At the halfway point in proceedings I can safely say its been a rollercoaster so far, I know people have read in the blog before about feelings, and emotions so I'm not going to go too mushy today don't worry.
As we gathered on the pavement outside Knights on Saturday morning I noticed how the fight night talk is slowly growing as the weeks are going on, there is a bit more tension, and not in a bad way about the fight, people are becoming more focussed on what they have to do to improve and now opponents are being announced it is likely you will be training, even sparring in the case of me and Fred with the person you have to beat on fight night. That naturally makes the situation pretty weird, some of the guys know each other really well and some just don't want to fight each other. Not out of fear of a beating, but possibly just damaging old relationships.
We are at the end of the day going to have a fight, and when its all over we will hug, bump gloves and be done, but in the build up to the day I can only see the sparring getting more brutal and precise as people are laying down markers and making their intentions known, Not that there is any animosity, Broner vs Malignaggi this weekend proved what how sometimes things don't end with the final bell, Broner deciding to end the day by declaring to Malignaggi after winning on points that he was "Taking his belt and his girl" and paraded Malignaggi's ex girlfriend around the show. I like Broner for his flash attitude, and I think he can back it up in many cases, but I lost respect for him as a man after his childish behaviour.
So the day itself, we got to the gym, and people were muttering things about a 2 hour session, I had not seen this coming, and knew I was going to be blowing by the end. We started with a bleep test, and I made a tactical decison to drop at level 7, I havent done a bleep test since school and I remembered why, they are f$$king horrible! Fair play to Bob, Mide and James the last 3 who were absolutely smashing it!
Back to the gym and split into groups it was time for either sparring, technique / skipping or pad/bag work.
First up for me was sparring and as the first pairs went in it was clear that some people were throwing a few shots at full power and it was pretty amazing to watch, and not bothering with headguards. I will always wear a mouth guard, as people know I have my modelling career to protect, Paris Fashion week wouldn't go ahead without my chubby, bearded face!
So Fred and I stepped into the ring, Im sure Fred wont mind me saying we are both big lads and I think we were probably showing each other a bit too much respect in there, particularly as it was announced that we are paired to fight on the 2nd, Fred is a good lad and I'm sure we will have a beer together after but in the next few weeks I can imagine we will be keeping a close eye on each other to see what we have got for each other. He got some good shots in, I got some back but we will both be massively improved by fight night and will be going for it full blast.
Then off to the heavy bags and pads, plenty of work on movement needed and the occasional shout from Scott to bend my knees more, or keep the guard up was employed as I was starting to feel knackered!
One of my favourite parts of yesterday was taking instruction from the master, the warrior Horice, the man is as old school as it gets, no bullshit and no excuses for poor technique, he taught me something I am going to throw into sparring next week and let people see if they can spot it! Regarding my movement ( or lack of!) he had this advise "When you go home today, don't get on the sofa and eat shit food, don't start pulling your plonker, get moving in the mirror, round the house"
With regards to pulling my plonker, I don't know how Horice got in my house to get that information, but I want the video back...
We finished with a 300 and I had to be encouraged to finish it as every part of my body wanted to crash out on the mat and pass out, but thats the beauty of this group, we push each other along, and won't let anyone fail or feel shitty about themselves!
Thanks for the week go to the people who have sponsored me, the people coming to the show, Jo for the cracking hand wraps - they are meant to bring me luck, but if they could bring me a bit of movement that will do me! Thanks to the group as always for the endless enthusiasm and friendship, Scott for another great, if f$$king evil session and finally thanks to my wife for washing my soaking wet sweaty gym gear!
Big nights not far off now, so I've started contacting people to sort tickets out any one else who is keen just drop me a line on FB and I ll sort it out.
Big Love
The Bear
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