Knocking The Cold Out of Someone

In the photo above, Coach Alan (in the gray cut off tee) and Paul, his boss at his day job (in the white trunks standing next to Alan) stand ringside while Gene (a new guy in the gym) and Andre Two work it out in the ring.  Once again, Andre Two was the man of the evening as he went several rounds with a few of the fighters.

Andre Two went a few rounds with Art (who's on the right in the photo above).  He also was in the ring with Andre One.  I kept hearing Andre One going, "Whoo!" and saying things that indicated that Andre Two had either gotten close to hitting him and/or had landed some good shots.  I was on the teardrop bag, so I didn't see a lot of what they were doing.  From what I did see, there were times when Andre Two could have really caught Andre One with some hooks to the body, but he didn't always capitalize on the opportunities. 

Yet Andre Two is getting better and better at avoiding a lot of shots, no matter how big or small the person in front of him is.  He encouraged me to get in a lot of shots when he and I were sparring.  Andre Two's head was knocked back a few times when I threw my right.  Believe me, I had to put a lot of effort into reaching up that far. Then Andre Two allowed me to get in a lot of shots to his body.  I never, ever think when I'm throwing those shots that it's hurting him much at all.  In fact, I never think my punches are doing much damage on any of the guys I've sparred with.  But he always tells people afterward how hard I hit, then Paul, Alan, and the other guys laugh and agree with him.

After Andre Two took one of my hits to his head, he laughed, "Hillari, you knocked the illness out of me!"  He had said in between rounds that he was fighting off a cold.  Maybe I caught the cold I had last week from him; who knows?  But mine is gone now, so that's a good thing.

 Amy told me that Sarah plans to fight in Loyola Park's boxing show which takes place in late September.  I was very glad to hear that as I've always thought that Sarah would do very well in matches. 

This is another post that's being typed on a computer at church since the Internet at home is still down.  A couple of cable guys came out yesterday and concluded that neither the Internet nor the cable was hooked up properly.  The cable is fine, but I was told the Internet connection has to rebuild so it won't be back up until tomorrow.  That put me behind a bit on updating the web pages and the Facebook page for Smart Women Boxing Training, but I'll get back to that soon.

Two guys stopped in the gym looking for Barry.  They seemed surprised that he wasn't around, and that's not the first time.  It seems that everybody knows about the youth boxing program, but few know there's an adult boxing program at the field house, too.  One of the men said he fought professionally.  Paul said to me, "Do you believe that guy is a professional with only two fights?"  "It's possible," I told him.  There are amateur boxers who've never had a fight.  I remember Steve, the former coach, showing me a drawer full of old boxing licenses of guys who registered with USA Boxing but never had matches.  There are a lot of professional fighters -- journeymen -- who've only had a handful of fights. 

Looks like Paul L. and JJ have professional fights coming up again on Friday the 13th at the UIC Pavilion.  I doubt that'll be an unlucky night for those two, as they both are currently undefeated.  My finances are in the ICU, but I'll see what I can do to get a ticket because I would love to see their bouts.