"There's Been A Lot of Injuries Lately. . ."

Unfortunately, news came recently about the death of Francisco Rodriguez, a professional boxer who had been a six-time Golden Gloves champion.  He suffered a brain injury in Philadelphia during a match.  It sounded eerily similar to Rita Figueroa's brain injury a few weeks ago.  She survived after emergency surgery, and is up and about, which is a blessing.  Jamil commented, "There's been a lot of injuries in boxing lately."

Alan was surprised to hear about Rita's injury.  He then told a few stories about other boxers that had suffered injuries in the ring.  Johnny looked perturbed.  "It's a good thing we have headgear," he said.  "You can still get knocked out, even if you're wearing it," I said, thinking of when I took a TKO this past summer.  "The headgear just protects from cuts and headbutts.  When I was fighting years ago, we didn't wear any.  I had a fight stopped on me because of a cut I got from a headbutt," Alan said. 

Carlos came in without Justin, whom he said was hanging out at home.  Carlos hadn't been in for a couple of weeks because he had the flu.  He still wasn't feeling 100 percent Monday night.  He sparred with Jamil, Johnny and I.  For a guy who was under the weather, he was hitting hard.  I quickly made up my mind to protect my face, because many of Carlos' punches were landing there.  His nose had been bloodied up by Jamil and Johnny; I think I got a hit in once on his nose as well.  After about six rounds, he announced, "I'm feeling better now."

I was a little late in coming to the gym, so I missed seeing Rashawn and his friends.  I thought I heard them playing down the hall, but I didn't come out of the gym to check.  I wanted to get a picture of them to post.

After church service on Sunday, LaChelle told me she watched a replay of the Pacquiao-Cotto fight.  She commented on how bloodied up Cotto was at the end of the fight.  "I never see you with bruises and cuts.  How do you avoid getting them?" she asked me.  I've had my lip cut open twice during sparring, but amazingly, no other major gashes or bruises.  I was accident-prone as a kid; I can point to 95% percent of the scars I have on my skin and tell you when and where they occurred.  Maybe I've just been lucky that I haven't been seriously banged up -- so far.