N8GainTrain
Gearchurch sponsored athlete
Well fellas; I’ve had a few days to rest up amd recover a little…thought I should let you all know how the fight went. Sorry I didn’t post my usual pre-fight week/post traing camp update on here. I was trying to remain focused on the task that was in front of me. Knowing I was going to have my hands full with this 8-0 young bull that was gunning for me and had a lot to prove.
Going into the fight the only real advantage I had over my opponent was experience having twice the amount of fights he had. On paper he had a one inch reach advantage and a two inch height advantage. I had a great training camp and felt like i was in tremendous shape and really thought I was going to dominate this fight from start to finish. Even though we both made the 140lb weigh in, he came into the ring around 7-8 lbs heavily than me which I stepped into the ring at about 145. No big deal because most of the guys I’ve been facing over the last 3-4 years have been bigger in the ring.
Round 1 started off slow then by the halfway point quickly heated up both of us exchanging and throwing a ton of punches. A lot of my work was to his body which is how I like to work in most cases fighting bigger opponents; body first then work upstairs. I’d have to say in my honest opinion he edged out the first round, which he did.
(Keep in mind I can see how all three judges scored the fight because afterwards both teams are givem copies of the scorecards. Even if the fight is stopped by KO, TKO or other stoppage the judges are still scoring up until the stoppage and are available to the teams afterwards regardless of the outcome.)
In the 2nd Rd he lured me into an exchange and I got caught with a good shot, an uppercut that I didn’t see coming, he rocked me enough that I lost my balance, stumbled backwards and my right glove touched the canvas which of course was ruled a knock down.
I had my gloves up in a high guard trying to block his counter and he slipped in a powerful uppercut and I simply just didn’t see the shot coming. Thankfully it was towards the end of the round and I was able to use my experience, hang on and survive. Also worth noting is my chin, a lesser fighter would have definitely went down, and more than likely stayed down this guy could punch, even his jab had a lot of power. This guy carried real punching power, that kind of one punch knock out power, probably one of the hardest punchers I’ve faced if im being honest. Having 6KO’s in his 8 fights I was well aware of this though.
I’ve always been what some people would call a slow starter. I wouldn’t totally agree or disagree with that statement but what I would say is I take the first and sometimes the second round to feel out my opponent and sort of download their early tendencies to see how they are going to fight and see if I can read what type of game plan they are going to try to implement. I also like to test their power as well as tying them up a couple times to test their strength against mine in the clench to see if I have an advantage there to use down the stretch to wear them down and tire their arms out later on in the fight. I wouldn’t say I usually give these first couple rounds away because I usually do enough and stay busy enough to win at least one if not both of the first two rounds. In this fight tho he ended up taking the first 3 including the 10-8 round in the second with the knock down he scored.
In the 4th round I caught him walking in with a power jab of my own that I followed with a glancing overhand right but it was the jab that I sort of shot from the hip that put him down. It did buckle his leg when he was falling backwards before it sat him on his ass but it was more of a flash knockdown bc when he got up I could see his eyes were clear and his body language was showing me he was still there and wasn’t really hurt. A younger less experienced me would have most likely jumped on him and may have got caught with something myself but I was patient and began to get back to working the body to in effect take some gas out his tank and slow him down which was the gamelan going in.
The gamplan was to box on the outside, stay behind my jab and not get into so many exchanges…(box the brawler) I could here my corner very clearly throughout this fight and up until around round 5-6 I was pressing a lot and so was he. I was trying to bully the bully so to speak and not really sticking to the game plan which would have kept me from getting hit with so many rights. Around the midway point in the fight I could hear my corner yelling “Pull, Pull!” So I would pull back even in moments I thought he was hurt and I could have got him, I pulled. I listened to my corner a lot in this fight which showed I was really trying to stick to the game plan and be disciplined. Although I could sense in moments of the fight that maybe going with my instincts would have served me better but I’ve never been the type of fighter to throw caution to the wind and ignore my corner. I’m a disciplined, patient fighter who’s team and corner have always done right by me and have always put me in the best situation to win fights.
After dropping him in the 4th round and getting back the 10-8 round I gave up in the 2nd; I also won the 5th and myself and my corner believed i had won the 6th round as well which evened up the fight in my trainers eyes at 3 rounds a piece going into the 7th which is what I remember my trainer telling me in the corner. Come to find out after the fight 2 of the judges actually gave him the 6th and the 7th and the one other judge had it flip flopped my way. Either way it was a very close fight coming down the stretch. I ended up winning rounds 9 and 10 in very impressive fashion and finished the fight strong. I could tell he was tired and his conditioning wasn’t up to par with mine. I was almost able to put him away in the 9th but he showed a lot of grit being able to hang in there taking that amount of punishment. He also kept clenching in the 10th and tying me up having the ref break us which I didn’t like very much but have to give him credit because it was a very veteran like move for being such a young fighter. Me winning the last 2 rounds turned out to be not quite enough, and just too little too late. Had this been a 12 round fight i firmly believe the outcome would have been different on the scorecards if I wouldn’t have stopped him in the 11th or 12th. but the fact is it wasn’t a 12 round fight and he got the nod.
When the scorecards were read 2 judges had it 93-95 (for him) 4 rds- 6 rds
and the other judge had it
95-93 (my way) 6 rds- 4rds
A Majority Decision for my opponent.
The 2 that scored the fight for him had cards that read the following:
Rd 1) 9-10
Rd 2) 8-10 *(17-20)
Rd 3) 9-10 * (26-30)
Rd 4) 10-8 *(36-38)
Rd 5) 10-9 *(46-47)
Rd 6) 9-10 *(55-57) (10-9)
Rd 7) 9-10 *(64-67) (10-9)
Rd 8) 9-10 *( 73-77)
Rd 9) 10-9 *(83-86)
Rd 10) 10-9 *(93-95) (95-93)
The only difference in the 3rd judges scorecard was he had me winning the 6th and 7th rounds which was the difference in this very tough, competitive, close fight. All credit and respect to my opponent. He won the fight and ended up just doing a little bit more than me to pull out the victory. This one is of course pretty tough to swallow. I feel like I listened to my corner at times I should have went with my gut instincts and what my eyes were seeing in there because at the end of the day I could see things they couldn’t. But like I said, my trainer and corner have alwsys put me in the best position to win fights and have never steered me wrong and who knows maybe they did save me from getting knocked out last Saturday but maybe they were wrong too. Just something I have to live with going forward and use as a learning experience. Now 15-2 its back to the drawing board, regroup and see what’s next. I’m physically okay just a little bruised up and some constant headaches that will subside in a couple more days. I’m always humble in victory and I will also be humble in defeat. He beat me fair and square and has a very bright future. Going forward he’s gonna be a handful for anyone in the Super Lightweight division.
I’ll have some discussions with my team over the next few weeks and go over my options but I will more than likely be going back down to Lightweight. This is what the original plan was before this fight was offered and put on the table so it’s very likely that will be the plan going forward but we’ll see.
Incredibly sorry I didn’t come out with the victory but blessed and fortunate that both of us made it out safe and home to our families…I look to be back in the gym working within 2-3 weeks. Thank you guys for all of your support and we’ll get the next one.
Going into the fight the only real advantage I had over my opponent was experience having twice the amount of fights he had. On paper he had a one inch reach advantage and a two inch height advantage. I had a great training camp and felt like i was in tremendous shape and really thought I was going to dominate this fight from start to finish. Even though we both made the 140lb weigh in, he came into the ring around 7-8 lbs heavily than me which I stepped into the ring at about 145. No big deal because most of the guys I’ve been facing over the last 3-4 years have been bigger in the ring.
Round 1 started off slow then by the halfway point quickly heated up both of us exchanging and throwing a ton of punches. A lot of my work was to his body which is how I like to work in most cases fighting bigger opponents; body first then work upstairs. I’d have to say in my honest opinion he edged out the first round, which he did.
(Keep in mind I can see how all three judges scored the fight because afterwards both teams are givem copies of the scorecards. Even if the fight is stopped by KO, TKO or other stoppage the judges are still scoring up until the stoppage and are available to the teams afterwards regardless of the outcome.)
In the 2nd Rd he lured me into an exchange and I got caught with a good shot, an uppercut that I didn’t see coming, he rocked me enough that I lost my balance, stumbled backwards and my right glove touched the canvas which of course was ruled a knock down.
I had my gloves up in a high guard trying to block his counter and he slipped in a powerful uppercut and I simply just didn’t see the shot coming. Thankfully it was towards the end of the round and I was able to use my experience, hang on and survive. Also worth noting is my chin, a lesser fighter would have definitely went down, and more than likely stayed down this guy could punch, even his jab had a lot of power. This guy carried real punching power, that kind of one punch knock out power, probably one of the hardest punchers I’ve faced if im being honest. Having 6KO’s in his 8 fights I was well aware of this though.
I’ve always been what some people would call a slow starter. I wouldn’t totally agree or disagree with that statement but what I would say is I take the first and sometimes the second round to feel out my opponent and sort of download their early tendencies to see how they are going to fight and see if I can read what type of game plan they are going to try to implement. I also like to test their power as well as tying them up a couple times to test their strength against mine in the clench to see if I have an advantage there to use down the stretch to wear them down and tire their arms out later on in the fight. I wouldn’t say I usually give these first couple rounds away because I usually do enough and stay busy enough to win at least one if not both of the first two rounds. In this fight tho he ended up taking the first 3 including the 10-8 round in the second with the knock down he scored.
In the 4th round I caught him walking in with a power jab of my own that I followed with a glancing overhand right but it was the jab that I sort of shot from the hip that put him down. It did buckle his leg when he was falling backwards before it sat him on his ass but it was more of a flash knockdown bc when he got up I could see his eyes were clear and his body language was showing me he was still there and wasn’t really hurt. A younger less experienced me would have most likely jumped on him and may have got caught with something myself but I was patient and began to get back to working the body to in effect take some gas out his tank and slow him down which was the gamelan going in.
The gamplan was to box on the outside, stay behind my jab and not get into so many exchanges…(box the brawler) I could here my corner very clearly throughout this fight and up until around round 5-6 I was pressing a lot and so was he. I was trying to bully the bully so to speak and not really sticking to the game plan which would have kept me from getting hit with so many rights. Around the midway point in the fight I could hear my corner yelling “Pull, Pull!” So I would pull back even in moments I thought he was hurt and I could have got him, I pulled. I listened to my corner a lot in this fight which showed I was really trying to stick to the game plan and be disciplined. Although I could sense in moments of the fight that maybe going with my instincts would have served me better but I’ve never been the type of fighter to throw caution to the wind and ignore my corner. I’m a disciplined, patient fighter who’s team and corner have always done right by me and have always put me in the best situation to win fights.
After dropping him in the 4th round and getting back the 10-8 round I gave up in the 2nd; I also won the 5th and myself and my corner believed i had won the 6th round as well which evened up the fight in my trainers eyes at 3 rounds a piece going into the 7th which is what I remember my trainer telling me in the corner. Come to find out after the fight 2 of the judges actually gave him the 6th and the 7th and the one other judge had it flip flopped my way. Either way it was a very close fight coming down the stretch. I ended up winning rounds 9 and 10 in very impressive fashion and finished the fight strong. I could tell he was tired and his conditioning wasn’t up to par with mine. I was almost able to put him away in the 9th but he showed a lot of grit being able to hang in there taking that amount of punishment. He also kept clenching in the 10th and tying me up having the ref break us which I didn’t like very much but have to give him credit because it was a very veteran like move for being such a young fighter. Me winning the last 2 rounds turned out to be not quite enough, and just too little too late. Had this been a 12 round fight i firmly believe the outcome would have been different on the scorecards if I wouldn’t have stopped him in the 11th or 12th. but the fact is it wasn’t a 12 round fight and he got the nod.
When the scorecards were read 2 judges had it 93-95 (for him) 4 rds- 6 rds
and the other judge had it
95-93 (my way) 6 rds- 4rds
A Majority Decision for my opponent.
The 2 that scored the fight for him had cards that read the following:
Rd 1) 9-10
Rd 2) 8-10 *(17-20)
Rd 3) 9-10 * (26-30)
Rd 4) 10-8 *(36-38)
Rd 5) 10-9 *(46-47)
Rd 6) 9-10 *(55-57) (10-9)
Rd 7) 9-10 *(64-67) (10-9)
Rd 8) 9-10 *( 73-77)
Rd 9) 10-9 *(83-86)
Rd 10) 10-9 *(93-95) (95-93)
The only difference in the 3rd judges scorecard was he had me winning the 6th and 7th rounds which was the difference in this very tough, competitive, close fight. All credit and respect to my opponent. He won the fight and ended up just doing a little bit more than me to pull out the victory. This one is of course pretty tough to swallow. I feel like I listened to my corner at times I should have went with my gut instincts and what my eyes were seeing in there because at the end of the day I could see things they couldn’t. But like I said, my trainer and corner have alwsys put me in the best position to win fights and have never steered me wrong and who knows maybe they did save me from getting knocked out last Saturday but maybe they were wrong too. Just something I have to live with going forward and use as a learning experience. Now 15-2 its back to the drawing board, regroup and see what’s next. I’m physically okay just a little bruised up and some constant headaches that will subside in a couple more days. I’m always humble in victory and I will also be humble in defeat. He beat me fair and square and has a very bright future. Going forward he’s gonna be a handful for anyone in the Super Lightweight division.
I’ll have some discussions with my team over the next few weeks and go over my options but I will more than likely be going back down to Lightweight. This is what the original plan was before this fight was offered and put on the table so it’s very likely that will be the plan going forward but we’ll see.
Incredibly sorry I didn’t come out with the victory but blessed and fortunate that both of us made it out safe and home to our families…I look to be back in the gym working within 2-3 weeks. Thank you guys for all of your support and we’ll get the next one.
