Champion

We got our first champion of the year last night at the Indy Golden Gloves. Steve "The Biscuit" won his match to become the heavyweight (189+) champ. It wasn't a pretty fight by any means with both fighters looking very much like the rookies that they are. The Biscuit won a 5-0 decision that was a little unpopular with the crowd and surprised even him a little. He received a really nice trophy and an Indiana Golden Gloves windbreaker and, of course, I forgot to bring my camera along. I'll try to get a photo of the young man with his trophy next week at the gym.

The Biscuit, like most fighters, found out last night that you have to be in more than just good shape. You have to be in fighting shape. Not the same thing at all. This is something we as coaches here are going to have to look into more closely in the future. We need a way to insure that all of our fighters are doing their roadwork and their calisthenics on their off days from the gym. It's hard to monitor the training of those preparing for a fight when the gym is full every night. Before opening up the gym, when I trained fighters I entered them in a 5K run that was held right before Christmas. Their time was a good indicator of their fitness level and I would run with them occasionally as their fight approached to see if they were improving. We need to do something of a similar nature. Perhaps get them into one of the schools and run some laps/sprints with the stopwatch on them. It's just real hard to impress upon these young guys the effort that needs to be going into their training. The minimum needs to be three hard workouts when the gym is open and two other days per week doing roadwork and calisthenics.

We have four fighters scheduled for next week, all of them championship fights. Bazooka Joe will be fighting again, plus a couple of our younger fighters. It should be a good night for us. They all have looked good here in the gym.

Congratulations Steve on your win last night.