We done sparred (kind of!)! 🙂 Enjoyed that today, just a couple of rounds with only jab to the body allowed, then some rounds only jab to the head allowed, try to use footwork to get out of the way, or block, or parry. Having trained for three two minute rounds, we must have done six or seven rounds and I was utterly fubar’d by the end, fortunately the last guy I partnered was as knackered as me so we more or less spent two minutes tapping each other. First guy was a big tall feller, done drills with him before and he does not hold back, sure I’ll be hit harder before this is over but I can verify previous posts that intimate that getting hit in the face hurts. 🙂 Interesting too that even at this level you get some armchair experts – one guy said afterwards “you always lean forward when you jab”. Yeah – well, you always stood back and waited till I threw so you could counter, so yeah, I had a bit of distance to cover. What’s more, you hold your left hand way low and I’ve got a nice short right hook that I couldn’t use (jab to the body only at that stage) that has got your name written aaaaall over it, friend. 🙂 It’s really interesting, I can see openings but as we’re punch limited at the mo, you frustratingly can’t exploit them. Also had some guy throw a big left hook to my guts (so much for 60% effort and jab only – some people… 🙂 ) that caught me good right at the end of the round – you know you see a fight where someone stops a good body shot and goes down two seconds later? I can see how that happens now…

Well done so far Pondo!

Sparring is certainly an eye-opener isn’t it?

I have my fight this Saturday so I’ll let you know how I got on, had the worse preparation last week as was struck down by cold/flu, had so little energy, recovered now though and now just going to rest up for fight night.

I don’t know your skill-level or ability, but it’s good you can already see openings against certain people.

Watch out for people who throw a jab, or jab-straight right ALL the time, you can start to parry there jab, then slip there straight shot and counter with a nice straight shot of your own, or make them reach with the right if you step back slightly after there jab then throw your own shot back.

Simple thing’s like that will definitely help. From my own experience, finish up on a straight shot stops you getting caught as much as if you had thrown a hook, do your work get back out then right back on the jab.

If you get the chance to do additional work, try work on very very light sparring, where you throw your shots slow and light, then your opponent does there work after, then you etc did some of that myself and it helped a lot.

You will move just as much as if you were sparring throwing heavier shots, but it will help you with blocking, slipping and seeing when to counter without having to worry about actually being hit.

Keep up the good work, how long until you fight now?

full of admiration, but you wouldn’t get me doing this. A guy i used to play soccer with, and who I’m still a FB contact with got into this. He was never what I’d call white collar, was always a bit of a firebrand on the pitch. He was always incredibly fit, did a lot of gymwork, never shirked if it got a bit fiery, etc. He’d have killed me in 10 seconds flat.

Two fights, two first round stoppages…….. he’s hung his gloves up again now.

Cheers Kojn – good luck for Saturday buddy, look forward to hearing all about it. 🙂 Might not be bad timing for your cold, you’ll probably end up with the perfect taper. 🙂 Mine’s on the 28th, so a fortnight on Saturday – trying to get two good weeks in then ease off the gas…

Thanks so much for the tips – like the “end on a straight” one, hopefully allows you to disengage and scoot out of range? I like the idea of working on keeping the technique clean, too – already seeing myself forget stuff, so definitely worthwhile reviewing while I go along.

otherjonv – gotta try these things, if you never try, you never know. 🙂

I’m quite happy to not know exactly how much it hurts to be punched repeatedly in the face……

IME many beginners have the tendency to look away at the moment of throwing a punch. Don’t do this. Look at what you’re trying to connect your fist with.

Keep your guard up. Pick your shots. Start the punch at the sole of your back foot. Aim THROUGH the target.

I’m quite happy to not know exactly how much it hurts to be punched repeatedly in the face……

It’s not exactly why I’m doing it, although of course there is at least a slight chance I get to try that out… 🙂

Thanks Mr W, don’t know if I do that (the looking away when punching thing) but I’ll make a concious to check tomorrow – I have found myself turning away when on the receiving end, and I know I need to cut that out. I needs to have the rest of that stuff nailed with every shot…

You need to learn how to get inside their guard, knock them out sparko and get back out without getting KO’d. Good luck.

Yea basically Pondo, if you throw a straight right, you tend to be further away, so less chance to be caught as easily and you also have a good chance of pushing them back when you throw it, you can then ‘scoot out of range’ as you put it and can ‘reset’ basically. 🙂

It’s also a lot harder for them to hit you with hooks if you throw straight shots at the end, also likely your chin will be protected by your arm straight forward, as long as your throwing correctly.

Lastly helps for simplicity reasons! Depends how much you’ve sparred or worked on combinations and technique, but your likely to forget a lot in the ring on the night, especially if it ends up being at a furious pace in the first round. I’ve done a bit more then the basics, but I still find myself forgetting combinations when I’ve been tired on the pads and I’m sure it’ll be the same when I come to fight…although I’m hoping I’ll have won before 3 rounds! 😆

Liking the logical thinking, kind of finding it doesn’t always translate that well in the ring but I think that’s just me! All the best for tomorrow, let us know how it goes! 🙂

Kojn, you there buddy…?

I’m alive and kicking!

Was shattered yesterday and still tired today, luckily I’m pretty much pain free, except my nose a little bit but haven’t got a mark anywhere on my face!

I’ll start it off by what happened (at our event).

So we all go there about 3pm, filled out a form for our medical and also basically a waiver. Medical consisted of blood pressure check, heart-rate/pulse, light shining in your eyes and the medical professionals writing numbers down.

After that, headed off to the changing room, all our vests were neatly laid out in individual places with a bottle of water and a little bag of haribo sweets, changing room each for both teams.

Our setup was very professional, the venue looked fantastic and the ring was bigger then I thought, some people thought it was tiny but it was about the same size of the floor padding where I had done my 1on1 training, so wasn’t any shock for me.

After that, went back to the changing rooms and got my hands professionally wrapped (so all the tape, bandage etc).

We waited in the changing rooms until just before 6pm, then were called to the other changing room, ref spoke to us who was an ex-professional, each team got there photo taken also.

After that we all queued up in the corridor, in fight order, then finally entered the ring, room was PACKED at this point, nerves jangling, all our names were called out as we stepped into the ring. Another photo/s, back out then back to the changing room, as soon as this happened the first fight was going to begin afterwards, so they had to warm up right away.

I was on second to last, so had a long wait, I’m really badly organised so I spent most of the morning pacing around getting things ready/done rather then relaxing (mistake!).

I watched the first two fights, but imo don’t watch any if your not on until a few fights in or later on, you start to get into the atmopshere too much and it can take it out of you, adrenaline starts to get going etc. So a bit of advice from me pondo, is just ignore the fights and focus on yours.

Anyway, so all the fights went along, our team was losing like 8-4 in total at one point I think, we then rattled off atleast 3 wins in a row…then my fight.

Got called for my warmup about 1/2 fights in front of me – start getting ready if your on later on, about 4-5 fights before yours, when I say ready I mean listen to music, get into the zone, think about simple combinations, what your going to do etc.

Anyway, so warmed up, didn’t throw my shots too hard as didn’t want to knacker myself out – Sounds daft I know, but I was worried I would, the corridor was ROASTING and I was sweating before I even got in the ring.

Was told beforehand in the changing room, when I come out, get into the ring go straight to my corner, don’t walk around the ring or go to the other corner.

My music came on and nodded to the rather attractive ring-girl I was ready to walk out, got a nice cheer as I headed between the ropes. Went straight to my corner and listening to my trainer and his advice. Basically told, keep it low-risk first round, had a talk earlier on about what my plan was, which was to get my jab going and keep the centre of the ring, or as close as possible.

Anyway, opponent came out, he got a MASSIVE applause (bastard crowd! I thought to myself 🙂 ), obviously he had a lot more support then me.

Ref spoke to us, then sent us to our corners. I kid you not, be PREPARED for this bit, by the time I took two steps back the bell went, completely caught me off guard!

My opponent, I was told I was better then him skillwise by some people, but he was shorter then me and came out fast, proceded to drive me to the ropes from what I remember. I was quite tight at this point defensively so just held onto him and spoiled to get off the ropes (don’t be afraid to do this!), rather then try fight back.

Anyway, I don’t remember much, corner seemed happy about the first round and got told after the fight, my friends/family all said I won that one.

I remember the first 30 seconds or so, felt like he was hitting me at will, not seen the video back yet though! He had a tight guard and was coming in low, trying to work my body, didn’t feel a thing to be honest, he never really hurt me, did put my head back a few times in the fight, but never felt hurt once if I’m being honest.

Second round I got told to double up my jab / shots, got lazy with my defence and was told the round was 50/50 afterwards and he maybe sneaked it, I definitely let him back into the fight this round and he had a good period where I got hit stupidly a few times and his fans went mental. I couldn’t quite get my timing right, he was definitely countering me well, so realised I had to double up my shots to stop him throwing.

Third round he came out very similar to the last two, in this round I pretty much just spoiled/held him whenever he got in close, I wasn’t absolutely shattered but I just knew I was out-boxing him and if I held, he couldn’t do anywork or get me to my body, rather then try fight him off.

I was a bit worried in the second as I was thinking about my fitness in my head, I didn’t want to take risks and throw more, as I was more worried about just having absolutely no steam left and getting stopped embarassingly through exhaustion!

Last 30 seconds and I definitely rocked/hurt him with a 6,3,2 combination, which I had worked on in training and my trainer told me to throw on my minute rest after the second. 6-3-2 is a right uppercut, left hook, straight right.

He was a lot tougher then I and I think also my corner thought he would be, so a lot of credit to my opponent and he definitely caught me with some good shots, fight was closer then I wanted it to be because of the 2nd, so I really had to win the 3rd round. I could also hear his corner saying “work the body, work the body NOW”, so I was waiting to throw my uppercut 😉

We were told after by a few people that are fight was the best technically out of all the fights, a lot of people went out like a bullet out of a gun, or windmilling.

In the end I won on points, in a hard-fought fight. I’ll put up my video to youtube this week once I get the DVD this week 🙂

One guy broke his wrist/arm in the first 35 seconds by a freak accident, from punching his opponent on the head (not joking!), one got floored by a bodyshot, maybe broke a rib, had to have the paramedics on him and another was breathless afterwards. Not to worry you or anything 😆 . Other then those, there was a few stoppages but no one got hurt, just in the refs or corners opinion some fights were stopped.

Most of the fights were matched well, with majority of fights going the distance.

Overall, a fantastic, professionally run experience!

You will forget a shed load in the ring, as I mentioned in a earlier post. You will need to fight/fire back if your defending, but you’ll do it instinctiely anyway. Just work on a tight defence in training, as you’ll do it instinctively on the night then also.

All I would say is, keep it simple first round, straight shots, pump out the jab and let loose with the straight shots, once it settles down a bit you can for a jab, straight right, left hook combination, just to try it out. As you relax more and you both get a bit more tired, you should hopefully be able to time or see the shots more. If you see your opponent tiring, put it on him, make him work!

If you end up wind-milling you’ll be absolutely blowing out of your arse by the end of the 2nd imo.

Listen to your corner, they will give simple advice but take it on-board and don’t go out to try KO your opponent, if it happens, it’ll happen. They can’t help you if your out of gas after the first round.

Most importantly, just enjoy the evening, it’s fantastic and soak up some of the atmosphere when you come out 🙂

You’ll be nervous, but it’ll settle down once you’ve been out to the crowd once.

Weird thread kids.

But here’s a picture of a kitten.

Great write-up kojn.

Lovely kitten no_eyed_deer.

Great write up Kojn, congratulations on the win.

Gold dust, that is, thank you so much – and well in for taking the win! 😀

Fight night tonight.

Been an interesting couple of weeks, mostly stressing about who I was going to fight – there wasn’t anyone in my weight range I didn’t feel I couldn’t beat but there were definitely some blokes I thought would be easier fights than others. Turns out they’ve matched me with what I thought was the easiest of all, which raises some other issues – firstly, bit disappointed the trainers don’t rate me much! Secondly, it’s given me a lot of confidence but I need to guard against complacency, I know I’ve got the beating of him but it ain’t over till it’s over. He’s a bigger chap than me and I know he runs out of steam (see above when I mentioned being knackered in sparring and ending up just tapping gloves with another bloke? That was him 🙂 ), I know I can keep going longer than him. He’s also a few years younger (not so many to make a difference) and he’s left handed, so gotta work to keep my lead foot outside his, think I can counter his jab with my right and that should discourage him from coming forward. If I can drive back into his shell and onto the ropes, I’m hoping I can stop him – but there’s a few ifs before we get to that point. One is my ribs – stopped a big right hook from some meathead a couple of weeks ago that really hurt, haven’t been able to train other than the twice-weekly boxing classes, but have been getting better and I could walk through meathead’s right hook on Tuesday. That Tuesday session went great (felt like I bullied everyone I sparred, after a couple of subdued weeks – sure it probably didn’t feel like that from their shoes! 🙂 ), and I beat a bloke probably half my age and four inches taller in a jab contest on Thursday, so even if my phys is already in decline, I think I’m boxing pretty well, can’t wait for the fight – and I don’t think my opponent, the Bear, has got the heart for it that I have… Really nice bloke, looking forward to a few beers after – but I am gonna give him the schizzle when we’re in the ring….

See you on the other side. 😉

Good luck! But remember as you said yourself, don’t get complacent, he may well be thinking the same as you 😉

best of luck and remember the real win is to lok the same after the fight as before 😉

Have fun, be careful 😀 Probs the wrong thing to say, but I’m at a loss here 😆

Hope you don’t mind but i’ve informed the bear of your damaged ribs 😆

Good luck

Good luck Pondo (the slat hoofer)

Smash ‘im up!!

Undefeated. 🙂

well done

are you unmarked though ?

Can we have a match report? If your hands and brain are ok,

Yes what happened or are you still punch drunk 😉

pondo – Member
Undefeated. 🙂

Called off due to spongy canvas ?

Called off due to spongy canvas ?

No spongy canvas issues – although it was softer than I was expecting, that’s probably why I’m walking like a dog with three legs today. 🙂

Aaa, what a night – in fact what an incredible eight weeks. If you’ve ever thought “hmm, I wouldn’t mind a go at that…” about boxing, the whole UWCB is a fantastic way to do it and raise some cash for a great cause at the same time.

It was always going to be a long night, had to be there for three for our medicals, so made sure I didn’t do a lot during the day, and set off good and early so I didn’t have to rush. Made sure I got checked out good and early (blood presure as high as they would allow through – might have to have a little look into that at some point…), then it was a matter of killing time, finally saw the schedule and I was down for fight 13 out of 16 so there was going to be a lot of time to kill! Stuck together with the other fighters, I didn’t really want to chat so I kept myself to myself for the large part, happy to chat if people wandered over but staying away from the main group. My opponent, the Bear, wandered over more than once – he’s a genuinely nice bloke, I was always happy to chat but every time he came over, his niceness struck a hammerblow against my resolve. Maybe that was his plan! 🙂

We had the boxer’s parade which I wasn’t that bothered about but was actually good craic, and I think very useful to be out in front of the crowd. I hung around to watch the first couple of fights, but mindful of Kojn’s advice I stayed uninvolved and just used it as a means to get a sense of how things were going. The second fight I was confident I knew who was going to win, having sparred both the fighters, but the guy I thought was going to win got a hammering from a bloke I thought I could beat – but the way he fought was very, very different to the way he sparred, loads more aggressive and way more energy. Interesting, I though, very interesting…

With three or four hours until I needed to be ready, I pretty much kept to myself, I’d taken a book for this very eventuality so just sat in the corner and kept out of the way. It seemed a long old time to roll round, but with an interval after fight ten, I knew I’d have to be ready to warm up after the break – I felt really flat, having spent hours just sitting around but banged the headphones on, fired up For Those About To Rock… and in three minutes flat I was mentally ready to get to it. Wrapped my hands, shucked the fleece and headed downstairs – one (surpisingly energetic!) warm up done, I was lined up in front of the Bear and ready for the intro.

The ringwalk was just too cool, wish it had been 100 yards instead of ten, corner dude told me just to be controlled, box rather than brawl, he’d seen us both spar so stay mobile and throw clean. The ref did his chat (don’t remember much of it, but I could see the Bear was looking at the ref rather than me – bonus!), again, thanks to Kojn, I didn’t turn around, just backed into my corner and as soon as the bell went, off we go. I wanted to make a point of being the first to land, so was straight to him, cagey few seconds then I managed to land a jab and dodge his counter, which largely set the tone for the fight. My plan to counter his right handed jab with an overhand right of my own didn’t really pay off, I could step out of the way of his jab easily enough but I then just sent my right whistling past his ear, time after time until I really couldn’t be bothered with that any more. If I’d had more than 48 hours notice I was fighting a left hander, it would have been something I’d have practiced, but wish in one hand, as my old mum used to say…

The first round felt pretty backwards and forwards, I could land jab and double jabs, he’d look really pissed off and come swinging back at me, I’d either step out of the way or just cover up, then land something on the counter, but nothing that either of us threw really seemed to be doing much damage. The bell rang for the end of the round and it was only really then that I realised how tired I was – in my head I went back to the corner going fuuuuuu…. Corner dude was ace, told me I’d won that one and pretty much carry on as I was – problem was, I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it up.

Round two was much the same, the Bear had dropped energy as much as I had, so we kind of did the same thing only slower – couldn’t always land the jab but when I did I could see his face darken and I knew there was going to be inbound traffic, it was a matter of wait and try and get out of the way and pick off targets of opportunity as they occurred. Head, body, it didn’t seem to make a difference – I’d been sure beforehand that I could stop him, but by halfway through round two, I felt I was just about as likely to stop a heavy bag.

Corner dude told me to lift it for round three as the Bear was going to be tired – yeah right! Fresh as a daisy, me – but tried to get as much air in my lungs as I could. That minute flew by – quick touch of gloves and we were into the final round, I was confident I’d won the first two but you can never be sure, and anything could have happened in the third (there’d been two third round knockouts in the preceding fights, and wasn’t Mrs Pondo happy about THAT?) again he didn’t have a lot to offer coming forward but then again nor did I! It was about trying to work the jab, double up where I could, stay mobile and not get hit, again he was easy enough to see coming but getting out of the way was getting harder. But the worst thing was, whenever I managed to land something, instead of looking angry like he did before, now he started to look really sad! He knew it was over but fair play, it never stopped him swinging – beforehand, in my head, I was going to wear him down and have him back on the ropes to get it stopped with my nasty little hooks, but I never managed to back him up, he stayed off the ropes. Tried the hooks anyway but off the ropes it was easy for him to move out of range. Final bell rang and that was it – job done. First thing was to go straight to him to say sorry!

Back to the corner to get the lid and gloves off, both the corner dude and the ref told me well done (happy with that but I bet they say that to everyone 🙂 ), was sure I’d got the decision, and so it proved – what a feeling that is. Few pics in the ring then out of the ring, high-fiving the crowd on the way. Poor old Bear – spoke to him a few times after and bought him a pint, he said he’d enjoyed the whole experience including the fight and I really hope he had, he’s such a nice bloke – but you know, once the bell goes, you gotta get the job done. In a way, I’m still a bit disappointed to be matched against him, because I couldn’t really see a way he was going to win, unless he managed to land something proper early on, but then, all those other guys I’d been confident I could beat from sparring were like demons in their fights, so I think I probably would have lost against anyone else – not really sure how to feel about that! But it is what it is, I had a fantastic time, hope the Bear did too.

If there’s one thing that jumps out, it’s the difference between sparring and fighting – everyone who fought before me came back saying “OMG, that was so hard”, and everything I’d seen looked wild and uncontrolled, so I vowed to be neat and tidy. But guess what happens when that bell rings…? What an experience – probably, at 42 I’ll never do it again, and now I’ve done it the once, I don’t have to – but you never know…

Everyone should do this once. 🙂

Great write up Pondo, thanks for that, and well done!

Well done to you and Kojin. Great to read you’ve both had a cracking experience without being hurt (too much). I read it with a mix of Fury v Wlad and Fight Club (and a bit of that ultra cagey Jonny Nelson fight where him and the champion threatened to fight but never really hit each other for 12 rounds lol).

I think that’s a pretty fair appraisal. 🙂 Have seen a few clips and it was definitely not as high energy as it felt – still, no-one got hurt, which is the main thing. 🙂

Top stuff Pondo. Hope the video is going up on YouTube….

Well done the pair of you. Excellent accounts of what it’s like to do something that fascinates me but that at the same time I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. 3-4 hours of waiting must be hard going.

I took the kids to the slides at Barnsley Metrodome yesterday where coincidentally the UWCB was on. Frankly being in the vicinity was scary enough but that was probably down to the clientele 😮

Well done Pondo!

I can relate to a lot of what you said (obviously! 🙂 ).

Especially the bit about feeling flat after waiting, then perking up before your warmup!

Also the same with some people in sparring being absolutely beastly on the night!

Hopefully you get your fight up on youtube, would love to see that. I’ll be looking to get mine up this week, work mate is going to get it off my DVD for me and do it hopefully 🙂

I loved the bit when you said felt like you were doing no damage – I was told beforehand my straight right was vicious, on the night felt like I had no power in it whatsoever. Watching the video back I can see why lol.

Did you feel when seeing footage back, it looked a lot slower pace then you thought? I thought I got hit quite a lot (not hard), but watching it back I didn’t and the pace looks pedestrian at times!

Well done again, take’s a lot of bottle to get in the ring, regardless if you win or lose.

Brilliant news for you both. Haven’t contributed to the thread, but have been following it with interest.

Top thread 🙂 brilliant lads.

Congratulations, great write up and thanks for sharing with us.

Cracking stuff gents

So has anyone been reading these posts and been inspired …?

Do you think, you have to be a definite YES to even think about it. Or is being curious enough ???

For instance, I’m not of the option … NO WAY, hell will freeze over before I’d do that.

I quite of like the thought of it …. but …. I also know I’ve never been in a fight in my life… except Russell wright in first year juniors… and I couldn’t knock the skin off a rice pudding.

Anyone feel similar … ?

Reading the posts has inspired me to think about thinking about signing up to boxing classes, but not (quite yet) tempted me to sign up to have a Bear try to punch me. I’m quite scrawny.

Curious is fine, the commitment point is forking out for a certain number of seats or tables a few weeks in, so you can sign up and spend a couple or three weeks training before you have to commit. And if you’re scrawny and can move your feet, the Bear ain’t gonna touch you. Faster people may, to be fair – but you’re signing up to fight. The training, I think, is as graduated as it can be, but the bottom line is you’re gonna try and knock out someone who will be trying just as hard to knock you out. Don’t fear it, it’s just how the game is played. 🙂