[Jake Martin]

Entertaining read! Keep up the good work, KK.

[Liu Jin]

Originally Posted by codysweet02

Im sure Mike has tons of connections but Roy Engelbrecht from Battle in the Ballroom in Irvine/LA is always looking for fighters making their debut or that only have a few fights. Gives the out of towners a nice room in the hotel where the fights are at also. A super nice Mariott. ROY ENGLEBRECHT PRESENTS BATTLE IN THE BALLROOM AND FIST SERIES He also runs Fight Promoter University. Really nice guy. I was down there a couple years ago and he was paying his fighters $1,200 for a 4 rounder. He also has one girl fight on every card. Super professional and hes been doing it for 22 years. Even sold his company once to De La Hoya and worked with him and Golden Boy Promotions for 5 years. I turned the local boxing gym onto him a year or so ago and he offered the 2 pros from here fights but they couldnt take them because they were already fighting somewhere else.

I agree. After my last job as a server at Chilis I decided to never work another corporate job again. I read a couple books, The Four Hour Work Week, The Magic of Thinking Big, and Vagabonding and decided to not become "successful" like most people are. A car payment, mortgage, and 60 hours a week in a suit and tie is not success to me. 2 weeks of vacation a year? Thats hell.

I met a German guy when I was in Spain and he was telling me that he couldnt believe anyone would live in the US. Not because of politics or anything like that, but because he gets over 2 months of vacation a year and couldnt imagine only getting 2 weeks.

Man Mike certainly wouldn't turn down more contacts. So I'm definitely going to tell him of Roy if he doesn't already know who he is. His fight cards seem pretty home-grown as well, which is exactly how I'd like to begin. If he paid me $1,200, he'd more than get his money's worth.

Germany seems to be where it's at right now. Kofi's over there working, and Cisse wants to go back. Cisse gets paid like $1,500 a week Euro over there for sparring. Bananas.

[Liu Jin]

Liu's poor thumb and nose...

6:45am - Began the morning with the re-match between "King" Arthur Abraham and Edison "Pantera" Miranda. Can't link this one because it was a recent fight, but basically Pantera got his ass handed to him. When he jabs he's actually a damn good Fighter, but Arther actually lured him into opening up offensively, and took advantage of the openings, knocking Pantera down 3 times in the 4th for the TKO.

After this performance, I think I'd take Arthur over Pavlik. He can take Kelly's punch, and will punch back. Kelly'd have to throw volume for 12 rounds to dent Arthur.

7:30am - 2 mile run.

10:30am - Gym Time.

10 minute stretch.

1 round ring-jacks.

2 rounds Shadowboxing.

4 rounds sparring with "El Infierno."

Today was odd because although I did a lot of things well, I just felt off from the get-go in the Gym. My legs felt weak.

Things I did well:

- Activity, I'm not sure there was ever really much of a lull.
- Defense overall. Got caught a couple times, but nothing to panic about, and when I wanted to disengage I could.
- Jab. My jab was on-point, up and down.
- Combinations as opposed to pot-shotting.

Things I did not so well:

- Keep from standing up tall. It's what got me hit.
- Keep my feet moving.
- Run off uppercuts.
- Keep from jamming my F$#@in' thumb.

Diego has a hard ass head is what it is. He got my nose, too, but it didn't bleed much. Just barely.

I jammed my thumb so hard that I was just shaking it out the last 30 seconds.

1 round Shadowboxing.

2 rounds speed-bag.

Conditioning:

Ab-machine circuit x 2.

40 twist-ups.

20 ab-rollouts.

Gym Moments:

I convinced Mike to take his car to Able. So my Armenian Gangsta mechanic is going to get to meet my trainer. lol Hope no one dies.

[mschatz]

Originally Posted by Liu Jin

Man Mike certainly wouldn't turn down more contacts. So I'm definitely going to tell him of Roy if he doesn't already know who he is. His fight cards seem pretty home-grown as well, which is exactly how I'd like to begin. If he paid me $1,200, he'd more than get his money's worth.

Germany seems to be where it's at right now. Kofi's over there working, and Cisse wants to go back. Cisse gets paid like $1,500 a week Euro over there for sparring. Bananas.

If you do go the irvine marriott route, let me know. One of my best friends has been working there for about 6 years.

[Liu Jin]

Will do, it's definitely something I'm looking into. Things are cooking now.

[Liu Jin]

6:50am - Began the morning watching the recent fight between Amir Kahn and Michael Gomez. This fight was very much like Hamed/Kelly and Hagler/Hearns. Michael is a ghost of his former self, but he walked through vicious onslaughts and an early knockdown to put Amir down himself...a last hurrah for a tough Veteran. Amir's blinding hand-speed, good power, and good conditioning just proved too much in the end, but the bravery at which Gomez went right to the younger man was astounding.

7:15am - 1.8 mile run.

10:30am - Gym Time.

10 minute stretch.

2 rounds Shadowboxing.

3 rounds body-snatcher.

3 rounds Heavybag.

3 rounds double-end bag, mostly working the 1-2-3-1-1-2-1, shortening the punches.

2 rounds speed-bag.

2 rounds rope-skip.

Conditioning:

Push-up circuit.

40 dips.

10 pull-ups.

Gym Moments:

So the Peterson Brothers are in our Gym, and it's funny because Jermain White (whom I've mentioned before) is Anthony's next opponent, and they both know it, and both are training at Top Rank. It's very odd to see the air between them, but Jermain was given this fight on 2 weeks notice under the threat of losing his promotional contract, and he's been having trouble making weight. He's not fat, just his body is filling out too much. He's got a 6-pack and still isn't light enough.

I also spoke to Said El Harak a little bit, he was in the Margarito Camp going into the Golden Johnson Fight as a sparring partner, and he's also worked for Hatton as well as Judah. He has an Amateur background, but he's forging his Professional self as a paid sparring partner.

The highlight of the day was Junior and I doing the Haka between rounds. He told me his favorite rugby team isn't Samoa, it's New Zeland, so between Heavy bag rounds when he was on the double-end I started the Haka and he picked it up.

[David Bolton]

Kapo O Pango hakka I presume? Ya'll need to watch some Rugby LEAGUE.

[Liu Jin]

This is some funny stuff from last week that I forgot about.

Don Juan was sparring someone who he was smacking around, and making the guy miss to his head, I forget who. But Robert Byrd was refereeing (he's by far my favorite ref now because he routinely comes to the Gym to ref sparring and stay sharp himself), and between rounds he said while doing an old school Motown dance in the middle of the ring:

"Gotta go to dat body babeh! Need to get you a rib sammich...oh!" And clutched his side like he got hit.

Said has been wearing tights to the Gym. The first day he did he didn't wear shorts over them and he was doing some weird stretch with his legs spread between the two rings. I was like "hey this ain't fuckin' ballet class." Then later after sparring he said he felt slow and fat. I said "see that's what happens when you're only worried about looking pretty" and motioned to his tights. He said "I never worry about that, because I always look pretty. In fact, I look astonishing right now."

When my nose was busted, in the locker room Cisse told me a story about sparring in Germany, he had just had a Fight here and flew to Germany like the next day. When he got off the plane he went to the Gym to see the guy who he'd be working for (the trainer), he said when he got there the Heavyweight he was to be working with was geared-up and they said "we've been waiting for you, let's get to work." Since they were paying him a lot of money he did the deed. He said that guy that dude broke his nose and put a pretty good beating on him since he wasn't up to speed. His final message?

"Dun worry, sparrin' in America is pretty easy, actually."

[Liu Jin]

Kapo O Pango hakka I presume? Ya'll need to watch some Rugby LEAGUE.

Nah, the traditional one. Ka mate. Although my favorite version is the Maori Team's Timitanga, and the Fijan Cibi.

[codysweet02]

Originally Posted by Liu Jin

Will do, it's definitely something I'm looking into. Things are cooking now.

I forgot, if you fight when they have the next Fight Promoter University you got a omlett chef to make you breakfast the morning of the fights also. Full breakfast bar with fruit, cereal, bread, blah blah blah. Was pretty sweet. The beds are comfy as hell also.