Q burst into laughter and I knew I shouldn't have said it but come on, considering Leechard Hair goes through employees faster than I can eat a cartoon of eggs, there was no way it they could justify me spending that kind of money to get corn rows. If getting my hair done at Park Jun, the Prada of hair shops, cost me $100 than getting my hair done at McDonald's (Leechard Hair) should be like pocket change. "For $300 I could probably go to whatever country corn rows originated from, get them done there, and still have change left over" I told Q. Never did get my corn rows redone but I did score a free can of mouse from the lady at the local Chanel Beauty Shop for amusing her with my Leechard Hair story... hahaha.
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What's one good lesson you've learned?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.
-- Sally Field
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.
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