BoxRec

Jip, ultimately you have to experience it to believe it. But it's the best feeling in the world, win or lose. (Well, obviously winning is better). Sparring's pretty cool too.

Boxing is the only sport I can think of where a World Champion, kid off the street, and yuppie fan all train in the same place.

I've hit bags and shadow boxed in same room where Golota, Vernon Forrest, Mitch Green, and others trained and I think that's pretty cool.

Tony1244 wrote:Boxing is the only sport I can think of where a World Champion, kid off the street, and yuppie fan all train in the same place.

I've hit bags and shadow boxed in same room where Golota, Vernon Forrest, Mitch Green, and others trained and I think that's pretty cool.

Your first sentence is very true.

And that's definitely very cool. I've been very fortunate to train alongside and spar with some current and former world champs and can't believe sometimes how lucky I am, just an ordinary kid (well, not a kid anymore!) Not many people get those opportunities.

darkrobot wrote:

Tony1244 wrote:Boxing is the only sport I can think of where a World Champion, kid off the street, and yuppie fan all train in the same place.

I've hit bags and shadow boxed in same room where Golota, Vernon Forrest, Mitch Green, and others trained and I think that's pretty cool.

Your first sentence is very true.

And that's definitely very cool. I've been very fortunate to train alongside and spar with some current and former world champs and can't believe sometimes how lucky I am, just an ordinary kid (well, not a kid anymore!) Not many people get those opportunities.

I didn't spare any pros. I made sure to get out of their way. Their training methods weren't like in the movies. They trained persistently and consistently.

I used to love it when I was young and felt like my body was bulletproof, like a strong young animal. I hit too hard though and I felt so bad when I KO'd a nice guy and the last I heard he was in the hospital with a brain concussion. I hit too hard for my own bone structure and I hurt my showing off punching the heavy bag for visiting girls from a college or something, plus duh I didn't bother to tape up my hands. The trainer asked me to put on a show for them. He said I hit harder than the heavyweight champ but otherwise didn't have a clue what the f I was doing. Ha ha I wasn't interested in defense. It was a boring subject. Had I continued I would have probably ended up like poor Abdusalomov. We were even about the same size and at one point we must have gone to the same beauty parlor because we had the same hair-do (shaved head). I had a lot of other things going at the time, like a full time job and my art career on the side, and after I hurt my hand - my thumb actually, which had earlier been hurt playing baseball - I quit. Yo I coulda been a contenduh, Adrian!

It's a brutal sport, very corrupt in the pros. The bad guys run it. It's fun when you are hitting the other guy...no not always...but not fun when you are on the receiving end and getting your brain scrambled. Brutal sport and no health insurance. Get hurt they don't want to know you anymore. You only hear about the small percentage of fighters who are the big names on here. They call the other 99.9 percent "tomato cans" and "bums". Great movie about the under-belly of boxing: John Huston's "Fat City".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVXhoiS0BPA

Tony1244 wrote:

I didn't spare any pros. I made sure to get out of their way. Their training methods weren't like in the movies. They trained persistently and consistently.

Perhaps they went easy on me because I was just an amateur. But it was still a great learning experience skill-wise. Although one cruiserweight (I am much, much smaller) gave me a single full-force uppercut to the abdomen, and boy did I feel that! I think the only think that stopped me falling down was that my body went into some kind of temporary paralysis. Luckily he didn't take the piss and backed off for a bit to let me recover. I'd probably have been in hospital otherwise!

Thanks for the vid x2x, will try and check out the whole thing when I get a chance. Totally agree that there is a lot of corruption in boxing, sadly, and the medical care and aftercare can be shameful.

darkrobot wrote:

Tony1244 wrote:

I didn't spare any pros. I made sure to get out of their way. Their training methods weren't like in the movies. They trained persistently and consistently.

Perhaps they went easy on me because I was just an amateur. But it was still a great learning experience skill-wise. Although one cruiserweight (I am much, much smaller) gave me a single full-force uppercut to the abdomen, and boy did I feel that! I think the only think that stopped me falling down was that my body went into some kind of temporary paralysis. Luckily he didn't take the piss and backed off for a bit to let me recover. I'd probably have been in hospital otherwise!

I landed a good shot on a well regarded amateur, I was about to apologize for fear of saving my life but he seemed to like it and was invigorated from it.

All this gym talk has reminded me of when I was thinking about going pro, the manager that wanted to sign me invited me to spar one of his pros which I thought was probably a good idea, I pretty much schooled this lad fairly easily and a couple of days later I signed on the dotted line, my first day in the pro gym I got put in with the same lad and got a right ass whipping, I couldn't believe it was the same guy, needless to say that was the first of many suspicious goings on, welcome to the pros !

littlepug wrote:All this gym talk has reminded me of when I was thinking about going pro, the manager that wanted to sign me invited me to spar one of his pros which I thought was probably a good idea, I pretty much schooled this lad fairly easily and a couple of days later I signed on the dotted line, my first day in the pro gym I got put in with the same lad and got a right ass whipping, I couldn't believe it was the same guy, needless to say that was the first of many suspicious goings on, welcome to the pros !

Ha. Good story

littlepug wrote:All this gym talk has reminded me of when I was thinking about going pro, the manager that wanted to sign me invited me to spar one of his pros which I thought was probably a good idea, I pretty much schooled this lad fairly easily and a couple of days later I signed on the dotted line, my first day in the pro gym I got put in with the same lad and got a right ass whipping, I couldn't believe it was the same guy, needless to say that was the first of many suspicious goings on, welcome to the pros !

Pug, I’ve heard a lot of folk say this on here but really, you could write a good book man, the baboon story was a good un too

Tomasino wrote:

littlepug wrote:All this gym talk has reminded me of when I was thinking about going pro, the manager that wanted to sign me invited me to spar one of his pros which I thought was probably a good idea, I pretty much schooled this lad fairly easily and a couple of days later I signed on the dotted line, my first day in the pro gym I got put in with the same lad and got a right ass whipping, I couldn't believe it was the same guy, needless to say that was the first of many suspicious goings on, welcome to the pros !

Pug, I’ve heard a lot of folk say this on here but really, you could write a good book man, the baboon story was a good un too

Ha ha glad you liked it Tomasino

Tony1244 wrote:Boxing is the only sport I can think of where a World Champion, kid off the street, and yuppie fan all train in the same place.

I've hit bags and shadow boxed in same room where Golota, Vernon Forrest, Mitch Green, and others trained and I think that's pretty cool.

Damn....i never thought about that but its true. No hobby Basketball player could ever train in the same facility with michael jordan, but often enough boxing champions like thurman or pacquiao train in this same gym next to regular joe....crazy

Went to New York earlier in the year for my wifes 40th and bless her she pretty much did all the legwork in the few hours we spent trying to find the location of Gleasons gym, upon finding it I was a bit nervous thinking they might just tell me to eff off, but when we walked in they couldn't have been more inviting, showing us round the gym and letting us take photos even though there was serious work going on around us, even had a chat with former U.S Olympian Eric Kelly before we slipped out, you don't get that sort of access in other pro sports, I was buzzing on the walk back over Brooklyn bridge wearing my new Gleasons hoodie !

littlepug wrote:Went to New York earlier in the year for my wifes 40th and bless her she pretty much did all the legwork in the few hours we spent trying to find the location of Gleasons gym, upon finding it I was a bit nervous thinking they might just tell me to eff off, but when we walked in they couldn't have been more inviting, showing us round the gym and letting us take photos even though there was serious work going on around us, even had a chat with former U.S Olympian Eric Kelly before we slipped out, you don't get that sort of access in other pro sports, I was buzzing on the walk back over Brooklyn bridge wearing my new Gleasons hoodie !

Was the place buzzing? I’m sure I read it had a lot of white collar boxers nowadays and was a big business...

x2x wrote:I used to love it when I was young and felt like my body was bulletproof, like a strong young animal. I hit too hard though and I felt so bad when I KO'd a nice guy and the last I heard he was in the hospital with a brain concussion. I hit too hard for my own bone structure and I hurt my showing off punching the heavy bag for visiting girls from a college or something, plus duh I didn't bother to tape up my hands. The trainer asked me to put on a show for them. He said I hit harder than the heavyweight champ but otherwise didn't have a clue what the f I was doing. Ha ha I wasn't interested in defense. It was a boring subject. Had I continued I would have probably ended up like poor Abdusalomov. We were even about the same size and at one point we must have gone to the same beauty parlor because we had the same hair-do (shaved head). I had a lot of other things going at the time, like a full time job and my art career on the side, and after I hurt my hand - my thumb actually, which had earlier been hurt playing baseball - I quit. Yo I coulda been a contenduh, Adrian!

It's a brutal sport, very corrupt in the pros. The bad guys run it. It's fun when you are hitting the other guy...no not always...but not fun when you are on the receiving end and getting your brain scrambled. Brutal sport and no health insurance. Get hurt they don't want to know you anymore. You only hear about the small percentage of fighters who are the big names on here. They call the other 99.9 percent "tomato cans" and "bums". Great movie about the under-belly of boxing: John Huston's "Fat City".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVXhoiS0BPA

Didn’t know you were an ex pro. Good post man

when so much comes down to single fights things can be very good and very bad. not like team sports where they play so many games that they lose a lot of their meaningfulness until near end.

and just a lot of frustation with things not happening, not happening at right time, poor judging, etc.

but when it's on, it's really fuckingg amazing.

Tomasino wrote:

x2x wrote:I used to love it when I was young and felt like my body was bulletproof, like a strong young animal. I hit too hard though and I felt so bad when I KO'd a nice guy and the last I heard he was in the hospital with a brain concussion. I hit too hard for my own bone structure and I hurt my showing off punching the heavy bag for visiting girls from a college or something, plus duh I didn't bother to tape up my hands. The trainer asked me to put on a show for them. He said I hit harder than the heavyweight champ but otherwise didn't have a clue what the f I was doing. Ha ha I wasn't interested in defense. It was a boring subject. Had I continued I would have probably ended up like poor Abdusalomov. We were even about the same size and at one point we must have gone to the same beauty parlor because we had the same hair-do (shaved head). I had a lot of other things going at the time, like a full time job and my art career on the side, and after I hurt my hand - my thumb actually, which had earlier been hurt playing baseball - I quit. Yo I coulda been a contenduh, Adrian!

It's a brutal sport, very corrupt in the pros. The bad guys run it. It's fun when you are hitting the other guy...no not always...but not fun when you are on the receiving end and getting your brain scrambled. Brutal sport and no health insurance. Get hurt they don't want to know you anymore. You only hear about the small percentage of fighters who are the big names on here. They call the other 99.9 percent "tomato cans" and "bums". Great movie about the under-belly of boxing: John Huston's "Fat City".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVXhoiS0BPA

Didn’t know you were an ex pro. Good post man

Lol, gotta question the trainer that asked him to put on a show with his bare hands on the heavy bag.

Tomasino wrote:

littlepug wrote:Went to New York earlier in the year for my wifes 40th and bless her she pretty much did all the legwork in the few hours we spent trying to find the location of Gleasons gym, upon finding it I was a bit nervous thinking they might just tell me to eff off, but when we walked in they couldn't have been more inviting, showing us round the gym and letting us take photos even though there was serious work going on around us, even had a chat with former U.S Olympian Eric Kelly before we slipped out, you don't get that sort of access in other pro sports, I was buzzing on the walk back over Brooklyn bridge wearing my new Gleasons hoodie !

Was the place buzzing? I’m sure I read it had a lot of white collar boxers nowadays and was a big business...

There were a few in that looked like active fighters, good ones, also a female boxer who looked very good, don't remember seeing any keep fitters as such just fighters working hard, had to go in managers office to pay for the hoodie and it was like something from the movies, the walls were covered in belts and photos and there were guys sorting out fights on the phone, bloody loved it !

littlepug wrote:

Tomasino wrote:

littlepug wrote:Went to New York earlier in the year for my wifes 40th and bless her she pretty much did all the legwork in the few hours we spent trying to find the location of Gleasons gym, upon finding it I was a bit nervous thinking they might just tell me to eff off, but when we walked in they couldn't have been more inviting, showing us round the gym and letting us take photos even though there was serious work going on around us, even had a chat with former U.S Olympian Eric Kelly before we slipped out, you don't get that sort of access in other pro sports, I was buzzing on the walk back over Brooklyn bridge wearing my new Gleasons hoodie !

Was the place buzzing? I’m sure I read it had a lot of white collar boxers nowadays and was a big business...

There were a few in that looked like active fighters, good ones, also a female boxer who looked very good, don't remember seeing any keep fitters as such just fighters working hard, had to go in managers office to pay for the hoodie and it was like something from the movies, the walls were covered in belts and photos and there were guys sorting out fights on the phone, bloody loved it !

Sounds great did you feel like getting in the ring?

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:

Tomasino wrote:

x2x wrote:I used to love it when I was young and felt like my body was bulletproof, like a strong young animal. I hit too hard though and I felt so bad when I KO'd a nice guy and the last I heard he was in the hospital with a brain concussion. I hit too hard for my own bone structure and I hurt my showing off punching the heavy bag for visiting girls from a college or something, plus duh I didn't bother to tape up my hands. The trainer asked me to put on a show for them. He said I hit harder than the heavyweight champ but otherwise didn't have a clue what the f I was doing. Ha ha I wasn't interested in defense. It was a boring subject. Had I continued I would have probably ended up like poor Abdusalomov. We were even about the same size and at one point we must have gone to the same beauty parlor because we had the same hair-do (shaved head). I had a lot of other things going at the time, like a full time job and my art career on the side, and after I hurt my hand - my thumb actually, which had earlier been hurt playing baseball - I quit. Yo I coulda been a contenduh, Adrian!

It's a brutal sport, very corrupt in the pros. The bad guys run it. It's fun when you are hitting the other guy...no not always...but not fun when you are on the receiving end and getting your brain scrambled. Brutal sport and no health insurance. Get hurt they don't want to know you anymore. You only hear about the small percentage of fighters who are the big names on here. They call the other 99.9 percent "tomato cans" and "bums". Great movie about the under-belly of boxing: John Huston's "Fat City".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVXhoiS0BPA

Didn’t know you were an ex pro. Good post man

Lol, gotta question the trainer that asked him to put on a show with his bare hands on the heavy bag.

I agree but sometimes stupid shit happens! I actually hit my heavy maize bag with bare hands 20 mins almost every day. Not full force but snappy. I never get sore just a bit red and not even a graze after about five years having it. Used to always wear mitts but figured I’m only ever going to hit with bare fists so just train that way. I may pay for it lol but my knuckles are like rocks

Tomasino wrote:

littlepug wrote:

Tomasino wrote:
Was the place buzzing? I’m sure I read it had a lot of white collar boxers nowadays and was a big business...

There were a few in that looked like active fighters, good ones, also a female boxer who looked very good, don't remember seeing any keep fitters as such just fighters working hard, had to go in managers office to pay for the hoodie and it was like something from the movies, the walls were covered in belts and photos and there were guys sorting out fights on the phone, bloody loved it !

Sounds great did you feel like getting in the ring?

Nah not really, I did ask to do a bit of bagwork as me hands were twitching a bit but they wouldn't let me !

Thanks, Tomasino. And Saad, there was nobody was to blame but myself. Trainer wasn't even there when the gorgeous gaggle of giggling girls showed up. I had gloves on but no tape. Too much trouble to bother with that stuff. It was the time years before when a baseball dislocated my right thumb that really caused it. Otherwise i would have been good, and i did put on a good show for them i think, plus my girlfriend who lived nearby showed up to watch and she was always fun. When i dislocated my thumb i just pulled it and set it back in its socket. It hurt but i thought that was the end of it but it wasn't. Those old injuries come back to haunt you. Watch that movie if you can.

You wanna avoid that stuff if you can pal. Believe me one good woman is worth a hundred others, whatever the offers they may make you. (Ha ha)

The bad ones are usually after something.

The good ones will stand by you no matter what (not talking about abuse or anything like that btw). Just normal relationship stuff.

It would be very satisfying if the best fought the best much more often.

Imagine if every top 20 guy fought 3-4 other top 20 guys every year?

I could rewrite the song Imagine to that.