The Countdown Begins

It was approximately 0830hrs 02 Sept 05.  The phone rang.  I thought it odd someone was calling me so early.  My wife answered it and handed it to me.

"Aaron, this is Tate, I have a fight for you."

I thought to myself - Freakin Awesome.

Finally, after months of training and missed opportunities, I have a fight lined up.  The main event will occur on 24 Sept 05 at Ottawa's Rideau Carleton Racetrack - lower level.  It is a venue which will see around 500-1000 spectators come to see the action.  An action I will be a part of.  I am quite excited, anxious, and everything else inbetween.  I jump out of planes, rappel out of helicopters, hang from thin little ropes hundreds of feet off escarpments and still the thought of fighting someone gives me more butterflies in my stomach than everything else put together.  Awesome feeling.  You have to try it.

So, I'm fighting in my weight class which is light heavyweight.  My opponent is a 20 year old with 1 fight under his belt.  I'm now 31, so we'll see if the old fart can handle it.  (don't worry, I don't feel old.)  With any luck and a whole lot of skill, I'm going to hand him a defeat.  Otherwise, I'll have to write an article on sportsmanship and how to lose gracefully...I'd rather write a blog entry on the thrill of the win.  I'll save the loss story for another time.

It got me thinking though.  Every great boxer is eventually bested.  Rocky Marciano is an exception, but he retired before someone came along.  Sure as flies on shit, had he stuck around someone would have defeated him eventually.  So, what's it matter if you lose on the first or fiftieth fight?  I bet it kicks the snot out of your confidence.  Hopefully I won't be finding out anytime soon.  But sure enough, that losing article will show up here eventually.  All boxers have to have that in the back of their mind somewhere.  At the same time, there is no reason with the proper training and conditioning that you can't have one hell of a shot at winning everytime you step in the ring, and that is what I'm banking on.  I think Kareem Abdul Jabaar said it "You can't really win until you learn how to lose"

Anyways, I'm training 6 days a week, twice a day, following the phase 6 general strength training routines found here on How to Box.  So that's 3 days a week of pure strength training, 2 days of 10km plus ruck marches, 1 day of intense interval training (running), 2 days of 10km plus runs, plus all of the boxing specific workouts - heavy bag routines, sparring, and general beasting my trainer gives me.  I keep thinking in my head that my opponent is training harder than I am.  It keeps me going.

So, wish me luck, comment as you please and keep boxing.  I will be.

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