[Diego Lara]

Fri 5/30: Watched Johnny Tapia vs Danny Romero. It was a good fight, up until Johnny started fooling around and acted retarded with his dancing. He got knocked down at one point by Romero, but he managed to only touch his glove to the ground, and dance it off like he wasn't rocked. Slick move, I'll admit, but it was a knockdown. Tapia still had control of the fight for many of the rounds, and he got the decision in the end.
1.8 m run.

Gym Time:
Mike didn't get there till late, so we didn't spar today. It was kind of a slow week all along. Except for me, who's been chasing 140 lbs and weight cutting like a mofo. Gotta be ready, in case I get a fight on short notice I won't have to cut 15 lbs.
1 round ringjacks.
2 rounds shadowbox.
2 rounds heavybag. Workin on power.
3 rounds bodysnatcher. Work on uppers and hooks.
3 on small bag. Volume and speed.
2 rounds double end.
2 rounds speed bag.
2 rounds skip rope.

Conditioning:
2x10 lat pulldowns. Front and back.
2x10 pushup circuit.
2x10 dips.
That was all for Fri. Liu said we'd do touch and run on Sat, to make up for the lack of working. Here's how it went:

[Diego Lara]

Sat 5/31: Watched Aaron Williams vs Jose Luis Herrerra. Aaron trains under Eddie at TR, so I get to see alot of him working .He's good, really good, and his record coming into this fight reflected it (17-0). So he may have had a bit of a big head going into this fight, and Liu's said that he has a tendency to get cocky in the ring, and that can cost a guy. So Aaron came out blazing, firing a barrage of left hands, interspersed with a straight right, and he almost knocked Herrera out within the first 2 rounds. But Herrera hung on, and Aaron started leaving his hands at his sides, and leaving his left side open to attack. It cost him in the end. Quick as lightning, Herrera whipped out a combo that sent Aaron reeling into the ropes, it happened so fast I couldn't tell what it was that hurt Aaron. But hurt he was, and he managed to get off the ropes, only to take a knee when Herrera started unloading again. The situation quickly became stranger, when the doctor came up to examine Aaron, and kept him there talking to him for a minute or two. In this fight, the doctor was allowed to stop the fight, and that's what he did after a minute. It was clear that Aaron was hurt bad, but it was a funny situation all the same. Still, this could serve as a good lesson to Aaron about protecting himself more.
1.6m run at park

4 rounds touch and run with Liu. We were supposed to do 10, but Liu's statred choking on the snot in his nose and we had to call it quits.
I started out ok, but I started gassing out in the last 2, probably from the combined effects of carb cutting and a layer of sweats over a sauna suit. I was good on changing elevation and coming in aggressively in the first 2 rounds, but I started weakening in the 3rd, and from then on I was mostly working defense as I fought to keep myself going. Ya, losing weight sucks. So that was all for this week, kind of a weird one, all things considered. Lightweight, here I come.

[Diego Lara]

Tue 6/3: Watched Fernando "El KOchulito" Montiel vs Luis "Titi" Maldonado. El KOchulito carried the night, although Maldonado put up a hell of a fight. El KOchulito is one hell of a fighter, though, and if he gets to fight Mijares, there will be a bloodbath.
2m run.


Gym Time:
Mike's whole stable was there today, me, Liu, Jr, Stephan, and Jimmy and Sharif later on. It was like a Body Snatcher training day or something.
1 round ringjacks.
2 rounds shadowbox.
3 rounds heavybag. Just power punching.
2 rounds body snatcher. Nothing crazy just lotsa hooks and uppers.
2 rounds small bag. Working speed and staying in close.
2 rounds double end bag.
2 rounds speedbag.
2 rounds skip rope.

Conditioning:
2x10 ab machine pyramid.
2x10 leg lifts.
2x10 twistups.
I'd planned on doing more conditioning at night, instead I went with some friends to celebrate my buddy Gio's birthday. Ate a ton of mexican food and about 2 pitchers of margarita and 2 shots of Cuervo. I was so stuffed I had to throw up later just to feel better. Now that, fellas, is a low down dirty shame. Firefox out.

[Diego Lara]

Wed 6/4: Watched a kinda lopsided fight today. It was Miguel Angel Huerta vs Javier Jaurugi, for the NABF lightweight belt, so I was particularly interested in this one. First off, the announcer could have easily been a bilingual Michael Buffer, with textbook english and spanish that flowed together in a very interesting one. Watch the fight, you'll think it's weird too. So these guys went a very hard 12 rounds, with a lot of power punches thrown, and I honestly thought that Huerta was leading the fight for most of it. Still, Liu told me Huerta has been on the losing end of a lot of bum decisions, and though he's a very exciting fighter to watch, he has some liabilities that could keep him from ever having a title.
1.5m run today.

Gym Time:
Mike was late as hell today, so I cornered for Liu and Jr's 3 rounds, then went in and did 2 with Liu. Unfortunately for me, Liu was already tired and I didn't get to work as much as I would have liked to, but hey, Jr's no joke to spar, and I could see that Liu was doing a lot of work in with him. Here's how our 2 rounds went:
THings I Did Well:
-Cross to the body. I've got this deep instep like a fencer thing going on, and it worked well for landing this one good and hard.
-Blocking and catching. My hands felt a little slower today, but I still think I did pretty well at this.
-Throwing combos. I had a couple of good ones that I unloaded, mostly of the jab-right upper-hook-cross variety, but hey, everyday I learn a new combo to throw.

Things I Did Not So Well:
-Roll dammit!! You do it all the time in training, now do it in sparring!! Roll dammit!
-Need to feint and slip more.
-Need to work on my footwork too. I was ok, but I wanna get in the habit of swivelling around more to open up angles. Ya, that didn't happen today.
All in all, a good session, though short. That's ok, cuz there was more in store for me.

2 rounds heavybag.
3 rounds mitts. Heavy on the power punches, especially the hooks and rolling, which Mike must've seen me NOT doing in the sesh.
2 rounds double end.
2 rounds speedbag.
2 rounds skip rope.

Conditioning:
-3 sets pushop circuit.
This time I WILL do more conditioning at night, instead of gorging on Mexican food. Gonna do:
Twisting and stretching to loosen up for 5 min.
3x10 pushups, elbows tucked in to work the triceps.
2x10 dips.
We'll see what else I can think up. Firefox out.

[viel cazzo]

Good day at the gym Diego... keep it up bro.

[Diego Lara]

Thu 6/5: Watched Ramon Montano vs David Diaz on the Pac/Marquez II card. Montano's been sparring at TR lately, and I hear he's from a kickboxing background. He's very good at boxing on the outside, but sometimes he gets too ballsy for his own good.
1.6m run.

Gym Time:
1 round ringjacks
2 rounds shadowboxing
3 rounds heavybag
3 rounds bodysnatcher
2 rounds double end
2 rounds speed bag
3 rounds mitts. Threw a lot of power punches. Lotsa jabs-hooks-rights-hooks-so on and so forth.
2 rounds skip rope

Conditioning:
3x10 ab machine
3x10 leglifts
3x10 twistups
That was it for Thu, did some more crunches at home but nothing organized, probly 40 or 50.

[Diego Lara]

Fri 6/6: Watched Azumah Nelson vs Jeff Fenech I, in which Azuma fought with malaria and a host of other problems, but fought to a draw nonetheless. This was a hell of a phone booth fight, with a majority of the later rounds fought in one corner. One of those classics they feature on HBO specials in later years.
1.5m run

Gym Time:
1 round ringjacks
2 rounds shadowboxing
Warm up while we wait for Mike to show up. He took too long, so Liu and I got started w. Mr. Mustafa-Mohammed cornering. We went for 5 good rounds, and neither of us went light. It was pressure vs slickster all the way, and I gotta admit, there were a lot of times when I struggled to keep up with Liu. His left hooks was especially precise today, to the point where I got pissed in the 3rd or 4th, and pounded my chest and came in hard. But he kept getting away, and I couldn't land anything, so I had to force myself to calm down and go back to watching him and using my jab to keep him busy. So it was a very good sesh, and we got alot of work in.

Things I Did Well:
1. Throwing in combination. I finally unloaded a few per round, and some of my jab-hook-right combos were very effective.
2. Cross to the body. I come in low on the right knee, like a fencer, and it allow me to duck punches and get a lot of leverage on the right.
3. Parrying. This I do well. Slipping and rolling, not so much.
4. Pressure, but I always do that well.

Things I Did Not So Well:
1. Slipping, ducking, and rolling. I gotta break my waist man.
2. Throwing too many 1-2s, being robotic. I caught myself doing this at times, and forced myself to change strategy.
3. Throwing at angles. Still throwing straight down the middle, which is ok most of the time, but I need to change it up, add some more angles, pivot and slip more, just move a little less in a box pattern.

All in all, one of our better sessions. See, THESE are the sesh's we should be recording and posting on youtube. Hopefully we'll get some more footage real soon.
2 rounds heavybag
2 speedbag
2 rounds skip rope

Conditioning:
Knew we'd be doing upperbody next day, so I took it easy on the conditioning, just did a little more ab work.
2x10 ab machine
2x10 leglifts.
Then I was out, after watching some of Sharif's sparring. He's incredibly good, and probably next week Liu and I are gonna start working with him as well, and that will REALLY step our game up a few notches, or get us a good ass whoopin. I left before the fiasco of Stephan's sparring sesh, but if you'd like to read about one of the sadder moments in Mike's stable of fighters, take a look at Liu's log, for the details of how it went down. Firefox out.

[Diego Lara]

Sat 6/7: Watched the second fight between Nelson and Fenech, this one in a stadium in Australia, and man was this another crazy ass fight, between the controversies over Fenech's knockdowns/ slips, to Nelson almost getting kneed in the balls at the end of one of the rounds. It ended in an amazing upset, with Nelson TKOing Fenech in the 8th under a barrage of punishing blows. He was definitely over the malaria this time. Just goes to show that age cannot be discounted from experience, and Nelson is the type of veteran who fights 3 min of every round. Great little saga these 2 fights.

Conditioning day:
6 sets windsprints.
4 sets foursquare sprints.
20x10 pushups, arms flared first, then arms tucked in.
2x20 t-ups. Twas all for our bruised and battered bodies this week. Good fun. See ya next week guys.

[Diego Lara]

Tue 6/11: Watched some MMA mexicans work their standup and grappling. Manny Tapia, Leonard Garcia, and Miguel Angel Torres, the Mullican nightmare as I dub him. Watched some upsets with first round knockouts, the unlucky recipients of these knockouts were Daniel Ponce de Leon and Carlos Quintana. Didn't expect Ponce de Leon to be whooped so fast and definitively, even if he's not the world's best boxer, he fights good and hard nonetheless.
2m run.

Gym Time:
1 round ringjacks.
2 rounds shadowboxing.
3 rounds heavybag.
4 rounds bodysnatcher.
2 rounds double end bag.
2 rounds speedbag.
Mike was a late again today, but as soon as he got in, he put me on the mitts for 3 rounds. Worked on a lot of power punching. Got into throwing double hooks more, and also slipping and countering with the right. I was slow to start, but I was throwing some bombs by the end. My punching power IS increasing.
2 rounds skip rope.

Conditioning:
3x10 ab machine pyramid.
3x10 leg lifts, with twisting motions to work those obliques.
That was all for today. Had to run early to by mom's bday present, which is on Friday the 13th. My mom's crazy hahaha like her son.

[Diego Lara]

Wed 6/11. Whoops. Forgot yesterday was the 10th not 11th. Whatever. Started the morning off watching my trainer, Mike McCallum, take on Sumbu Kalambay in Italy in 1988. It was a good fight, but Mike was a little one-dimensional, constantly looking for that right hand knockout, and that became his liability, with Sumbu all but dancing circles around Mike and boxing his ass off. But Mike adapted, and he won their second meeting, so I hope we get to see the video of how he adapted.
1.6m run.

Gym Time:
1 round ringjacks.
2 rounds shadowboxing.
Today Liu and Jr were to go 4 rounds, then 2 each with me. I kept warm by hitting the bags till it was my turn.
First was 3 rounds with Jr (Not 2)
Things I Did Well:
-Pressure pressure pressure, duh.
-Head movement and catching punches.
-Switching between body and head.

Things I Did Not So Well:
-Throw in combos. Still getting off 2 or 3 at a time, and not following through.
-Stepping out too much after throwing, instead of staying in close and keep working.
-Throwing hooks to the body when I have him on the ropes. Need to work on that.

Next Did another 2 rounds with Liu. It was fun we were going hard and strong, we even had a ref and Rafael Garcia yelling encouragement from the ropes. I took a few too many hooks to the head, cuz I started to feel whoozy in the second, but I held on and finished strong.

Things I Did Well:
-Catching and countering. Against a skilled counterpuncher, that says alot.
-Changing elevation and slipping. I've still got a ways to go on the footwork and breaking the waist, but it's coming along surely.
-Throwing jabs. I had to be reminded to do this by Mike, but now I remember that it's great for stopping guys in their tracks when they wanna pounce on you.

Things I did Not So Well:
-THrow jabs in the 1st round.
-Throw in combination. Again failing to do more than 3.
-Roll, roll, for chrissakes roll Diego!!!!

Other than that, it was a great session. I felt strong and fast throughout. See this was one of the sessions I wish we'd gotten on tape, to see how I really work. Soon we'l have more footage to share though. The difference from the first vid will be like night and day.

2 rounds speedbag.
2 rounds skip rope.

Conditioning:
3 sets pushup circuit.
3x10 dips.
Gonna do another 100 pushups at home. 50 with arms tucked out. 50 tucked in. That will be all for today folks. Firefox out.