Monday's Ring Stories

Can you see the bruise on Kim Kardashian?  This photo showed up online after she participated in a celebrity charity boxing match a few years ago.  I remember watching it on an episode of one of the many Kardashian reality shows on cable.  The woman she fought looked like she had some experience in the ring. I don't believe the woman beat Kardashian like she could have beaten her.

Yep, I forgot to bring the camera to the gym again, but I seem to keep posting the same type of sparring photos all the time, so I guess it's okay to take a break from that this time.  I need to start taking more shots of other things going on in the gym for more variety.

Franco and Ren sparred, and later, Alan commented that Franco was going a little bit too hard on Ren.  Ren is shorter than Franco and several pounds lighter.  Tony and Gabriel faced each other in the ring, with Gabriel giving Tony some tips.  Tony was better at throwing hooks this time, and Gabriel let him get in the practice.

Danny Bonaduce ("The Partridge Family") and Barry Williams ("The Brady Bunch") had celebrity boxing matches that were televised, too.  Bonaduce won his match, if I remember correctly.  Williams took a beat down during the match he was in, and ol' Greg Brady was really tired out afterwards.

I wasn't paying close attention to the sparring because I was helping Dianna (I will get the name straight) who just started in the class.  Franco joked that she should spar with me, but Dianne said, "Nope!  I'm just here for the exercise.  I'm not trying to get hit!"  Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut about the time I got knocked out by Ieisha and about the sparring sessions that left some badly bruised and bloody.  Franco told Dianne, "My nose has been broken three times," which didn't motivate her to want to get into the ring, either.  Dianne asked me if I had ever cried behind being hit in the gym.  I remember crying after I got home after my first real fight with Meg, not because I lost, but because I wished my late younger sister and brother could have been there to see it.  But crying from sparring?  Nah.  I just take those hits and deal with it.

Just like I took some hits from Alan -- again -- when we sparred at the end of the evening.  Alan kept calling me out.  "I'm gonna get you," he told me, and Dianne laughed.  "You see how Alan is always threatening me?" I grinned.  He easily got in all kinds of uppercuts on me, but I couldn't return them, even when I was in close range.  I kept finding myself backed into corners and backed into the ropes.  Then came the "oof!" body shots, one of which I'm still feeling at the moment.  I'm convinced that none of the body shots nor hooks to Alan's head I threw had any effect on him.  I was plodding around, and I got tired very fast.

Former ice skater Tonya Harding -- remember her? -- had a very brief pro boxing career.  Amy Johnson beat Harding in the last one the skater had.  Harding protested the outcome of the match to no avail.  Sort of similar to her protesting during one of her last skating competitions.  Harding didn't win there, either.