Boxing emphasis for first fight?

[jpbentley]

I've been training for a little over a year and I'll be having my first fight in December or January. (I'm in the US, by the way.)

 

We have a couple other guys at my gym who are gearing up for fights next month so I've been doing more sparring with them. Thing is, the schedule our coach laid out for us has us sparring Western boxing a strict three days a week. We're supposed to fit at least three rounds of MT sparring into each session but that hasn't been happening so far... at all.

 

I'm going to ask my coach about it tonight but I'm wondering what you all think about the apparent emphasis on Western boxing. My understanding is that a lot of gyms in Thailand dedicate one day a week (if that) to hands-only training. What is your experience with this?

[NewThai]

We are a boxing-heavy gym. I don't think it's bad to focus on hands and head movement so long as it's done with muay thai as it's focus. Like certain footwork and defensive movement works great for boxing, but is very dangerous in muay thai as there are more strikes to defend (i.e. duck down and eat a headkick).

 

If you feel the boxing is true boxing and not with muay thai in mind, then you may need to readjust the schedule so that you prepare for your actual fight. I hope that makes sense.

[jpbentley]

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for the input. We could be getting too boxing-specific with footwork and head movement. At least it seems to me. I'll check in with my coach and see what he says.

[NewThai]

Chuwattana is a thai gym that does perhaps more boxing than your average thai gym. It may be helpful to check their social media for some video for comparison (Keawsamrit another one).

[Fighting Frog]

I do think that straight boxing is a good exercise and practice as you can really concentrate on hands and moving your head, plus the footwork is always useful. But surely you don't want to be doing too much on it so close to a fight - unless perhaps your coach feels you all need a bit more work on hands? My trainer often has a few rounds with me each session that are straight boxing in order to concentrate just on hands (same as we'll often have a couple of rounds that are kicks only).

Good luck with the fight!

[jpbentley]

Thanks, NewThai, I'll check those out.

 

I agree, Fighting Frog. My coach says, aside from the benefits you listed, he also wants us to take a few hard shots to the face before we fight. He's usually very conservative when it comes to sparring so it's not like he's encouraging us to brawl. He just doesn't want our first time getting hit hard to be in the middle of a fight (we're all first timers).

 

Anyway, thanks for the well wishes! I'm excited for the fight... and also glad that I have plenty of time to prepare.