THe Old Saying.,,, 80% Brain 20% Body

I'm not one of those guys who sees MMA as the enemy I take an intrest from time to time, usually when Jose Aldo fights. Big fan of Mark Homnick too.

Great :good Only Olympic wrestler I know of is Kurt Angle, because he won the gold with a broken neck which is just crazy; and also Brock Lesnar, who was a 2 time NCAA Champion.

 

sounds like a boxer. Joe Frazier described how boxers are concerned about not performing well, not the pain. It takes pride to be a good fighter. Many of these guys don't understand this and are worried about the pain. You see it all the time on this board with who would you rather fight threads. They always go for the potential opponent who hurts em less even if they would be more effective against him due to his style.

Then you get a Mike Tyson every now and then who forces the animal instinct out of opponents and make them scared of getting hurt.

 

Bang bang.. How many times you forgot your names...

 

:good...you can see it in the face of many athletes not just boxers when they are not happy with the way they are performing, of course this is bad because rather than worrying about your next move your hung up on your last move or what hasnt been working

its very frustrating when you mentally prepare for weeks, and picture everything in your head ahead of time, and have this exact plan with a whole set of expectations and by round 5 or half time or the 3rd period or the 5th inning its not going anywhere close to the way you imagined or your under performing it starts to take its toll

worst of all your opponent notices and unfortunately in boxing its punches that come your way

 

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“Boxing is a contest of character and ingenuity. The boxer with more will, determination, desire, and intelligence is always the one who comes out the victor.



About the importance of psychological elements in boxing:
“The next thing I do, I get them in excellent condition…knowing how the mind is and the tricks it plays on a person and how an individual will always look to avoid a confrontation with something that is intimidating, I remove all possible excuses they’re going to have before they get in there. By getting them in excellent condition, they can’t say when they get tired that they’re not in shape. When they’re in excellent shape I put them into the ring to box for the first time, usually with an experience fighter who won’t take advantage of them. When the novice throws punches and nothing happens, and his opponent keeps coming at him…the new fighter becomes panicky. When he gets panicky he wants to quit, but he can’t quit because his whole psychology from the time he’s first been in the streets is to condemn a person who’s yellow. So what does he do? He gets tired. This is what happens to fighters in the ring. They get tired. This is what happens to fighters in the ring. They get tired, because they’re getting afraid….Now that he gets tired, people can’t call him yellow. He’s just too “tired” to go on. But let that same fighter strike back wildly with a visible effect on the opponent and suddenly that tired, exhausted guy becomes a tiger….It’s a psychological fatigue, that’s all it is. But people in boxing don’t understand that.”


D’Amato on his methods evolved and used over the years and used for tutoring Tyson:
“I tell them the first time they’re going to fight, the night before they probably won’t sleep. I can’t offer them any consolidation other than the fact that the other guy went through the same thing, and when they get down to the fight and enter the dressing-room, especially if they’re in an amateur fight, the room is full of possible opponents, because they don’t know who they’re going to fight, and everybody looks calm, confident and smiling and all the new boy is aware of is that terrible thump in his chest, and he’s intimidated by their attitude and their confidence. What he doesn’t realize is that they look at him and they see the same thing in him as he sees in them, because by an exercise of discipline he also puts on a superficial appearance of confidence…We go on now into the ring. Half the time they’re walking when they go down to the ring as though they’re going to the gallows. So when they climb those stairs, I never call a fighter yellow. Knowing what he goes through, the very act of climbing into that ring stamps him a person of courage and discipline.”



“So now they get into the ring…The other guy probably looks bigger, and stronger and better conditioned and real muscular and when he start to loosen up he looks more experienced. This is the novice fighter’s mind and imagination exaggerating everything, which is what the mind does. Nothing is ever as bad as the imagination makes it, not even death. A person doesn’t realize what’s making him nervous unless he understands why he’s getting scared, which is the natural, normal thing. When he understands it he accepts it as such. Then it doesn’t become as intimidating, which is the reason why I take the boy step by step until actually the bell rings to fight. I take them that way so that hopefully by the time they get to fight they’ve experienced these different feelings which are often intimidating by themselves. “Cus said it was going to be like this,” so that they don’t feel they are inferior or less prepared than their opponent.”


“Now, when they go in and face the opponent and the bell rings, for the first time…they’re facing reality, and suddenly a relative calmness comes over them. Relative. They’re still scared but it isn’t that terrible intimidating unknown thing….But the moment the blows start to be thrown, the effort to throw punches has begun, he gets calm, because now this is something he’s been prepared to cope with….However, I should add that at no time does fear disappear. It’s just as bad in the hundredth fight as it was in the first, except by the time he reaches a hundred fights or long before that he’s developed enough discipline where he can learn to live with it, which is the object, to learn to live with it…



“Every fighter that ever lived had fear. A boy comes to me and tells me that he’s not afraid, if I believed him I’d say he’s a liar or there’s something wrong with him. I’d send him to a doctor to find out what the hell’s the matter with him, because this is not a normal reaction. The fighter that’s gone into the ring and hasn’t experienced fear is either a liar or a psychopath…”

On the importance of will:
“When two men are fighting, what makes you’re watching is more a contest of wills than of skills, with the stronger will usually overcoming skill. The skill will prevail only when it is so superior to the other man’s skill that the will is not tested….
As times as you see a fellow get tired in the course of a fight, note that he gets tired when pressure builds up, after he gets hurt or he’s been in some kind of doubtful situation, not being able to control the situation. That’s when he starts getting tired. That’s why when two good fighters get to fight, they’re head to head, so to speak, they won’t give an inch and they’re using all their skills and ability, until maybe about the seventh or eight or ninth round, one fighter start to visibly weaken. It only means he’s reached a point where he no longer can stand the pressure. He’s now become dominated, because when two people fight it’s very much like two armies. They seek to impose their will on one another.



On being a professional:
“I believe a man is a professional when he can do what needs to be done no matter how he feels within. An amateur is an amateur in his attitude emotionally. A professional is an professional in the way he thinks and feels and in his ability to execute inder the most trying conditions. The ability to do what needs to be done regardless of the pressure and do it with poise, with no reflection of his inner feeling or conflict if it exists, is what makes a professional. It has nothing to do with their knowledge. I’ll show you many amateurs with far superior knowledge and ability than top professionals.”


“When you get hit that’s when you’ve got to be calm. A professional fighter has to learn how to hit and not get hit, and at the same time be exciting. That’s what professional boxing is about. You’ve got to be clever, you’ve got to be smart, and not get hit, and when you’re able to do this, you’re a fighter.”


On the hero and the coward:
“I tell my kids, what is the difference between a hero and a coward? What is the difference between being yellow and being brave? No difference. Only what you do. They both feel the same. They both fear dying and getting hurt. The man who is yellow refuses to face up to what he’s got to face. The hero is more disciplined and he fights those feelings off and he does what he has to do. But they both feel the same, the hero and the coward. People who watch you judge you on what you do, not how you fee.”


“Boxing is a sport of self-control. You must understand fear so you can manipulate it. Fear is like fire. You can make it work for you: it can warm you in the winter, cook your food when you’re hungry, give you light when you are in the dark, and produce energy. Let it go out of control and it can hurt you, even kill you….Fear is a friend of exceptional people.”



http://tysontalk.com/quotes/quotes-by-cus-damato

 

"The wait in the dressing room before a boxing match - that last hour - could be enough to strip a man that never boxed before of whatever pride, desire and heart he thought he had."
- John Scully, April 2002

 

If you're not as mentally tuned in as I am, then I tell you what :

You stand there and think about the expectations, the crowd, the training and the preassure.

I'll think about and proceed to punch you in the head.

 

that said...there is a big advantage to being physically able/capable of "competing" with others.

Healthy Body, Sound Mind.

 

What I've learnt from my experience in a ring, You can't that easily separate the mind and the body. What I mean by that is the fact that technique, ring generalship, punching skills, can only be at their full potential when you're body is in the best shape it can be.

 

I read with great interest. Your last paragraph was great. Just a quick question - where do you put a guy like Gatti (RIP) in the scale of things? That guy never stopped coming back.

Thanks for your good lines.:good

 

Thankyou very much :good

Alot of people don't remember or never saw Gatti at 130lbs, where he was very good. His size allowed him to walk through opponents. He had more skill than the Micky Wards of the world (watch their second fight, he boxes beautifully) but he was a good two levels atleast below the Mayweathers and DLH's of the world.

Gatti was (to me) an example of will personified. He fought with his heart and achived what he did through passion for this sport. Passion will very rarely overcome brilliance, but it's the corner stone of what this sport is all about, so men like Gatti, Ward, Hatton; will never and should never be forgotten.

I think he gives a good display of himself in a fair few fantasy H2H fights at 130lbs (Though Mayweather is all wrong for him at any weight) but above 130 he's in trouble.

 

I have a day off today, when I go to the pub in a couple of hours and the conversation heads towards boxing...you, champ, will be quoted. Thank you:good

 

All a lot of blah, blah, blah.

I guess the reason that a lot of boxfans on this site like me don't have a career of their own because of physical limitations.
There are many things you just CAN'T solve by training like a beast and having the perfect mentality.