Another Golden Gloves Is History

    ENTRY 444

ANOTHER GOLDEN GLOVES IN THE HISTORY BOOKS

To say the least, this past weekend was interesting.

I enjoyed staying in Niagara Falls.
The boxing club supplied the hotel room. 
We stayed at the Marriott right across from the convention center.
We went for dinner with the coach on Friday and then after we took a walk along the Falls to "work it off". 

View from the hotel

"Work-off Walk"

"Work-off Walk"

Convention Center in Niagara Falls

As for the Golden Gloves, not so much.

Both Masters bouts ended in an RSC 1.

I am not surprised by Ian Smith's bout. I expect it to end that way.

Mine. I expected to do a bit better. I at least expected to go at least the full three rounds.
I was completely thrown off because my opponent changed from his usual technique.

I was told that he likes to work inside. The advise I was given was to jab him away.
I did that and it didn't work. He came in with a flurry from the outside and pushed me back.

He changed his strategy.
I had advice from a former opponent and also my coach gave the same advice because we were expecting him to try to get inside. 
My strategy was different. 
I wanted to fake left, step right, fake a jab, drop to the body and throw a left and right hook to the body, then up and jab the head, pivot right, drop down and jab the body, then overhand right to the forehead.
I really wanted to try that but my coach was dead set on keeping him away with a constant jab.
I did that and it obviously didn't work.

I am now one bout away from becoming Open class.

I have decided to take a few days (a month) off from boxing. I need to unwind and not think about the boxing gym for a while. I need to refresh and get my crap together.

I can still do my running and swimming at the University of Toronto Athletics Department where I usually go on weekends. For the rest of my training, I can go to Bloor Fitness. 
Just because I am taking a break from boxing does not mean I should completely stop exercising.  

I will be returning to boxing training during the first week of January, but I really want to ramp up sparring.
One thing that threw me off was having an aggressive opponent. I need more aggressive sparring. The coaches have to stop with that damn Grandpa Syndrom when it comes to sparring. 
**Don't go easy on the Master because his opponent won't.** 
Open sparring should be just like a competition. Anything less won't help.


═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

--Paul 'The Brick' Brec