Describe your worst sparring experience...

Got my nose broke a fortnight ago. 3rd time sparring against a 17.5 stone guy. Was movin and jabbin,thinkin i was doin well, then bang walked on to a right hand.

 

:good

 

I went to another gym in the area on my own to try it out after being out of training for about 3 months. When i arrived one of the coaches recognised me from some of the shows he had seen me fight at, id had 7 fights at the time and won 5. He immediately asked me to do sparring and even though i was disgracefully out of shape i agreed. For three rounds he put me in with some ******* who had 20+ fights, was a weight above me and came flying out at the first bell attempting to knock me out. I managed to survive the 3 rounds onyl due to my footwork and high guard, finished with a bloody nose and a black eye. Safe to say i never went back to that gym again.

 

All good. None bad. If you don't truly enjoy trading leather, then you shouldn't be in the sport.

 

My second spar session I telegraphed a left jab to the body and didn't tuck in my chin. Before I know it I was stumbling backward. He had blocked my jab, and sat down on his own right hand which landed flush on my chin. The only thing that kept me on my feet was his follow up left hook which must've lifted me lol...

My trainer said he landed both punches within the space of half a second. I don't remember the actual punches at all - just the ache in my jaw!!!

 

A recent session a couple months ago, I sparred with a teammate of mine who is a middleweight and has a couple more years of experience than I do. I am a light-welterweight with only 2 yrs experience.

We have similar styles - very aggressive, brawlers, neither of us like to back up.
We like to go to the ropes and unleash.

Anyways, I made the mistake of sticking to my usual style with someone who is bigger and better than me.

I ended up taking a pummeling and too many head shots. I ended up with a mild concussion and having to drop out of my next fight.

Worst part was, I never realized I had a concussion (never had one before) and went right back to sparring a few days later. Even the lightest jabs and blocked shots were rocking me. Quite stupid of me in hindsight. But a learning experience I won't forget.

If I acknowledged the concussion right away, I probably would have been well enough to compete a few weeks later, instead of making it worse.

All in all, i'm a dad, this is a hobby - and there would be no point in taking such risks.

 

My worst was the once and only I've been properly down. Was sparring a 17 year old but fair few fights n only 80 kg, I was 60kg, getting Rdy for my second fight. Though myself a complete mayweather, never had blood drew or gone down. Stood in my shell, things where going well he was quite slow. Then bosh, didn't lean back far enough, he clipped my nose with a hook, watering eyes dazed for a sec, then he gets me with a perfect body shot while I covered up. Just remember being on my knees seeing my blood fall onto the ring and being unable to take a single breath. Down and bloodied just like that
!!

 

At the time I had a miserable ******* for a coach and he'd constantly interrupt sparring for the littlest ****. He told me if I threw one "looping" punch he'd kick me out of sparring indefinitely and its not like I tried to kill everyone or was a dick in sparring either. So all's I could do was throw a 1-2 and stick my jab basically and I was sparring a horribley dirty fighter who knew my handicap with looping punches/hooks. he went 150% and at one point grabbed me in like a grapple and threw me to the canvas. I thought this must be a test to see if I could keep my cool. So I didn't say anything got up kept going with the stupid 1-2 and then he elbows me right on the bridge of the nose. Then I had it and started to fight my fight first punch I landed was a big looping overhand right and the coach stopped it. I know this sounds like a valuable lesson but there was no discussion afterward and he let the other guy foul the **** out of me and scolded me when i landed an overhand right. Got a new trainer soon after IT SOUNDS like there was a lesson but there really wasn't I was humiliated in front of the whole gym for no reason. Like I said I didn't have a reputation for being a dick in sparring

 

Sarcastic? WTF? Not even. My point is either you are a flyweight, full of crap, insane, at a crappy gym who doesn't care about members, lying, or some combination of those.

If you don't wear at MINIMUM 16oz gloves you don't know crap about gym etiquette or have a crappy gym. So you protect your knuckles with 16's on bags, but not your sparring partners' brains?

Vary with geo? Hell no, if your coaches give a damn about you. Spar in 16oz MINIMUM. Even more if you are big. 14oz might work if you are 147 and below and not a heavy hitter. Read any program manual and sparring is done with 16oz gloves. Period. :deal

 

This is the standard, but I think the standard is failing. In a few gyms, I've seen/heard of people sparring with whatever they trained with, which was usually a single pair of 14oz gloves. In mine, I think I may have been the only one sparring with 16oz gloves.

 

Yeah guys do it, but it is some serious BS. I give guys a pass for it if they aren't good or dabbling, but if I see a regular pull that crap? I am pulling his card or trying to jab his face off.

I also see it, 1 pair of "do everything" gloves. That is dirty too. Literally. After my first scratch from cracked pleather and eye infection, I call that out too. You want to spar? You need two sets of gloves. One should be a clean 16oz sparring pair. Don't get me started on street shoes in the the ring or on the mats! :fire

Props to you man. Do the right thing. At the end of the day though, the casuals are who keep the lights on. I try to not say much unless I see a guy getting more serious or hurting people.

 

all the hardest punches i took to head and body were taken in sparring.my one and only knock down plus spitting a tooth out were when i was 15 (1974) and sparring with a lihjt heavy when i was 9 stone.
when i was a senior i took some awful punches to the body which improved my defence and made me hate taking them hahahaha
i took a left hook off my mate which must have been the hardest punch ive ever taken.some mate hahahaha

 

Top thread, we have all been in this boat, the fact we do go back is the great thing.

Face your fears and get on with it = courage.

 

ive lost count of the amount of times, people turn up to the gym thinking there the toughest mofo on the planet only to take a pasting in sparring never to be seen again.

ive only just started sparring this year and its been a lot of fun, the first time i got a beating and walked home with a red face, a nose twice the size and an angry girlfriend opening the front door

ive now fallen into the catagory of 'he's the guy to use for sparring for first timers' i dont know if thats a good thing or not? but im taking it easy on them all and i give them a chance if they get rocked.

i sparred an older chap the other week and the poor sod walked onto everything i through, even the wide slow hooks were connecting and in the end he went over, there really wasnt much i could do.

 

Nice post.