"But You're Too Pretty To Box!"

Things in the gym seem to intensify around the time of the Golden Gloves.  Even those of us who aren't in the tournament appear to step up our training.  Alan and I sparred, and he kept telling me to go for his head.    Outside of the fact that he's taller than I, I don't know why I kept aiming for his shoulders.  Maybe it's a mental thing I have about hitting people in the face.  I never seemed to have a problem doing that when I was younger during fights with my siblings and kids on the street. 

Earlier today, I went to talk with an administrator at DePaul University about taking a paralegal course.  It's been two years since I was laid off of my job at the social service agency as of this month.  There is zero desire to be a secretary/administrative assistant again.  The time has long been past for me to make a career change.  I had a very pleasant and informative visit with the administrator.  He noticed I was wearing a boxing hoodie.  I explained that I boxed, and he was floored.  "But, but. . .you're too pretty to box!" he exclaimed.  Now I've had others tell me the usual stuff like, "You can get hurt!", but that was a new one on me.  I was tickled.

Tonight was finally Carlos' turn to box at the Gloves.  He was still fighting the cold that seems to have plagued him for weeks.  He thought he might have picked it up at the barbershop where he gets his hair cut.  Carlos' fight came up rather quick after the third, fifth and sixth fights of the evening all ended by stoppage.  His opponent was a guy who looked to be about 6 foot 2.  Carlos is 5 foot 8.  John volunteered to help Alan in the corner.

Both guys were equally aggressive in the first round.  Carlos got some good hooks to the body.  It looked as if he was going to cut the guy down to size by doing those.  His opponent, Matt, hunted for Carlos's head during the second round.  Carlos remained focused on Matt's body.  Carlos looked hesitant.  Later, he would say that he was winded from the first round.  There was a lot of holding going on.  As soon as Carlos would go in for the inside shots, Matt would grab Carlos and smother him.  The holding continued throughout the third round, where Carlos didn't throw many punches.  The win went to Matt.

"I failed," Carlos said afterwards.  "Well, you got the nervous energy out," I told him.  Carlos plans to lose weight -- he's 195 pounds -- because he thinks he would do better at a lighter weight.