Both Pac & PBF train like animals, i mean for this fight; PBF is practically sparring with line backers preparing for Cotto... Pac trains for hours on in... Does Sparring take a tool on a fighters body and prime? I have never sparred, so asking for those who truly have and know about it..
I haven't seen many videos of Manny sparring but it seems to me like its just sparring. They aren't trying to kill each other. Floyd is a defensive fighter and i doubt that he takes any punishment. Ive heard of gym wars and some guys are rough on each other. Ive seen Ali use rope a dope during sparring.
It can play a big part in fighters being brain damaged or burning out quicker. I'm pretty sure it's not just a slight cause for James Toney's speech being so bad nowadays. Terry Norris is brain damaged, and rarely took sustained beatings in the ring. His chin was too poor for him to take a long sustained beating, but he had gym wars. It probably also sped up Meldrick Taylor's decline and added to his brain damage
The only way that sparring and training takes a toll on a fighter is if he doesn't get the proper recovery time which depends on the amount of money they make fighters can't survive economically sitting on their butts. Promoters have alot to do with wear and tear on fighters Bob Arum should of never made Cotto or Margarito fight at catch weights he secrificed those two for his cash cow decisions like that is what gives a fighter wear and tear some fighters never get back to their form after beatings like that and Cotto and Margarito are two of them.
Sparring can be brutal and very competitive. The headache I have had after a hard sparring session, even for only three rounds or so, can be pretty nasty. It can't help. Gym Wars can make for short careers. Look at Joe Frazier, relatively few professional fights, but his style, the level of his competition in his pro fights, and epic Philly gym wars all contributed to a short career.
It does produce plenty of wear and tear, even if great precautions are taken in terms of headguard, bigger gloves, etc.
Thank you Guys... "The Breadman" from B-Talk was talking about the same thing, how fighters who train like PBF and PAC do.. have to ensure to take proper breaks because of the strain that the training takes on the body.....
There's a reason why fighters can be shot after 30+ fights today when fighters back in the days can fight 200+ times. That's because a lot of the wear and tear comes from gym work, only so much abuse the body can take for so long. Sparring is a fight with headgears and the difference is, when you hurt someone, you dont finish them. Most sparring sessions guys like Margarito have are probably worse than Floyd's fights in terms of damage taken. Punches to the head are still punches, everytime your head gets hit brain cells take damage and consider how many rounds of sparring these guys have had.
Different types of sparring. The fighters style factors in heavily too. Ali would let guys hit him, he sparred thousands of rounds so it was going to take a toll. Kirkland will burn out quickly, his sparring routine is nuts. Mayweather hardly gets hit, that's his style, so he should do fine seeing as he fights sporadically these days. Hopkins applies here too. We're not supposed to be punched in the head, bottom line is if you take too many with headgear or without, you will do damage to yourself.
Exactly. There is another factor (other than gloves' size, headgears, style), it's the mentality the fighters are in, it is the approach of "sparring"; many many guys come into the gym and they only want to fight hard, they want to hurt. Not fight smart. Well, I'm not saying you ain't got to work hard in sparring. Controlling the power, stay relax, pick your shots, work on different aspects of your game rather than try to kill the sparring partners. I'm just an amateur but I always thought that if you can dominate a guy without using your power and strenght, that's big. For floyd, I don't think sparring will affect him. He's so elusive and defensive, rarely gets hit flush. For manny, I've never seen him spar except the usual promotional sessions used in the 24/7 episodes.
I teach the kids that the aim is to hit and not get hit. That's your best shot at leaving this sport the way you came into it.
Depends on the individual but sparring takes away a lot more from fighters than actual fights. Fighters usually spar for over 100rds for each fight add that over a 35 fight career and that's a lot of rounds. And although some fighters suffer bad KOs in fights they also suffer a lot of Knockdowns in training. So combining the two is easy to see why most fighters end up punch drunk even the ones we think didnt take that much punishment. :hat