War, Baby

I'm reading it at the moment - it's an account of the famous Benn/McLellan fight that ended with one man blinded and in a coma. Tragic, readable stuff, but more than anything else I like this line:

'When they win, when they experience the joy of physical dominance, they are more alive than anyone they have ever known - when they lose, when they are knocked out or marginalised by boxing's powerbrokers, they experience desolation that, thankfully, few of us will ever experience.'

Yeah.

Fight Week Is Over

...but, of course, you don't know what Fight Week was. Allow me to explain.

Fight Week was my first week of training full-time with a professional fight team, going to all of their practices and seeing if I could handle the pace. How did I do? Let's take stock:

Injuries

1. Minor Head Wound: probably from sliding along a wrestling mat on my forehead after a takedown, then aggravating the resulting burn by getting punched on it. Serious? Not really. Annoying to explain to everyone? Yes.
   
2. Dodgy Neck: from being neck-cranked - twice! - by someone who probably outweighed me by four stone and didn't know any other moves. I really should be able to counter that by now, though.
   
3. Minor Scuff On Left Knuckle: from doing the same left body-hook on a punchbag about a thousand times, probably aggravated by not wrapping my hands properly.
4. Vague Discomfort In Right Forearm: I imagine this was from getting punched on it.
   

Miscellany

• I am not fit enough. I get hopelessly knackered in two minute rounds of sparring - to the point where I can barely throw a combination - and although this is probably partly to do with me adrenaline-dumping because I'm so scared of everyone I spar with, it's also probably a lot to do with the fact that I haven't been running in nearly three months.
• Nearly everyone is better than me at jujitsu. Seriously. Even the people I thought were bruisers have a level of jujitsu that's genuinely frightening.
  
• I need to get better at wrestling.
  
• Having a Proper Fight is still a long way off.
  

Sigh.

Getting compliments

I am, as you've no doubt noticed, both funny and excellent at writing. I like it when my friends/peers laugh at something I've written, and like it even more when they drop me pithy little emails to say that they laughed at something when I wasn't around.

But somehow, that all pales into insignificance beside the two compliments I got today:

1. 'That shot's coming along nicely.' from Olympic-standard wrestler and top bloke Saeed, after I tackled someone to the floor with what's known as 'good penetration.' I'd make a joke about that, but I'm sure you're clever enough to come up with your own. And more importantly...

2. 'You've got the heart for this game. I can't train that.' from boxing coach and top bloke Andy, after I spent three rounds of sparring getting punched in the face so hard that my jaw's definitely going to hurt all week. My little heart nearly burst with pride.