A Sinister Tale of the Fisticuffs.

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Tuesday:

7:15am - 3 mile run.

11am - Gym Time.

Now back at Tocco's primarily.

5 minute dynamic stretch.

2 rounds Shadowboxing.

20 minutes mitt-work. Mike focusing on backing me up and having me shorting my punches.

3 rounds Heavybag.

3 rounds double-end bag.

Tocco's Moment:

So Fernando Soto before the Gym opened admitted to me that he's the one who convinced my opponent not to Fight me. He said for two reasons, one being that I'm his buddy and he doesn't like to have to Fight against his buddies, and two being that the Fight wasn't winnable for Raul. He also told Mike this directly, and Mike didn't know this kid was trained by Fernando. The Promoter made it sound like Fernando trained him once upon a time, not like he does right now. But when that kid is in town, Fernando trains him.

Wednesday.

6:45am - Began the morning showing Diego the Fight between Juan Manuel Lopez and Gerry Penalosa. Lopez is obviously the goods, but I did see some things in this Fight that they need to work on before he can beat the younger and bigger elite Fighters of his division, or the one higher. Gerry's tough a a coffin nail, too.

JuanMa/Gerry.

7:30am - 2 mile run.

11am - Gym Time.

And the arrival of Mr. Michael "Coca" Gallegos, New Mexico Golden Glove Welterweight Champ. Whom I didn't know is an Apache Native American. He explained to me that Gallegos is his step-Father's last name, who is Mexican, but that he's Apache...which explained a lot.

5 minute dynamic stretch.

2 rounds Shadowboxing.

3 rounds sparring with Coca:

First round when he stayed at-range I did alright. He can hit, thudding punches and he's very physically strong. I got in some decent counters, all of which he grinned at. In the second round he jumped on me. Now his pressure (he's a pressure guy) is different from both Rodge and Diego. Coca likes to wrestle in there, he's gonna grab you and hit you, use his body more. It kind of threw me off a bit and I got caught up in standing there and trading as opposed to being more slippery. In the third he had me on the ropes and landed a peach of a right hand that caught me right in my eye socket and caused me to see black for a moment. Robert Byrd (who was reffing) stepped in and asked me if I was alright, I just said "yeah I'm fine" and walked right back at him.

In hindsight I know everything I did wrong, should do better tomorrow.

Coca also sparred another guy for a couple rounds, and pretty much did the same thing to him and that dude's a working Pro with a lot of experience. But like Sharif, he gave me my credit as a Warrior and complemented my outside work. But I didn't really show what I can do inside.

3 rounds double-end bag.

Tocco's Moment:

I said to Soto (in Spanish) "man that Apache is strong, he was kicking my ass."

Soto replies "well, don't feel bad, he was kicking everybody's ass."

Oh and for those of you who haven't seen him Fight:

championship nm golden gloves round 3 2009 Video by Michael Coca Gallegos official boxing space - MySpace Video
 
Here's a couple photos.

Coca and I:

LiuNCoca.jpg


Mike saying "yeah that's a fist alright."

MikeNCoca.jpg
 
Tuesday:
Tocco's Moment:

So Fernando Soto before the Gym opened admitted to me that he's the one who convinced my opponent not to Fight me. He said for two reasons, one being that I'm his buddy and he doesn't like to have to Fight against his buddies, and two being that the Fight wasn't winnable for Raul. He also told Mike this directly, and Mike didn't know this kid was trained by Fernando. The Promoter made it sound like Fernando trained him once upon a time, not like he does right now. But when that kid is in town, Fernando trains him.

That kid's lucky he has a guy like Fernando watching out for him. I don't mean it in the 'Rah Rah you would've killed him sense'. I mean it in the 'someone's actually looking out for him sense.'

Not easy to to find in your line of work.
 
6:45am - Began the morning by watching our old Top Rank Gym mate Deandre Lattimore's battle with Cory Spinks. Kinda sucked to watch because I like Cory, and know and like Deandre. But I'm glad Deandre got a shot at a belt, and in front of his home crowd who many were in favor of him. He hurt Spinks more than once, and had him down in the first, but Cory proved his veteran toughness and battled back into things. His willingness to Fight inside seemed to both throw Deandre off and wear him down. Can't say as I disagreed with the SD win for Cory.

7:30am - 2.5 mile run.

Yes I am aware that we've not been doing so much conditioning. Just easing back into things from the long weekend.

11am - Gym Time.

5 minute dynamic stretch.

3 rounds Shadowboxing.

20 minutes mitt-work.

4 rounds double-end bag.

That was it for today as I spent the rest of the time playing diplomat. Coca was told yesterday to arrive at Noon to spar with Salvador. But Sal and his people got there at 11:15, and Cedric (the guy Coca mauled yesterday) got there only minutes later. So I had to call Coca up and tell him to rush over. Even though Mike and I both suspected that these guys just wanted no part of Coca (the trainers, the Fighters don't care). Meanwhile I'm anxious to get back in with him because I learned so much.

Coca arrived 20 minutes later and did get in on the sparring once he got geared and warmed up. Here's some photos taken by yours truly:

CocaNSalvador.jpg


CocaNSalvador2.jpg


And here's daughter Coca, Sal, and Coca himself:

CocaNSalvador3.jpg


Also I might have a paid sparring gig working for Dee, because his next Fight in that tournament for Roy Englebrecht is against a Southpaw and this time his purse is bigger. Mike made the agreement with his trainer to spar beginning next week, so it's just a matter of settling up on the fee. But for once I think I'll make enough sparring to cover my damn Gym dues AND training fees completely.
 
its no wonder hes bullying you around. but fuck that, widen your stance and wrestle him back. for a while at least. keep him honest on the inside.

but damn props for getting in there with what looks like a muhfuckin beast. howd he get his ring name?
 
Nah, I'm still around and have still been in the Gym every day last week. Just logging here has become a bit of a chore. Part of it is me, because I'm changing exponentially and when I think of the things I'd like to say, it usually ends up being far more than I'm willing to type. Let's just say I'm seeing a lot of the value of growing and maturing as a man, and watching the consistent rise and receding of people around me has been teaching me a thing or two about what it takes to make it in this World when you're basically born neck-deep in bullshit.

There's a lot of good news. As of the past week I've been working for Dee as Chief sparring partner, as I mentioned his next Fight is against a Southpaw. Put in about 10 rounds last week, a lot of back-and-forth action. One day I did very very good work, tight defense, good counter-punching. The next session I played his game and got whooped-up on. Bloody nose, physically bullied (he's strong as Hell), but stood my ground and we had a last round of just cannon-emptying toe-to-toe.

Also my buddy Cesar, whom I've dubbed "Capino," has begun coming to the Gym routinely on Fridays and will be serving as Mike's Conditioning guy. He's gonna be the next Mackie Shilstone. Mike is also training more than just me. He's also now got Danny Pawsey from Australia, and Said. Yup, Said has now left Eddie Mustafa and is training with Mike. This is a very very good thing because Mike can really refine and hone Said's style, which resembles Mike when he was young. Plus I might get to spar with Said even though he's WAY better.

Diego's kind of fallen off the planet a bit, been going through some really really rough shit. I'm still there for him as a Brother, but a lot of the choices he's making...well let's just say they're not unusual for a 23 year-old. But they're costing him dearly. I just hope he snaps out of that shit soon. He's a Soldier, so I know at some point he will, and that there's not much I can say to speed it up. Boys will be boys.

As for me, the ass-whoopin' I got from Coca really opened my eyes a lot. I'm changing everything. Pushing myself a lot harder than I'd done before. I guess I was guilty of opening up channels within myself but then getting complacent. And in this game that's not enough. Capino and I are formulating a new conditioning routine to get me a lot physically stronger, without getting bigger of course. I don't want to spend my whole career as the weaker guy if I'm in there with a pressure Fighter. I want to surprise him with strength he didn't think I have. And I've been doing a lot more sprint work in my running, and when I do LSD running, I'm wearing the vest.

I should be updating routinely from now on, because I do want to keep track of all this. But in the meantime here's the last two photos from Coca's visit:

l_8ff6f3cc5d8b4f4a9013a3cc50a4f62c.jpg


I had just finished saying "I'm sexy, too gat dammit!"

l_b080d9e0393f4e079b71b195ee5517a5.jpg


Mr. "Boom-bap" himself Yoel Judah, myself, and Coca.
 
How was the spar between Coco and Judah? I know you said Coco was clearly winning but how exactly did it go?
 
Looks like you keep getting leaner, any idea on a BF%
 
6:45am - Began the morning by watching our old Top Rank Gym mate Deandre Lattimore's battle with Cory Spinks. Kinda sucked to watch because I like Cory, and know and like Deandre. But I'm glad Deandre got a shot at a belt, and in front of his home crowd who many were in favor of him. He hurt Spinks more than once, and had him down in the first, but Cory proved his veteran toughness and battled back into things. His willingness to Fight inside seemed to both throw Deandre off and wear him down. Can't say as I disagreed with the SD win for Cory.

I didn't think Cory could do what he did to win that fight. He put in some great body work. Lattimore normally fades late but i thought the body work helped the process. I thought Cory won the fight by a point, if i remember correctly. I think i had it 114-113.

Lattimore will be back. I think that fight taught him a lot. Like you said, being a vet won the fight for Cory. I think it was kenny adams in Lattimore's corner. I wish he trained more guys he's good and fun to listen to in the corner.

Kevin Cunningham is wound too tight for my taste but his advice is pretty good.

I liked this fight. it was fun to watch and i would actually reccomend it to those who haven't seen it.
 
How was the spar between Coco and Judah? I know you said Coco was clearly winning but how exactly did it go?

CocO is Ice-T's wife, CocA is my buddy from New Mexico. lol I didn't get to see that session for myself, it happened as I was leaving the Gym. But I got Mike to agree to corner Coca and he told me about it afterwards. Basically from what I understand Coca did basically the same thing to Zab that he did to me, only not so aggressive because Zab's notorious for not paying guys who kick his ass too thoroughly. I never did ask Said if they ever paid him, but last I heard they still owed him a G.

Looks like you keep getting leaner, any idea on a BF%

It varies, between 8 and 5 percent throughout the day. I got down to 4% when I was at 144, I'm walking around at 148'ish now.

I didn't think Cory could do what he did to win that fight. He put in some great body work. Lattimore normally fades late but i thought the body work helped the process. I thought Cory won the fight by a point, if i remember correctly. I think i had it 114-113.

Lattimore will be back. I think that fight taught him a lot. Like you said, being a vet won the fight for Cory. I think it was kenny adams in Lattimore's corner. I wish he trained more guys he's good and fun to listen to in the corner.

Kevin Cunningham is wound too tight for my taste but his advice is pretty good.

I liked this fight. it was fun to watch and i would actually reccomend it to those who haven't seen it.

Funny thing is Kenny Adams is more foul-mouthed in the Gym than Cunningham is during Fights.

Sad news is all the way up until the week before my Fight they had a hard time convincing Deandre to come back to Vegas. Ray (Kenny's Conditioning Coach) was on the phone with him and getting some of the other Fighters in the Gym to tell him they wanted to see him back. So I think he took the loss kinda hard. But I thought he showed a good account of himself for a guy Teddy Atlas kept saying had a padded record. He took on a World Class guy who it's nearly impossible to look good against, and looked good.

But a lot of veterans have a moment when they're in with what they're told is a younger, stronger version of themselves and decide "fuck that lil' punk, I'll beat him at his own game." That's precisely what Cory did. Showed WHY he's a World Class guy, and not just a peck-and-run specialist.
 
I know I'd said I would update from here on out, but it turns out next week will be more optimal. But Dee is looking and performing well. I got a huge confidence booster because he gave Said some problems the other day (he's basically sparring with Mike's whole stable, with me as Chief on account of the Southpaw thing). And I noticed some things about him I hadn't noticed before by watching.

Tomorrow we're supposed to round-off the week and Capino will be there. I'll try and get him to snap a photo of Dee and I after sparring, and Dee's trainer. You'll find out who he is tomorrow.
 
Funny thing is Kenny Adams is more foul-mouthed in the Gym than Cunningham is during Fights.

Sad news is all the way up until the week before my Fight they had a hard time convincing Deandre to come back to Vegas. Ray (Kenny's Conditioning Coach) was on the phone with him and getting some of the other Fighters in the Gym to tell him they wanted to see him back. So I think he took the loss kinda hard. But I thought he showed a good account of himself for a guy Teddy Atlas kept saying had a padded record. He took on a World Class guy who it's nearly impossible to look good against, and looked good.

But a lot of veterans have a moment when they're in with what they're told is a younger, stronger version of themselves and decide "fuck that lil' punk, I'll beat him at his own game." That's precisely what Cory did. Showed WHY he's a World Class guy, and not just a peck-and-run specialist.

the best guy to talk to deandre IMO is spinks.

in order to beat deandre, spinks had to pull every trick out in the book. cory truly fought for his career that night. even at his age, even being outgunned, he rose up.

you know...you learn more about guys when they're out of they're prime than when they're in it. if that makes any sense at all.

telling you guys who read this log...this is a fight that will show you what world class boxing is about.
 
Can't say as I disagree with any of that homie. Guys like Cory, and like Mike beyond the age of 36, they get by on craft, on brains as much as anything else. Which is funny because it's the main lesson I'm attempting to learn.

Kelcie seems to have taken a liking to me. Today after sparring this is what he had to say: "You been fuckin' up. You got balls because you come here every day, so you bring your balls to the Gym, but you leave your brains in the parking lot."

He said this because again I got caught up in going toe-to-toe with Dee. These have been EPIC sparring sessions. Dee sort of makes a physical representation of the course of my life (I wonder if I do the same for him.) He's strong, overpowering, does everything he can to back me into corners. And part of the History of me as a boy trying to become a man, is that I only ever get much done in life when my back is to the wall. You put me in a harsh situation and I'll get you and me both out of it. But taking command and making forward progress without that has always been difficult. This is what I'm breaking about myself, and according to Mike I'm getting a little closer every day.

The first and fourth rounds were mine. In the first Dee tried to pick me off at-range and Box with me, that didn't work. He swept the next two rounds with relentless grinding pressure and angles. I was always a half a step too late with my counters, and my defense wasn't good enough. Got smashed right in the nose about 15 more times, pretty sure it's broken up towards the top. But surprisingly in the fourth HE ran out of gas a bit. Turns out it takes more energy for him to use his style than he lets on half the time. But those two rounds I lost I took a pretty solid beating, during which both he and I chuckled at each other a bit. Me because he kept getting me with his overhand right, him because I occasionally would grab it with my left and smack him with my right hook.

What Mike (and my boy Capino today) see is that I have flashes of brilliance in there where I do the right thing. I didn't get hit with anything at all in the first round. And even when he pours on the heat, there's times I turn him, counter and knock him off-balance, or have spells when my timing is on and he's hitting glove and getting hit back. It's just a matter of not Fighting solely with my balls when I get hit more than twice in a row, because that's what I keep doing. I keep trying to out-man him, when I absolutely don't need to.

Said put on a clinic today against a youngster, one where he didn't even need to punch much. Peppering jabs, turning, side-stepping, ducking and rolling, this kid looked like a total novice and couldn't lay a glove on him. I said to Mike "I know I can do that stuff." Mike said "You da bess wit dat shit, you jus keep choosin' ta Fight too much instead." We'll see if I can pull it off next week. But as promised, here's a post-sparring snapshot:

DeeLiuBear.jpg


That's Dee, myself, and his trainer Honeybear Bryant.
 

8am - Wind Sprints:


In my quest for better muscular endurance, I've dedicated more time to sprints. We ran 6 legs of the style of suicides that we do, and 4 legs of the 4-corner style sprints that we do which are 10 yards forward hard sprint, 30 yards lateral jumping jacks, 10 yards back-pedaling with punches (alternating 1-2's, uppers, and uppers to the body), 30 yards opposite direction jumping jacks, and then the whole thing in reverse.

11am - Gym Time:

20 minute dynamic stretch (outside the Gym waiting for it to open).

3 rounds Shadowboxing.

4 rounds Heavybag.

4 rounds double-end bag.

2 rounds speed bag.

8pm - Evening Conditioning torture:

(All exercise done with 20lb vest.)

160 medicine ball throws, 80 with each hand. This is where I stand close to a brick wall and toss the ball at it as if punching. It's murder on the shoulders.

80 push-ups, 40 vertical, 40 horizontal grip.

40 dips.

5 minutes farmer's walk. I did this using two cinder blocks over my forearms, fists held out in front of me. Walked for about 30 yards or so, turning to go back and forth. From the beginning to the 30 yard mark is a slight decline, going back is a slight incline.

5 minutes Shadowboxing to cool down (no vest).

The added weight on the push-ups and dips sucks.
 
Oh and some of you might have been asking when referring to Capino: "Who the Hell is Mackie Shilstone and why does that guy want to be the next him?" Well here's your answer...


 
8pm - Evening Conditioning torture:

(All exercise done with 20lb vest.)

160 medicine ball throws, 80 with each hand. This is where I stand close to a brick wall and toss the ball at it as if punching. It's murder on the shoulders.

80 push-ups, 40 vertical, 40 horizontal grip.

40 dips.

5 minutes farmer's walk. I did this using two cinder blocks over my forearms, fists held out in front of me. Walked for about 30 yards or so, turning to go back and forth. From the beginning to the 30 yard mark is a slight decline, going back is a slight incline.

5 minutes Shadowboxing to cool down (no vest).

The added weight on the push-ups and dips sucks.

You're a beast. I remember doing those throws and after the 1st 30 or so they became hell.
 
I'm not that much of a beast. The thing about me is my lungs are fine. So I don't really run out of breath ever. My muscular endurance sucks. Pretty soon here all my conditioning is going to be timed and done for explosiveness.
 
7am - 3 mile run.

When I do my longer runs I always wear the vest now. Moderate pace at the beginning, slow-paced middle laps with Shadowboxing, and then faster paced for the final 2 laps.

11am - Gym Time.

10 minute dynamic stretch.

According to Johannes, I'm a position Boxer (I guess that's his word for counter-puncher), but my upper-body is too stiff. I agree with him on that actually, and have been working better upper-body movement ever since.

3 rounds Shadowboxing.

6 rounds body-snatcher.

4 rounds double-end bag.

2 rounds speed bag.

2 rounds sledge-hammer work. They have like 3 giant tires and a sledge-hammer at Tocco's, figured I'd make use of it.

Thursday:


So apparently I've got a case of the carpal tunnel. It's funny because Capino said when he thought of that condition he first thought of a non-athletic nerd who uses a computer FAR too much. But in reality it's more subject to Fighters and such as it's a repetitive stress injury. Just for a long time it didn't have a name.

Mike's been working the SHIT out of my right hand. Most of the stuff we throw on the mitts has me use my right hand I'd say a good 65% more than my left (obviously he has in-mind for me to be a Southpaw with an extremely educated and capable right hand, and not just a big left). About three weeks or so ago I rolled my wrist on a right hook (best punch I can throw as of the moment, not best I can land, though)...didn't think much of it but the wrist was sore ever since. Jarred it a couple more times since as well because...well, Boxers are stupid like that. Woke up this morning with a dull ache and the "pins and needles" sensation in my thumb and first two fingers of my right hand. It's not bothering me right now, but I have to take 4 days off of punching things.
 
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