Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things have gotten really crazy busy for me. Some of you have kept up with stuff through Facebook and Youtube, I'm sure. We've hit some snags since I changed the way I train, my high-level fighters had some time adjusting to a more team-oriented style that mimics the Cuban and Russian systems. Some of them felt neglected when really it's as if they were being promoted. For the most part that's been sorted out, and then we hit a decent stride right around the last quarter of the year. Joseph has been doing really well, but I'll update his thread with that.
Most of my Elite (or Open Class for under 19) went to Arizona for the Gene Lewis tournament. 6 total. We came back with 3 belts. Last year I had 4 Champions but 2 were unopposed, so they didn't have to fight. So 3 Champions who won bouts is a step up the way I see it. Joseph won, and two new fighters I have. My Light Heavyweight Karam Abdallah (Cousin of Amer Abdallah):
And my 18 year-old Heavyweight Novice MarcAnthony Miranda:
Karam was recently hired as a sparring partner for Super-Middleweight Contender Caleb Plant, who has a February bout against Rogelio "Porky" Medina. Caleb's trainer likes to bring him to our Gym for sparring due to the quality of work. This little video is from last time he was here (the sparring partner whose white is a Canadian Light Heavyweight Amateur I work with who came down specifically for that Camp):
I'm also bringing over Alexander Hagen from Norway next month to train him for his next fight and to work with Caleb, and a high-level Amateur from there is coming with him. I'm kinda informally in charge of gathering the chief sparring partners for Caleb.
As of right now I have 2 competition teams. Elite/Open-level fighters, and I'm beginning a Youth team probably in March. I finally have a dependable squad of kids under 18. But I will also have an Intermediate Team by the end of it. Over 18 but less than 10 fights. Just today, one of my Elite 165lb'ers (Za-Quan Peterkin) sparred Shakhram Giyasov, who is the #1 ranked 152lb Amateur in the World:
For those of you who don't know who he is:
I'm sure there's some stuff I'm forgetting to mention but yeah, A LOT of good things happening down at Tocco's. Nevada Golden Gloves are coming up and I have like 7 fighters competing in that, and then there's Western Qualifiers in March in Albuquerque, and I'm going to have about 9 or 10 fighters there. The smaller tournaments later in the year I'll likely have more. I'm talking 15-20 fighters.