Dancing In The Boxing Gym

Tall Kenny (pictured above) came in for extra practice.  He's fighting at Brooks Park next week.  I wanted to fight, but there was no opponent for me.  Later, Alan said he had forgotten to put a bid in for me to get a fight.  "You've got to grab and let me know that you want to fight," he said.  "There'll be a next time," I said, but I wonder.  It was suggested by my stepmother that the fight I had in October should have been my last one.  She pointed out how I was breathing hard and ran out of gas then.  I'm thinking that perhaps she's right, but then, I was looking forward to trying to get a trophy at Brooks.  It would have been a nice birthday present (my birthday is the day after the Brooks show).  If there is a last hurrah for me, it'll be a long time coming, since I'm usually not able to pick up fights until around the holidays, so my last, last fight may not be until late 2012.  I keep going back and forth with this, I know.

Activity in the gym was pumped up tonight.  Colonel brought more of his old school music in, and this time, he brought a great sounding boombox with him, the type that you plug an iPod into.  Leon was impressed so much by the music that he asked Colonel to download the songs on his iPod.  In between rounds of practice, I was stepping to a lot of the tunes.  Ray came in, heard the music and said, "Colonel got the dusties on?"  Colonel told me he had about 70 to 80 songs on there, but more were at home.  But he didn't want to download much of what his son had.  "My son likes all that rap, and I don't understand that.  Why is it that every MF on the stage in a rap concert has a microphone?  Back in the day there were only two mics -- one for the lead singer and one for the rest of the group!" he said.  "Like The Temptations, for example," I said while imitating the moves of David Ruffin on one mic, and of the other group members on the other mic.  "You are telling your age!" Colonel laughed.  "I'm Your Puppet" by James and Bobby Purify was one of the songs that came on.  As many times as I've heard that song -- I believe I was five or six when it was first released -- it never occurred to me that it's a good song to which to step.  Each time Reggie would catch me dancing, he'd laugh.  "Hillari, teach me how to step!" he said, so I showed him the basic six count that was taught to me by Willie. 

The sparring action involved Reggie, Ray, Oscar, Leon, and Kevin.  Something happened between Kevin and Oscar while my back was turned.  Oscar was laying on the canvas, then he sat up and took his gear off.  Several of us gathered around the ropes to see what was going on.  From what I gathered, Kevin had been pressuring Oscar the whole round, then Oscar ended up being pushed down. 

In the photo above, Kevin leans against the ropes, waiting on Ray to make a move.  Alan told him awhile later, "Kevin you've got to listen to me when you're in there."  Kevin's nose had been injured; I'm not sure by whom.  Alan suggested that he not spar for a couple of weeks.  "I'm 37 years old.  The clock is ticking," Kevin said, explaining why he didn't want to beg off of sparring.  "It doesn't matter.  What is two weeks to wait?" Alan told him.  I believe Kevin would have loved to get a fight at Brooks, but in light of his injury, that wouldn't be a good idea. 

Again, I was working on throwing my right correctly.  Ever since I was hit by a car back last winter, I've had an aversion to turning my right side into the punch and putting my full weight into it.  Several months ago, I couldn't turn properly because my left knee -- which took the brunt of the hit -- was so painful and unstable that I couldn't do it.  Now that it's healed (as much as it's going to be healed), I've developed a bad habit of not executing that punch the way it's supposed to be.  I'll be working on that for awhile. 

I told Pastor Roger that I might get Isaac another toy, one of those inflatable punching toys that one hits and it pops right back up.  My younger siblings and I had several of those when we were kids.  "It'll be good practice for boxing," I told the pastor.  "I don't want my son to learn violence," he said.  "But boxing is a gentlemanly sport," I protested.  Pastor smiled and said, "You can use the argument that boxing is mentioned in the Bible to convince my wife that it would be good thing for Isaac to take lessons."  It certainly sounds as if shadow boxing is being referenced in 1 Corinthians 9:26.  After all, the sport did originate in Greece, which is one of the countries referenced in the Good Book.