So last night I go with the gang to check out a bar that has "Fight Night" every Wednesday. We watch several fights in which dudes with no training flail away at each other Occasionally, there are fights with more polished fighters.
My buddies keep trying to talk me into giving it a shot. "C'mon, you could have taken that guy!" and stuff like that. I keep telling them that I have terrible luck and I'll end up with some trained big guy.
Then the announcer calls for a first-time fighter at 150-175 pounds. Now my buddies go nuts. After some hemming and hawing I go sign up. After I finish, the guy says, "Okay, now we have to find a fight for you."
Me: What happened to the first time 150-175 pounds fight?
Him: We filled that right as I announced it.
After a while they still haven't found a fight for me, so he pulls me in the ring to ask for fighters. I tell him to mention it'll be easy because I just turned 30 and I'm over the hill. A guy volunteers.
I walk over to get wrapped up and get headgear. I have a small mouth and my mouthpiece feels like having a tennis ball in my mouth. A little while later my opponent walks over. He's younger, he's got at least two inches on me and he's broader in the shoulders. Then he starts working the pads with a friend in a pretty familiar way.
As we walk in, I notice he has a nickname and he fights for "Team Adrenaline". So much for another first-time fighter.
The match starts and my plan is to pace myself and work my jab. It immediately becomes apparent I can't accomplish anything that way. He's got reach and he's a southpaw so his glove is always in the way of my jab.
I switch to slipping punches and going after him. Somehow I end up getting caught in the throat. Ouch. At first I'm just counter-punching but then I start going inside and trying to go to work.
I get him in the ropes 3 times and get to unload a little bit. He catches me a few times while I'm trying to work my way in. We get close to the end and square off.
And a HUUUUGE monkey jumps on my back. Not sure exactly what happened but I gassed hard. Huffing and puffing, hands at my waist. He throws a bomb that I catch right between the eyes. I wasn't rocked but I knew sitting there and taking punches like that would get me KTFOed eventually. I called it after round 1.
Afterwards I walked over and talked to my opponent. I told him I had called it to my buddies that I'd get an experienced fighter. His response: a nod and "I fight MMA."
Buddies afterward told me I was kicking his ass until I quit. It seemed different in the ring. I felt like I was doing a good job getting to him but having a hard time capitalizing.
Not sure exactly why I gassed so hard. I think it was a combination of nerves causing me to use waay more energy than necessary, the over-sized mouthpiece and the throat punch catching up with me. Regardless, I'm pretty disappointed in myself for quitting.
Still, not bad for a guy with six months of kick-boxing training almost a year ago who's never done any sparring before. I think a switch to conditioning with my mouthpiece in, some more sparring, a lot more training and I might do okay.
