Matthieu and Leon

Matthieu came in without Erica tonight.  "She hurt her finger when the car door slammed," he explained.  "Were you the one who closed the door?" Amy laughed.  Matthieu grinned, and assured her that he wasn't the culprit.

He sparred with Leon.  Leon brought a couple of friends along, a man and a woman, but did not come into the gym.  They watched the action from outside the door.  Alan got into the ring to referee them.  Leon caught Matthieu with some tough body shots, but Matthieu hung in there with him.

I always worry when Leon spars with someone, mainly because he's so much bigger than anyone else in the gym.  I heard Matthieu say at one point, "I'm tired," but Alan encouraged him to keep going.

I sparred with Sarah again.  I said, "We'll go light," but we didn't do much in terms of taking it easy, especially during the third round.  After it was done, Alan told me that he was trying to get me to bob and weave and come up with hooks.  I would execute hooks to her body, but I wasn't getting in any to her head.  She got me with an overhand right that knocked my headgear about.  I guess I didn't have it on as securely as I thought.  But then, headgear only protects to an extent anyway.  I was happy that I wasn't dazed and confused when the final bell rang.

Didn't see the Pacquiao-Mosley fight, and at $55.00 for pay-per-view, I'm glad I didn't.  Several Internet reports said that Mosley didn't give much of a fight, even though Pacquiao was going for a KO in the later rounds.  Mosley was looking good during the weigh-in, which was shown on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights.  Teddy Atlas talked to Mosley after the weigh-in, and the boxer's confidence was high.  "Sugar" Shane was asked about Pac-Man's fast hands, and he commented, "I have fast hands, too."  But from what I read, Mosley's hands weren't moving that fast. 

On our way out of the gym, I asked Alan was it easier to train women to box or to train men.  He told me he hadn't trained many women at all, and few had been in attendance when Clarendon Park's boxing program was still in operation.  "Most just wanted to get in shape and stay in shape.  Of the women that I've trained, only you and Evangelina were serious about competing.  But Sarah may be interested in doing that, too. . .I don't know," Alan said.