The Few Who Boxed

 During Christmas Eve service at church Monday night, I saw Rob.  Rob used to train at Loyola Park back when Steve was the coach.  Rob fought in the Golden Gloves, and in several Park District shows.  Now Rob is the pastor of a church in the neighborhood.  Pastor Roger had invited him and a few other pastors, as well as their congregations, to come worship during the service.  Rob read a few passages of Scripture.  He told me he wants to bring his son by the gym to get him involved in boxing.  I remembered when his son was small.  Now his son is 15 years old, and I had to look up at him.  I told Rob and his son to come on in when they get the chance.

I didn't expect very many to show up at the gym Wednesday night.  Attendance is always way down the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.  Outside of Alan, only Andre and I were in the gym. 

Alan decided to work with Andre and I on our punches by using the punch shield, or donut, as it's sometimes nicknames.  Andre threw what seemed to be a lot of hard punches into the shield.  He told Alan and I that he has a push up bar at home, and he's started to use it. 

 



When I was in the ring with Alan, my balance was off, and my reactions were slow.  But my hands were up.  Good thing, too, because Alan reached his hand out to tap me on the side of my face, and I covered up before impact.  I threw several jabs to the middle of the shield, and Alan moved it as I threw the last one.  It caught him a little on the chin.  I cringed.  "It's okay," he said, and we continued.

 

You may be asking yourself, "For the third time, she's got a picture of Jack Benny on here.  What gives?"  Okay, I admit to being a bit obsessed with the late comedian recently (who by the way, passed away about 38 years ago on Wednesday).  While looking at videos on YouTube, I came across a clip from Dick Cavett's old talk show.  Smokin' Joe Frazier was one of the guests.  The other two were Bill Cosby, and -- you guessed it -- Jack Benny.  Frazier was talking about a recent fight he'd had with George Foreman.  Benny asked Frazier did he feel pain immediately upon taking a punch or did the pain show up later on.  Frazier said something along the lines of it was hard to explain how a punch felt in the heat of battle, especially when the goal is to keep going and get back at the opponent.  Cosby quipped to Frazier, "But doesn't something in your mind go 'uh-oh' when a punch is coming in?"