[Diego Lara]

Today Mike asked if I'd like to do an amateur fight, and my first response was, "What, for no money?" He laughed his ass off about that. But hey, I need any kind of experience I can get at this stage, and if that means I beat the crap out of some kid for free, so be it. Of course, training is one thing and fighting is another. I think Tyson was the one who said, "Everyone has a plan until they get hit." With that in mind, I have neglected to tell you readers about a very interesting 6 round sparring sesh Liu and I had last week while Mike was out of town. It was the longest I'd sparred in a long time, and I was really tested with this one.

We went light, mostly focusing on trying the new moves that Mike had been showing us of late. My jab was spot on in my opinion, and I moved my head more than I ever have before (not an easy feat for me). Still, early on in the sesh I noticed that I was getting hit alot more, with punches that I didn't always see coming. Liu has acquired quite a right hook for himself, and every time I unloaded a straight right, I would drop my left, just enough for Liu to counter with a teeth jarring right hook. I could pop in few shots to the body here and there, but other than that and the occasional head shot, I wasn't getting much done. My inability to move my head ended up costing me, as in the 4th and 5th rounds I started getting woozy from all the hooks to the head. I toughed it out, and managed to hit Liu with a few solid body shots, but I need to let my hands go more, and my footwork is still the key to not wearing myself out so soon. I still throw too many arm punches, and I need to be in top form for this amateur fight, where technique and clean punches are the focus. Liu has gotten light years better since last we've sparred. Naturally, the guy who started me in this sport has always been a better fighter than me, but I haven't felt this ineffective against the guy since we started sparring last spring. He constantly gets faster, and his skill for counter-punching will always give guys trouble who aren't as slick as he. Still, I think I've become much better at moving around and not getting hit, and I'm eager to see how much I've improved if I take on Edgar anytime soon. Practice makes perfect right....

[Diego Lara]

Thu 11/29: Didn't get up and run this morning, hurt my foot by dropping a bottle of liquor (no I WASN'T drinking it) out of the freezer and onto my foot. I think God's trying to tell me something about going into the fridge too much..... So I'm saving the foot pain for the gym.


Gym time: There was a whole gaggle of guys waiting to get into the gym this morn. I've never seen so many dudes this early. Liu told me one of them was famed trainer Jesse Reid, so I'm guessing they were all his fighters. One of them, Tye Fields, was a giant, all 7 feet of him. From the floor, his head came up to the second rope in the ring. I wanna spar him. ;p

1 round of stretching.
2 rounds shadow boxing. Move more with those punches buddy.
3 rounds body snatcher. Working diligently on lengthening my left hook, and following the jab with it to set up the cross.
3 rounds heavy bag. Used the smaller one again today to work on speed and crisp punches. Not bad today.
3 rounds speed bag. Fatigue was the major factor today, and I still can't transition for sh--. I'll do much better tomorrow.
2 rounds skip rope to finish. Mike loves the way I skip rope, even though I can only do two moves: the cross, and that one where you swing the rope from one side to the next.

Conditioning:
3 sets of ab circuit. Instead of doing 10 reps of each of the 3 exercises, I tried doing a pyramid of 15, 12, then 10 (backwards today cuz I started doing 10 and then Liu suggested the other way).
5x10 twist-ups in progress as I write this in the store I work. I'm gonna incorporate more conditioning into my days, in preparation for this fight I hopefully will have in 2 weeks. Get ready fools, the legend of Diego Lara is about to commence!!! Firefox ready.....

[Diego Lara]

Fri 11/30: Watched Hopkins/ Echols II, the funnest fight of the year. I love a real scrap, complete with bodyslam. Echols is a tough mother----, he was pretty much knocked out on his feet and he still didn't give a damn.
2.5 m run.

Gym time:
1 round stretching.
1 round ring jacks.
2 rounds shadowboxing. Still need to work on my footing. Maybe I really don't have any rhythm.
2 rounds heavybag. Workin on perfecting my jab- left hook. I wanna get it just right before the fight in 2 weeks.
3 rounds bodysnatcher. Workin the hooks and uppercuts, incorporating them into flurries. I'm finding myself getting more winded lately, I wonder if I'm letting myself get outta shape.
2 rounds speedbag. It's not bad lately. Still having trouble with transitions.
2 rounds skip rope.

Conditioning:
3 sets ab pyramid.
1x10 balance ball v-ups.
3x5 resistance incline sit-ups, Liu's torture device.
8 hindu pushups.
1x10 twist-ups

Pm run, also 2.5 m.

Mike thought that I didn't want the amateur fight. When I told him
"hell ya I wanna fight!!" he looked at me like, "Dumbass". Anyway, he got the fight set up for DEC. 15 at 147 lbs. When I weighed myself that morning, I was shocked to see I'd ballooned up to 160 over the weekend, so I knew there was gonna be hell to pay. Still, I'm gonna prove that I'm serious about this sh--, and I'm gonna make the weight no matter what. After I soaked in boiling water for 25 min, I weighed myself and I was already down to 157. No overeating, no booze, till after the fight. I am DETERMINED.


Sat 12/1:
My buddy Raleigh joined us this morning. We ran our windsprints, 6 back and forth, and 4 in a square pattern. Definitely stepping up the work for the fight. Young hungover Raleigh, who had gone out last night with my other roomie, threw up halfway through the 4 squares. I remember those days.....

3 rounds of mitt work, working on combos that aren't too complex, just trying to get me used to throwing them so I do it on instinct. The last round of power hooks and crosses damn near pass out. Did I mention I'm wearing 3 layers of clothing over a layer of trash bags and Albolene?
3 rounds mitt sprints. I'm dying here.....

2 rounds skip rope. My soul is leaving me.

And we're done. Liu and Raleigh do some skip rope too, and I try to retain my consciousness in the corner. Considering the strong wind this morning, I'll be lucky if I don't catch pneumonia and end up on my deathbed instead of the ring come the 15th. After boiling myself for a good 15 minutes, I shower and stagger onto the scale. 155 lbs baby. I'm gonna whoop whoever that kid is like I was his abusive stepfather.
Firefox out.

[Liu Jin]

You'se are all a bunch of bums for the lack of support.

[mschatz]

Grw your hair out like Duran for the fight.

[Brandon MacRea]

My advice - get down to your fight weight before the fight, you don't want to be cutting weight to hop on the scale 2 hours before show time

[King Kabuki]

He started cutting the day he agreed on the fight homie.

[Brandon MacRea]

Rough, best of luck

[Diego Lara]

I'd lost a good two pounds by Sat, but the lack of hard training Sun and Mon (I did run these days tho) has me at 155 again this morn. So at the most I've got 10 lbs to lose in eleven days (I say 10 so I can have a 2 lb margin of error). My eating's been good, and all in all I feel pretty good. I'm anxious to get in the gym this morn and see what Mike has in store for my fight training. I bet ya'll I'll be 2 lbs lighter by the end of the day.

[Diego Lara]

Too bad I shaved off the mutton chops to grow em out later, that woulda given me a more Duran-like look for the fight.