My last fight was a rematch and the result was a draw, theoretically with the intention of meeting yet again two weeks later. In fact, when the draw was announced my camp told me that it was likely because that would ensure a third match, which didn’t make a great deal of sense to me, but I did think it would be a good fight because our draw had been pretty heavily a reversal of the first fight. I prepared for an all out war.
Once we got to the venue for my 20th fight night I looked at the card to see where my fight was in line and noted that the name on the paper for my opponent was not who I’d expected. One the one hand, the training I’d done in preparation for a rematch should translate to any opponent; on the other hand, having visualized one person and being presented another has it’s psychological affects, even if it shouldn’t.
This woman I fought is bigger than I am and when we first touched gloves in the center of the ring I noticed she was southpaw. Even though I’d acknowledged this information, I didn’t properly register it. Ironically, just hours earlier in the day I’d offered advice to a guy at the camp who was sparring a southpaw to use his right side “all day” – right cross, right kick. Didn’t follow my own advice there.
In the second round my corner told me to stop chasing and just wait it out, which was difficult as each passive moment felt eternal. I did block better in that approach, but ultimately my great problem in this fight was (again) distance in that I was either too far away to strike or too collapsed to strike without spending enough controlled time in the appropriate range to deliver any of my power. Fights are diagnostics and my next two weeks of training have clear goals for what we’ll be working on. It always sucks to lose, but the best medicine is another fight.
The Whole Fight
