I blogged this ****er on MySpace and thought I'd put it on ESB for some input. I'm hurting today, but it was totally worth it and I feel like I understand why guys box now. We both were terribly beaten but I had nothing but respect and compassion for the guy afterwards and it was a very satisfying fight. I did some amateur-hour boxing at some bar in Taylor and it was ****ing epic. Dude asks if anyone wants to box, I throw my hand up, I tell him I don't want to fight anyone real big or any actual boxers. He asks if I want to fight him, I say sure, we shake hands and I get kitted up. I've got a mouthpiece in, headgear on, vaseline on my face and some gloves on, no hand wraps (this I would regret). We listen to the rules from the ref, touch gloves, go to our corners and the bell rings. My opponent was roughly 5'10 and weighed 150 pounds. I'm 6'0 180 so I had a good advantage. Shotwell is a serious ****ing wrestler, not pro-style simply but for real. I figured I'd box him to death, jab and move like I worked on this morning with coach Keith. I approach, he has a high guard but his face is exposed. He blocks my jab, I fire another that lands and he stalks me around the ring. When I commit to a big shot, being frustrated with my jabs inefficiency, he swarms in like Joe Frazier and fires off a combination that has me scared. I get pushy and move to the corner, I return fire and things get going. In the first round I landed some big shots but I got tired fast and his swarming was very effective, though a lot of his shots missed or were to the back. We clinched and I hit to the obliques to no effect. Viking Warrior, my corner man feeds me water and I spit and he gives me a pep talk. Some national guardsman in uniform, named Beyroud or some such tells me to keep my hands high so he can't hit me. My hands were dropping and it hurt. 10-9 Shotwell Round two. Some big shots, I'm tired, he's swarming and I start using my guard to save my face. He fires off huge combinations and is an extremely tough, dauntless fighter. His face is exposed and his guard isn't sufficiently high to block my offense but even after landing very big shots, including sweeping right hands and right hooks (the left hook wasn't working for me tonight) he continues forward. He drops me in the second, though I wasn't hurt but merely exhausted and shell-shocked from his barrage. I barely escape the round as his swarming firepower makes he take backward steps and turn away from him. The ref gives me two standing eight counts, I am exhausted and plan on merely surviving the round. My best was early in the round, I then gave up on hitting him and decide that he can't hurt me. Viking Warrior in my corner tells me to stop throwing wild shots; I own him at the mid-distances and so he tells me to stop throwing the looping shots that miss, which are what allows Shotwell to swarm me and fire off combinations. NG'er Beyroud reaffirms my need to keep my guard high to nullify Shotwell's offense. I tell NG'er Beyroud that I can't hurt him, but he can't hurt me either and I'm very tired. 10-6 Shotwell Round three. I get my second wind and hit Shotwell with some hayemakers, determined to stop him before a decision in this fight scheduled for three rounds. I tee off on him and deliver punishing shots, but he walks through them like a superman and soon I tired, and my offense stops. Before I tire I land some big right crosses right on the nose. I know they must hurt terribly. I land a big right hook to the chin and his head bobbles, but he amazingly comes forward like an enraged Vitali Klitschko. He takes advantage and uses combinations on me. I take his best and stay on my feet. I resume offense, and we start exchanging jabs, I'm getting the better of it. We resume exchanging but by the end of the round I'm again on the ropes and taking a beating. Narrowly 10-9 Wigley We hugged and I cheered him. They asked the crowd to score the fight, I got some cheers but when it was his turn I clapped for him and showed my appreciation of his win. The crowd gave him the decision quite rightfully. He talked on the mic and said that he'd wrestled for ages and had boxed at amateur hour for 5 years and that I was a mean mother****er. He gave me some props and I shook his hand again and took the mic. I told the crowd I'd been training at the Kronk lately and was beat up by two heavies there but he just blew me away. He took my best shots and came forward like a mad bull, throwing punishing shots. I venerated him as a great man and a true warrior as best I could and gave the mic back. We talked a bit later and I found out I broke his nose; I came away with a puffy bloody lip and some cuts in my mouth, and a throbbing head and a bone bruise in my right middle knuckle. He walked right through my rights to the head and my uppercuts and hooks to the gut, like they were nothing. Truly it was an amazing spectacle. It was like the Thrilla in Manila, except my version of Ali was out of shape and tried the rope-a-dope and was rather unskilled. His version of Frazier was ****ing excellent and he fought brilliantly. If he'd had more head movement and kept his left higher I'd have had nightmares. We hugged later and talked about it and he was just a great guy, I gave him props as best I could for taking my best and acting like a total warrior. He said he lives in the ring and when I profusely apologized for busting his nose he told me not to worry about it and really took it like a warrior. We both said we had wanted to be knocked out to stop the fight from continuing. Ha, ha. Unfortunately I couldn't even drop him, though I was seeing stars. A couple guys congratulated me on giving a great fight and I really ****ing loved it. It was a primitive fight and not much of a boxing match but as far as being a fight, it was really great and I loved every second of it. My opponent was definitely my match and I'll have eternal respect for the man. Truly a warrior. Great, great fun. There was also some cool wrestling but I'm going to go to bed now before I stay up any longer, got training in the morning. Anyways, that's how I remember it, though it isn't a perfect recollection. My head was throbbing afterwards. It was a ****ing great, perfectly-matched fight. I'd give $100 for tape of it. I have insane amounts of respect for that guy, he took a serious beating and gave me a serious beating as well. Truly a warrior.
Haha of course it was an exhibition, I'm nowhere near ready for amateur boxing. The only reason I didn't get annihilated by this guy was my size advantage and the fact that he turned it into a fight and I clinched a lot in the 2nd round. I'm just happy that I took some big shots and enjoyed the fight. I wasn't sure if I was tough enough for boxing, but I loved it.
