Old Sparring Session at the House (Me)

[BluntTrauma21]

On the eve of one of the best nights of combat sports in recent years, I am going to humble myself and show an old sparring session of me and my brother from back in the day.

This was posted almost exactly 12 years ago so I was 20 at the time and my brother was 19.I know we were bad and we didn't have much room but we did our best. There's a bed we pushed away right next to us.

We taped every sparring session for years before and after but this is the only full session to survive. Edited to cut us being gassed but we were in pretty good shape back then. We're guessing we had around 200 sessions on a laptop but we lost all the footage before my brother turned ill and I became an alcoholic degenerate gambler a few years later.

I've been a reg in the boxing forum for like a decade now and I never had the balls to post this. But fuck it I'm old enough now to not give a fuck if you guys are kinda mean.

I'm in the yellow w/ all the hair and yes that is a UFC poster on the wall in the back! Shouts to Sam Stout lol!

 

[BluntTrauma21]

Here's "highlights" of me getting hit w/ right hands over and over. Again, I'm the one w/ the hair.

 

[Sinister]

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

Sparring with a Sam Stout poster in the background and Slaughterhouse playing lol. Good times.

 

[BluntTrauma21]

If only Johnny Tocco's was down the street!

 

[BluntTrauma21]

Sparring with a Sam Stout poster in the background and Slaughterhouse playing lol. Good times.

A sign of the times haha. I know we're shite but we were trying our best not to be pussies.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

A sign of the times haha. I know we're shite but we were trying our best not to be pussies.

Respek mang

 

[BluntTrauma21]

We were never gonna be contenders but we could've gotten ko'd by the charlo bros for a cpl grand haha.

 

[Sinister]

We were never gonna be contenders but we could've gotten ko'd by the charlo bros for a cpl grand haha.

Listen, never say never. Sports, life, it all has this stigma tied to it that if you dont do something by such and such a time, you're just done and should shill for the man until you're Dead. Plenty of kids like you two wander into gyms, confused and a tad soft, with barely a glimmer of an idea. Then with good Coaching, intelligent instruction, and confidence building, next thing you know you're fighting for an Amateur or Professional Title.

Muhammad Ali was just a kid who wanted his bike back.

Tommy Hearhs was sick of other kids stealing his coats.

You're 32 now? I didnt have a Pro fight until I was 34. And I could have kept going with different circumstances because I was in the best shape of my life. I lost, badly, but no one can say I didnt get my ass in there in front of ESPN lights and cameras and take that "L" like a man. My Mom didn't start living until she was in her 40's. Now she's been to a dozen Countries.

Do something. Amateurs has a Master's division. Just for fun. Or be a referee. USA Boxing always needs help. Help guide the next generation, the kids who are boxing in their living rooms with their Brothers right now.

One of my favorite Boxing stories is Johnny Nelson. He was a going-nowhere Amateur in England when he stepped foot into Brendan Ingle's Gym. When Ingle asked what he heard about him Johnny said "I heard you're the worst trainer in all of Sheffield." Then Ingle smiled and said "so why are you here?" Johnny said "I had to see for myself." Brendan said he had heard Nelson was unathletic, had no punch, and couldnt take a punch. No heart. He said "watch what we're gonna do."



To this day even if you just ask Nelson about Ingle it brings tears:.

 

[BluntTrauma21]

Listen, never say never. Sports, life, it all has this stigma tied to it that if you dont do something by such and such a time, you're just done and should shill for the man until you're Dead. Plenty of kids like you two wander into gyms, confused and a tad soft, with barely a glimmer of an idea. Then with good Coaching, intelligent instruction, and confidence building, next thing you know you're fighting for an Amateur or Professional Title.

Muhammad Ali was just a kid who wanted his bike back.

Tommy Hearhs was sick of other kids stealing his coats.

You're 32 now? I didnt have a Pro fight until I was 34. And I could have kept going with different circumstances because I was in the best shape of my life. I lost, badly, but no one can say I didnt get my ass in there in front of ESPN lights and cameras and take that "L" like a man. My Mom didn't start living until she was in her 40's. Now she's been to a dozen Countries.

Do something. Amateurs has a Master's division. Just for fun. Or be a referee. USA Boxing always needs help. Help guide the next generation, the kids who are boxing in their living rooms with their Brothers right now.

One of my favorite Boxing stories is Johnny Nelson. He was a going-nowhere Amateur in England when he stepped foot into Brendan Ingle's Gym. When Ingle asked what he heard about him Johnny said "I heard you're the worst trainer in all of Sheffield." Then Ingle smiled and said "so why are you here?" Johnny said "I had to see for myself." Brendan said he had heard Nelson was unathletic, had no punch, and couldnt take a punch. No heart. He said "watch what we're gonna do."



To this day even if you just ask Nelson about Ingle it brings tears:.

Damn that's inspirational right there. Thanks for that man. I always felt like I left my natural path in my early/mid twenties. I turn 33 next month so I can def see where you're coming from.

Something I've really wanted to do for years now is go back to school and get some kind of journalism degree and use it to get paid to cover boxing and mma. And I want to train for real, maybe take a legit fight of my own one day. Thanks for the encouraging words, Sin, appreciate it more than you know.

 

[Sinister]

Damn that's inspirational right there. Thanks for that man. I always felt like I left my natural path in my early/mid twenties. I turn 33 next month so I can def see where you're coming from.

Something I've really wanted to do for years now is go back to school and get some kind of journalism degree and use it to get paid to cover boxing and mma. And I want to train for real, maybe take a legit fight of my own one day. Thanks for the encouraging words, Sin, appreciate it more than you know.

Get your journalism on, I can get you some freelance gigs with Sherdog, and I'll meet you in Vegas.

 

[DoctorTaco]

Damn that's inspirational right there. Thanks for that man. I always felt like I left my natural path in my early/mid twenties. I turn 33 next month so I can def see where you're coming from.

Something I've really wanted to do for years now is go back to school and get some kind of journalism degree and use it to get paid to cover boxing and mma. And I want to train for real, maybe take a legit fight of my own one day. Thanks for the encouraging words, Sin, appreciate it more than you know.

shit, start now. Start a blog and and cover local fights in your area. Take online classes to grow your craft while you write. Interview fighters, cover local amateur and pro events, gyms, coaches, just jump in the water and learn to swim.

 

[Shoemaker]

Damn that's inspirational right there. Thanks for that man. I always felt like I left my natural path in my early/mid twenties. I turn 33 next month so I can def see where you're coming from.

Something I've really wanted to do for years now is go back to school and get some kind of journalism degree and use it to get paid to cover boxing and mma. And I want to train for real, maybe take a legit fight of my own one day. Thanks for the encouraging words, Sin, appreciate it more than you know.

Go for it! When you hit your early thirties, sometimes you think it's all downhill because it's not your 20's. And certainly people are going to expect more & different things from you as you get older. But in the grand scheme of things you're still a young man.

Dennis Farina didn't start acting until his late 30s and had a lot of success. That's one that immediately comes to mind. There's tons of examples of people reinventing their lives.

 

[Sinister]

shit, start now. Start a blog and and cover local fights in your area. Take online classes to grow your craft while you write. Interview fighters, cover local amateur and pro events, gyms, coaches, just jump in the water and learn to swim.

The guy who started this channel was just a fat guy who used to train at Tocco's. Now look where he is:



And he's gotten interviews with some of the smartest, most well-regarded, and handsomest people in Boxing:

 

[BluntTrauma21]

Thanks fellas you guys are some mensch's fr. Appreciate you guys.

 

[SuwoopBangin]

Big balls man, much respek for actually throwing the gloves on.

 

[Sinister]

BTW I dont know if you have kids or not but if you do, involve them in what you're doing. I dont care if my Sons become fighters, but them being part of what I do gives us a bond. And nothing shows kids that you can achieve your goals like them watching you go after yours in real time.

Otherwise they could either end up resenting you, or feeling sorry for you.

 

[BluntTrauma21]

BTW I dont know if you have kids or not but if you do, involve them in what you're doing. I dont care if my Sons become fighters, but them being part of what I do gives us a bond. And nothing shows kids that you can achieve your goals like them watching you go after yours in real time.

Otherwise they could either end up resenting you, or feeling sorry for you.

No children, but I know you're a Dad and I'm assuming you're a father figure to a lot of young guys out there in one way or another.

I remember being at a boxing card years ago and a coach brought the boys in from a boxing gym (Idk where) and I was like "these kids could be on the street doing dumb shit but they're here watching fights and learning a craft."

I always remembered that and I appreciate the work trainers do not only w/ kids/young men in the ring but how you can be a role model for them outside of the ring as well. Shouts to you for that, I'm sure you've saved many kids' futures of being dead or in prison or drug addiction etc.

 

[Nova44]

On the eve of one of the best nights of combat sports in recent years, I am going to humble myself and show an old sparring session of me and my brother from back in the day.

This was posted almost exactly 12 years ago so I was 20 at the time and my brother was 19.I know we were bad and we didn't have much room but we did our best. There's a bed we pushed away right next to us.

We taped every sparring session for years before and after but this is the only full session to survive. Edited to cut us being gassed but we were in pretty good shape back then. We're guessing we had around 200 sessions on a laptop but we lost all the footage before my brother turned ill and I became an alcoholic degenerate gambler a few years later.

I've been a reg in the boxing forum for like a decade now and I never had the balls to post this. But fuck it I'm old enough now to not give a fuck if you guys are kinda mean.

I'm in the yellow w/ all the hair and yes that is a UFC poster on the wall in the back! Shouts to Sam Stout lol!

We'd have to be a bunch of wieners to criticize you for having fun bro.

 

[jm0b]

On the eve of one of the best nights of combat sports in recent years, I am going to humble myself and show an old sparring session of me and my brother from back in the day.

This was posted almost exactly 12 years ago so I was 20 at the time and my brother was 19.I know we were bad and we didn't have much room but we did our best. There's a bed we pushed away right next to us.

We taped every sparring session for years before and after but this is the only full session to survive. Edited to cut us being gassed but we were in pretty good shape back then. We're guessing we had around 200 sessions on a laptop but we lost all the footage before my brother turned ill and I became an alcoholic degenerate gambler a few years later.

I've been a reg in the boxing forum for like a decade now and I never had the balls to post this. But fuck it I'm old enough now to not give a fuck if you guys are kinda mean.

I'm in the yellow w/ all the hair and yes that is a UFC poster on the wall in the back! Shouts to Sam Stout lol!

I started boxing at 19 on a whim and lost my first fight 3 months later. I then left for University abroad and sort of half assed it for 6 months, then dropped it altogether.

Thing is is I was travelling around N.Ireland sparring some pretty high level guys and not getting pasted, so I was tipped to be good or whatever.

That loss rocked me a bit for sure, but a year later my trainer died from a heroin overdose and I just couldn't get back into the sport. The rest of my 20s I just worked at my career and could barely exercise let alone box.

I've just turned 30 and in the last 4 months got back into exercising and boxing. I've changed as an athlete but there's talk about me having a run at the amateur season which starts in late August here.

So my point is - as long as you just get started doing something, that something inveitably turns into something else - and it's usually better. I'm back in shape and feeling great and getting punched in the head again and loving life again.