[5acrossYOeye]

Originally Posted by 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.

word around here is it hurts to spar with you.

keep up the hard work man.

[Liu Jin]

According to Junior even hard-headed ass Samoans run from El Infierno.

Oh yeah and not sure if you heard it but:

"Mayn...skrawberry sundaes mayn..." - Wes

[5acrossYOeye]

they make em big in samoa

[mschatz]

Originally Posted by 5acrossYOeye

they make em big in samoa

Cankles.

*shudders*

[Diego Lara]

no comment

[Diego Lara]

Thu 6/12: Watched Mike vs Donald Curry today, a five rounder where Mike had trouble dealing with Donald's boxing, but in the 5th Mike set up and caught him with a left hook that ended the night. Stunning fashion.
2m run.

Gym Time:
1 round ringjacks.
2 rounds shadowboxing. Mike asked how we felt, which meant he wanted us to spar. We all answered in the affirmative, and Liu and Jr suited up to spar. I thought I was gonna work with them, but Mike had other plans in store for me. He had me spar a vet, Bill, who's been showing up looking for sparring. I knew going into it that he was far more experienced than I, and that he was probably gonna whip out some tricks that I hadn't seen before. He was also much smaller than the guys I've been sparring lately, so it was a taste of what my weight class was gonna be like. Sure enough, he gave me something of a boxing lesson in there. I did what I did to the best of my ability, and thought I'm sure I looked better than I thought, I was glad just to have the experience, so I know I should work with him more.
Things I Did Well:
-Pumping out the jab. It took a lot of them to keep him at bay when he came in.
-Threw more combos, even if they didn't land much.
-Keeping up with footwork, and moving with him. It was hard to keep the pace, but I did well, and used my footwork to improve my defense.

THings I Did Not So Well:
-Head movement. Bill kept reminding me with power jabs that made a shiny red apple of my nose. Gotta do this more instinctively.
-Protecting the body. Sparring bigger guys makes defending the body a little easier. Bill, however, was getting lower than me, and he landed a good number of uppercuts to my left side. Gotte hold the left hand tighter to my body.
-Keeping right hand high. Another reason why I got my face jabbed off.
-Coming inside. I admit I was kinda confused by the change in dimensions, so I need to be quicker to adapt. Need to get lower and come in behind the jab and left hooks and uppers.
-Rolling the hook was even harder this time cuz I had to duck much lower than before. Need more elevation drills.

So ya, I kinda got schooled, but I still held my own, and it was fun. Glad I'm getting a taste of guys that are faster AND smaller.

2 rounds double end bag.
2 rounds speed bag.
2 rounds skip rope.

Conditioning:
-3 sets ab machine pyramid.
-3x10 leg lifts.
That was all for today folks. Hope I get to work more with Bill, and soon I'll be working with the up and comers in my division, like Sharif. Firefox out.

[Diego Lara]

Fri 6/13: Watched another McCallum fight today, this time against David Braxton. Mike actually seemed to box a lot more in this fight than in the ones with Curry or Kalambay, and this may have reflected a stylisitic difference between younger Mike (here) and older Mike (there). Still, the fight was stopped on account of a nasty cut Mike gave Braxton, but curiously enough there wasn't a whole lot of body work compared to Mike's other more famous fights. In the postfight, Mike said this was intentional, knowing Braxton's camp would know of McCallum's rep.
2m run.

Gym Time:
Mike beat us there today! That's something you don't see everyday. While we were warming up, Mike asked us how we felt, but decided not to have us box today. I guess the wear and tear of the week was showing on our faces. So I took it relatively easy today.
1 round ringjacks.
2 rounds shadowboxing.
4 rounds heavybag. Just staying loose and practicing walking in with my punches.
2 rounds speed bag.
2 rounds skip rope.

Conditioning:
-3 sets pushup circuit.
-2x10 dips.
So ya, took it easy, so sue me. The week was tough in a real good way, can't wait till we get some new sparring footage, hopefully it'll be soon. Have a good weekend guys and as always, thanks for reading the log and for all the support. I'm on way yo....

[Diego Lara]

Alright guys, long weekend but let's get back to the grind.

Tue 6/18: Watched Ruben Olivares, of whom Rafa Garcia says I'm the spitting image. I guess it's his hard hitting brawler-esque style, but he's got some slicks too. I've taken to punching and rolling like he does. Watched him vs Kazuyoshi Kanizawa and vs Jesus Chuchi Castillo, as well as a fight with Bobby Chacon where Chacon took a nasty beating, the worst fight I've seen of Chacon's so far. Olivares is definitely becoming a favorite of mine.
2.2m run.

Gym Time:
Today was kind of a weird day. I could tell Mike's mind was somewhere else, so we took it easy today and left him to himself.
1 rounds ringjacks.
2 rounds shadowbox.
4 rounds heavybag.
2 rounds double end bag.
2 rounds speedbag.
2 rounds skip rope.

Conditioning:
3x10 ab machine circuit.
3x10 leg lifts
3x10 med ball twistups.
That did it for the day. So ya, a light, quiet day at the gym. Not much going on, but a lot of guys have fights coming up soon, so the action in the gym's gonna get a lot hotter here real quick...

[BobbyBrez]

Are you coming to the fights on Friday?

[Diego Lara]

fuck ya man, wouldn't miss it for the world...