Gym Stories - Boxing Stories

I know that I've posted these before, but I'll post some again...

About 2 years ago a black man about 6'2, 210lbs of lean muscle walked into the gym and started yelling about nothing. He had apparently been to the gym before, and during the early 90's was apparently a very talented fighter who easily could have been a lightheavyweight contender, but he got into drugs and blew all of the connections he had to make it that far.

Anyway, he was shaddow boxing, getting in people's way, and making a lot of noise that wasn't needed. About 15 minutes after that guy's arrival, Larry (Holmes) came into the gym clearly in a pissed off mood, but he still wanted to get a quick workout in and go home. The people who had been to the gym before and had seen how Larry is in his different moods knew right off the bat to stay out of his way and just to leave him alone. The loudmouth didn't do it. Larry ignored him as he went into his back room to change and stretch. When he came back out the loudmouth started getting in his way again and kept making a disturbance in the gym. Larry still ignored him. Finally, after about a round of warming up in the mirror, I could tell Larry was about ready to blow. He told the guy to shut up, but the person didn't. So Larry told him to get out. They were only about 6 inches apart by this point, and it was obvious they were both furious at this point. The guy offered Larry into the ring, and Larry said very matter-of-factly "Why the hell should I get into the ring to kick your ass when I can do it right here?" the guy knew Larry wasn't kidding and left and never came back.


One day another street "tough guy" walked into the gym wanted to take on the whole world. This isn't uncommon, the gym is about a 2 minute drive from the worst projects in all of Easton, which is a smaller, but just as bad version of the ghettos in New York, Philly, Oakland, etc. So this guy was talking all of this crap about he could take everybody in there. The trainers laughed at the guy and said he could fight the 13 year old in the corner. The guy got a little pissed off and said "No, you guy's don't understand, I'm 27 years old, and I have a lot of power!"

But it wasnt your average 13 year old, he already had a goatee and was extremely talented, him and his brother (the brother still is) very talented and made it to the nationals every year. Emmanuel Steward even offered them to come and train with him for 2 weeks free of charge. But anyway, this guy got into the ring and got destroyed. He was dropped twice, and completely battered by the end of the first round. He didn't come out for the 2nd. The entire gym was laughing at him.

 

Ive been in training camps and the gym atomosphere with a lot of top fighters. I have to say the most interesting to watch was Mike Tyson. He just had blinding speed and the movement of a middleweight. When he sparred it was like he was in a fight, just taking it to his partner. Really fun to watch. I would rather watch Tyson train than a lot of other guys fight.
Lennox Lewis in contrast spent most of his sparring lanquishing on the ropes doing rope a dopes and messing around. I was suprised to see it and Emanuel Steward not saying much, but I guess he was working on his timing. Every once and while he would open up and put a whooping on his sparring partner.
Michael Moorer had a camp in a gym I was in back i n the day. He was a mean dude. He tried to hurt everyone he sparred with and talked non stop smack.

 

:rofl:rofloh man!!!

 

Great stuff on Tyson, Lefthook. Maybe the most exciting fighter since Ali.

 

I know, hahaha, ****in awful that.

When i was boxing about six years ago this occurred. I didn't come the gym for about a week, then strolled in one day, my trainer said to me 'where have you been?', i just said some thing like, 'come on, i just had a break, i'm gunna get fit again now though'. He said to me, 'too right you are, get in the ring with Stevie now', in my opinion Stevie was the best lad in our gym, i thought he was class, i learned a lot just from watching the lad's feet move. Anyway, this lad Stevie was training for a fight coming up, fighting fit, and i was unfit (any lads here who've boxed know how awful a proposition it is to spar unfit), so i turned to the trainer and just said 'you're joking aren't ya?, i'm unfit'. He goes to me, 'well this will teach you to keep fit then', this was ****ing punishment!!

Anyway, i think, **** it, get in the ring. I was always happy to box rather than fight, but the likes of Stevie and some of the other older lads had been teaching me to sit down on shots. The first two rounds i'm fine, like a hypo rookie running round the ring, jabbing, we're both switch hitting etc etc. Next thing i'm nackered, flat footed, and had no choice but to have a fight, this guy had about a stone on me. He was class at feinting, he smashed me on the nose, it started pouring. I swung a right back, he had blood across his face, and the next two rounds were like that. In hindsight, they should have stopped us, it was a ****ing gym war. Everyone was up on the apron watching. He hit me in the end with a hell of a left to the ribs, that's when i learned that taking a good bodyshot when you are unfit is the worst thing EVER. The bell went i think, and i done another round out of pride, and i was ****ed. We were both bloodied around the noses, my favourite memory of my boxing days for some insane reason.

 

Greg, the lad i told you i met today in my gym was the lad from the story, we were discussing that trainer who threw us in together that day, he was only training us for a short while as an extra trainer. We were both saying how **** he was, we didn't realise it at the time as we were young, but just look at this story i've told you here, the man was a lunatic. Sound fella but a nob when it came to boxing sorry.

 

So do I. I have 2 that stick out in my mind. With my style, I'm prone to be in them. I will walk in behind a jab (I've been told it's heavy, and pretty sharp), and I also apparently have a very hard right (again, I don't know how hard because I don't go around punching myself in the face). I will work the body, and obviously throw to the head. If the person throws more than 3 punches at me, I tend to swing back not caring if the other shots hit me or not. I've found most people don't really like to slug it out with me too much because 1) I hit hard. 2) I'm good at slugging it out. One day a kid my size walked into the gym and after he sparred a few times everyone wanted us to go at it because he had the exact same style as me, and he also had a very hard right hand.

So finally the day came and we geared up and got into the ring. I remember the first round pretty well, we did nothing but trade shots the entire round, both of us landing very hard shots and occasionally getting into standing wrestling matches to battle over who would move forward. We both went back to our corners all bloody after the first round. We came out for the 2nd round and it was going the exact same way, with both of us trying to get the other to give, which never happened to much extent. Then, in another one of our little wrestling ordeals where we were tied up trying to walk the other one back, he hit me on the break as hard as he could flush on the jaw. Now I was pissed. I could tell by the look on his face he was surprised I didn't go down, and didn't even budge. I hit him with 2 of my hardest jabs, and a solid right cross quickly behind the pair of jabs. All 3 shots landed flush on his face and he staggered backwards, but started throwing right back after it. We were in a give one, take one exchange for another 30 straight seconds until the end of the round. The trainers could see by this point we weren't learning anything and we just hitting eachother, so they stopped it.

 

Unfortunately for me my feet are just naturally slow in the boxing manner, which I don't understand because I'm a pretty quick runner. My hand/head speed is pretty average aswell, and I like going forward anyway. It makes things more exciting (and painful) but I seem to take a good shot, so it makes it a bit easier.

 

Sadly there are no Boxing gyms where I live. They all closed down.