[Diego Lara]

Took most of last week off to work overtime in the store. Gotta get those bills paid man! Now we're back in the swing of things, so let me start off with yesterday's training sesh.

Mon 8/27: 7 am: Fight time. Watch Oliver McCall vs Lennox Lewis both 1 and 2. The second fight was strange to say the least, never seen a fighter have a nervous breakdown in the ring, and I gotta say that his is one of the more tragic and intruiging stories in boxing. If you don't know about him, it's worth finding out. Afterwards, about 1.5m around the park, with a thunderstorm dumping the occasional bucket of water on our heads and then passing.

10:30 am: Gym time. No sparring today, just start off with a ten minute warm-up and stretching. Do 6 rounds on the heavy bag. I've been practicing slipping, ducking, and counterpunching, as well as eliminating my tendency to throw arm punches and instead throw from the shoulders. All in all, I did pretty good. Can't wait to spar again, cuz I know I'm gonna be harder to catch. I'm pretty sure I caught good ol Mike McCallum, my future trainer, watching me.

After gym time it was time for work. Doin 140 v-ups at a time, need to remember to do the pushups as well. And that was Monday's training.

Tue 8/28 6:50 am: Fight time, today featuring Vince Phillips vs Kostya Tszyu. Phillips has a killer right hand, perfected by none other than Kenny Adams, who was training Rodel Mayol for his title fight at Top Rank for the last month. I'd like to fight like Phillips. 2.5m around the park today.

10:30 am: Gym time. Ritchie was out in the gym talking to Liu, and it was the first time I'd spoken to him in over a week. I think it's high time for me to move on to another trainer, one who takes a more active role in making me a better fighter, rather than leave me to my own devices half of the time. More on this later.

I wanted to spar today, but Liu is dealing with wrist and knee injuries, and we both can scarce afford to exacerbate injuries at this point in our training and lives. None of the other guys that I would usually spar are there today, so instead it's focusing on conditioning. 10min warm-up and stretching, followed by 2 rounds of skipping rope. Then it's 2 rounds on the body snatcher, then 3 on the heavy bag. Liu brought attention to the fact that I close my stance and cross my legs alot, and that I have a tendency to stand tall when throwing, rather than hunching down low, which allows me to shoot with more of my legs, torso, and shoulders powering my punches, rather than my arms. No wonder I was getting tired so quickly. We practiced stepping around and also sitting down on my punches, which means not bouncing and having my stance set when I throw. It helps, but it's not something I'm used to, which is gonna take more work over the next few weeks.

After that work, I went to grab a medicine ball and ab roller while Liu talked to Mike some more. When I came back, I overheard Mike tell Liu that he would start tomorrow, and I thought he meant only Liu. But he was talking about me too! Can't say how greatful I was for Liu's way with the other fighters and trainers, it's something that has allowed us to stay and excel at Top Rank. I owe that man a great debt of gratitude for getting me here.

Next was ab work. 50 sit ups with the 10 lb ball, then 45 twists with the ball, which works those lats like nothing else. Then we did 20 roll-outs with the ab roller, starting in a standing postion and ending up almost completely horizontal in a push-up position. Almost there to a complete six pack, just need to trim the last bit of pudge off the bottom two.

After this we were done. As I left, I shook Mike's hand and thanked him for the opportunity he had given Liu and myself. I told I would not let him down, and I intend to make good on that. So tomorrow at 10 am we start our new training with Mr. Mike McCallum, and now I feel we're even closer to getting a fight, and getting these careers off the ground. Now to make some chicken and stuff. Firefox out.