[younggunz]

gotta love jantuah..

[Liu Jin]

I had an appointment downtown today that NEEDED to be cleared up and took longer than I thought it would, so missed out on training again, but tomorrow is Red Rock day.

younggunz- glad you posted that because it gives me something to post. I'll share with you guys something about Kofi Jantuah, this is an excerpt from a letter I sent someone on the subject:

Richie apparently likes myself and my training partner, but was pretty upset that we don't have polished Amateur backgrounds (never said we did). He was going off at the gym about how we're just bodies, know NOTHING, can't fight, blah blah blah.

This time after a day of berating I had left my cell phone at home while at work. When I get home I have a voicemail from Kofi: "Yo...kyall me." When I returned the call the first thing he says "Richie say you game is weak." Immediately I fired back with "Yeah but you know what I noticed about Richie? He's VERY old school, he's VERY critical, he talks shit behind people's backs (Roger Mayweather, Kofi, and a couple of others), and he only likes guys who fight like HIM." Kofi thought this was hilarious. He basically confirmed EVERYTHING. Told me Richie's a little messed in the head from the last fight when he had to drain to make weight, then got beat pretty bad.

He also said that guys who were very good fighters in their day like Richie tend to suck as trainers because they're set in THEIR ways and hate seeing anything else. Richie has said to me he don't like Winky's style and thinks Bernard Hopkins is "okay." I told Kofi WHAT exactly pissed Richie off (footwork) and he told me not to worry about it at all. He said stick with it, no one at the gym takes Richie's rants seriously (he was telling everyone how bad we suck), that Richie and others even talk shit about HIM, and that all that matters is I stick with it, learn what I can, and if it don't work WE (as in he, myself, and Diego, the kid who trains with me) find another trainer.

This is the man who has become a friend. Someone who called just to see where my head was at, not quit on me, and not allow me to quit. That's Kofi Jantuah.

Kofi is the shit. A genuine good person:

[Liu Jin]

Red Rock Day:

1.5 mile hike out to the interchange in paths. Didn't go the full 3 miles up because we were a bit pressed for time.

Mitt Sprints - Fun exercise.

Round 1: Non-stop 1-2's for the full 3 minutes.

Round 2: Non-stop Uppercuts for the full 3 minutes.

Round 3: Non-stop hooks for the full 3 minutes, alternating high and low.

Round 4: 1-2's mixed with jabs and double-jabs, full 3 minutes continuous punching.

Round 5: Round 2 repeated, but with feints added.

Round 6: Tound 3 repeated but with feints added.

Diego did something similar, but his last 3 rounds were just jabbing and stepping in with the jab, feinting and countering with the jab and the cross, and back to jabbing and stepping in with the jab.

1.5 mile hike back to the car.

[Liu Jin]

Sunday we were off.

Monday 7am:

3 mile run. It was raining today and the humidity was high, it was actually pretty refreshing, didn't tire when I normally did.

10am - Gym:

Diego couldn't train today and Edgar didn't show up (two weeks in a row he's missed Mondays), so it was just me.

The day began with a bit of a surprise. Richie gets pretty chatty with me and today he was asking me about my road work. He actually told me to back off and not run near 5 miles. He said 3 is the cut-off point and that he never ran more than 3 unless he had to fight 15 rounds. He said "you don't wanna kill yourself, some guys like to run marathons, you don't need to do that, your weight is alright and you don't need to be too drained". This is something he knows about because his last fight he lost because of being too dehydrated. And I got him to tell the whole story. He told me like it was yesterday:

A pretty sad tale about Don King offering him $50,000 for his Title Defense against Canizales (hard hitter), but then they renegged on the deal and told him it was $20,000. So he turned it down and then took some stay-busy non-title fights at higher weights. Back then in the early 80's the ABC orgs weren't as strip-happy as they are now, so he kept his Title through 4 fights in one year or so that were non-Title. Then finally Don King Productions came through with the deal for the Canizales fight, but the problem was Richie had out-grown the Bantamweight division. He had to cut so much weight so fast (like 12 lbs in 2 weeks or something, I think it's on the wiki page), and he got all animated when I said "AND it was Canizales". Richie was like "FUCK CANIZALES...I mean pardon my French but yeah he could hit, but he wasn't no hitter like Duran like they advertised. But I was so drained and the TV lights were so hot it was like fighting in a sauna, and I MADE him look like Duran. He dropped me in the first, and then a buncha more times and I can't even remember why I kept getting up. To this day when I look at the tape I'm like "why do you keep getting up?" It's because I was in-shape, and I'm a fighter, that's what we do, my body took over."

Then he looks up at me and says "But enough about Richie, so what's YOUR excuse?"

10 minutes dynamic stretching.

4 rounds Shadowboxing.

3 rounds skip-rope, I had to use this little-man rope today because I left mine at home.

6 rounds Heavybag:

I was practicing what Richie showed me about punching from my shoulders. Ironically he says this is the reason I get winded when I get winded, that I'm wasting energy using my arms and legs too much, but not enough waist and shoulders. He says the key to delivering strength in your punches is the compound movement of the hip and shoulder and I don't rotate enough. When I did rotate more to where he wasn't saying anything I found that I both hit harder and it didn't take as much energy. But I got a ways to go before I can do that and protect myself adequately at the same time.

I went to get some water between rounds and this is about the time this dude walked in:

http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php...7610&cat=boxer

I got to shake his hand and tell him "good fight, congratulations Champ" as he's the new WBC Featherweight Champion, and now Teiken in Japan has two Champs, he and Valero.

Richie also gave me a "you got a good workout in today".

2 more rounds Shadowboxing to cool down, light movement, working on shoulder-rotation.

Then Richie wanted some ab-work to finish-out.

60 sit-ups.

50 twist-ups.

I was also working beside this guy today:

http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php...8006&cat=boxer

Who despite his record he's very fit and works hard in the gym. He was doing bodyweight circuits after all his bag-work. Very quick-handed on the speed-bag. Good to see a guy with a losing record still at it.

[Liu Jin]

7am:

- 2.5 mile run, as per Richie's orders to back off the distance.

10am Gym time:

Richie wanted me to bring in my medicine ball, I think it's his medicine ball now.

10 minute dynamic stretch.

- 4 rounds Shadowboxing, footwork is getting faster and cleaner I think.

- 4 rounds rope skip.

(Diego shows his late ass up, and Edgar no-shows again, but it's alright as I lost my mouthpiece and wouldn't have been able to spar anyway.)

- 6 rounds Heavybag work. Getting better with the shoulder thing as well, and helped Diego with it when he did his bag work. I think Richie depends on me to relay Diego stuff since he knows we're pretty tight, and it cuts time from having to work with both of us seperately.

- 2 more rounds of Shadowboxing.

Ab torture by Richie Sandoval:

- 60 medicine ball sit-ups. Richie stood beside me and dropped the ball on my stomach, my job was to catch it as it bounced and hand it back up to him when I did the sit-up.

- 50 medicine ball twists. This is where I was flat on my back on a bench (with feet secured as if to do sit-ups), but Richie held the ball to one side, I twist, grab the ball, twist over to the other side, he takes the ball back to the side I began with, rinse, repeat. Then switch directions after 10 reps.

When I was showing Diego these exercises Richie said "See, you could handle it, but I don't know about these other guys." Holy shit I think he complimented me.

Funny moment of the day:

Richie was going off because Mitch, the guy who runs the gym who is an Asian dude from Hawaii, is leaving today on a trip. Richie thought he was supposed to leave this morning, so he was shocked when Mitch showed up. Richie's all "that son of a bitch said he was leaving today!?!?" Then he walks off (which he does frequently). He came back and said "he's leaving tonight, I swear he told me he was leaving this morning."

I said "yeah you just can't trust them Asians", and Diego chuckled right as the medicine ball popped him in the gut.

We also watched Rodel Mayol spar 6 rounds in prep for his Title Fight next month.

BTW, here's Richie's fight poster from the Chandler fight, where he won the Title:



Before bed tonight I'll be doing 50 more sit-ups and 25 push-ups.

P.S. - It's so surreal to have guys like Mike "The Body Snatcher" McCallum shaking my hand, asking if I feel good, and asking "you Boxing today?" A former 3 time Champ interested in seeing me box. GTFO

[Brandon MacRea]

Richie ever take you guys on the pads?

I think there's something to be said about watching a fighter on the heavybag rather than holding the mitts for him. Holding the pads well is an art unto itself I think a lot of guys can't grasp. The holder has to focus on a lot, just like the puncher, so it can be tough as the padholder to keep an eye on their footwork, guard, rotation, extension of their punches, etc while still trying to catch well on the mitts... With Standard it was watching him hit the heavybag where I was able to see holes in his foot placement/weight distribution, not so much on the pads, cause I didn't want one of those ham-sized fists to slip past the mitt and clock me in the face as I try and watch his feet...

Nonetheless, it'd be cool to have Richie fucking Sandoval take you on the focus mitts for a couple rounds..

Get McCallum to do some body belt work that'd be awesome

[Liu Jin]

Good question about the pads. Not yet. I think it's because of two things. One is that Richie wants us to polish up more like you said. When he stops bitching about things he'll probably want to do mitt-work.

Two is it's a bit of a strain for him to focus as intensely as he needs to for that, as I've seen him work with Edgar. He gets lost in it, and Edgar often has to tell HIM when the round is over.

Are you suggesting I wear a body-vest for Mike? Fuck that shyte. If Mike's fist comes anywhere near my gut I'm suing him. Nah but seriously, I've thought about asking him for some pointers as sometimes he's just sitting around watching everyone else. But he's got a pretty decent Jamaican accent so he's a little tough to understand. I'll get around to it though, but I DID get to have an argument with him over wether or not Cotto would get to Williams with body-work.

[dexbot]

Originally Posted by Liu Jin

Red Rock Day:

1.5 mile hike out to the interchange in paths. Didn't go the full 3 miles up because we were a bit pressed for time.

Mitt Sprints - Fun exercise.

Round 1: Non-stop 1-2's for the full 3 minutes.

Round 2: Non-stop Uppercuts for the full 3 minutes.

Round 3: Non-stop hooks for the full 3 minutes, alternating high and low.

Round 4: 1-2's mixed with jabs and double-jabs, full 3 minutes continuous punching.

Round 5: Round 2 repeated, but with feints added.

Round 6: Tound 3 repeated but with feints added.

Diego did something similar, but his last 3 rounds were just jabbing and stepping in with the jab, feinting and countering with the jab and the cross, and back to jabbing and stepping in with the jab.

1.5 mile hike back to the car.

Are you doing those punches esp. uppercuts and hooks with full body movement, or rather with your arms only but with more speed? Sorry for that weird English but I can't explain it better.

[Brandon MacRea]

Nah man I mean one of these fun little training implements...

http://www.ringside.com/DETAIL.ASPX?ID=25035

Not a lot that beats that in terms of FUN. Diego would love it, Messicans and body belts go together like PB and J

[Liu Jin]

Are you doing those punches esp. uppercuts and hooks with full body movement, or rather with your arms only but with more speed?

Yes.

Not a lot that beats that in terms of FUN. Diego would love it, Messicans and body belts go together like PB and J

They do, and he would.