A Sinister Question

[Bekim]

Hi Sinister,

Just a quick question, did you ever box much yourself and what level did you get to, what's your story.

I am not personally an advocate of a good boxer being a good trainer and I cannot stand people that feel like they need some sort of fighting record to prove how good a trainer they are.

If you have told it back in the day under 'another' name then a refresh would be great, when you have time.

 

[clashnat]

Gil Clancy, Virgil Hunter, Teddy Atlas, Adam Booth,...

Booth started with a license to carry a spit bucket.

 

[Sinister]

Listen to this:

http://heavyhandspodcast.com/episode-2-mayweather-alvarez-matthysse-garcia-luis-monda-boxing

And then to learn about me from an outside perspective from a VERY good boxing mind, listen to this:

http://heavyhandspodcast.com/13-dadi-astthorsson-interview

I boxed in my youth as my middle school had a boxing team, and my Grandfather was adament about boxing and wrestling for self-defense. In fact I met a guy here in Vegas who was a notable Pro who fought a childhood friend of mine from that program. That was kind of weird. At 34 I took a Pro fight under fairly crappy circumstances and lost. Instead of writing a book about everything that went wrong in that venture, I'm instead building my entire teaching perspective on NEVER having that situation happen to anyone I have influence with.

My greatest claim to actual fame was sparring. When I was at Top Rank I was pretty much the only Southpaw there, and at Welterweight I could spar anyone from 120lb'ers to middleweights who needed Southpaw work. When I got to Tocco's, it was pretty similar. So I sparred quite a few Pros for a few years. Jesse Feliciano fought Carlos Quintana. I worked with him a bit for that. Don Juan Futrell fought Hector Camacho Jr., I was one of the sparring partners for that (Don Juan was a much better fighter than his career depicts, dude beat my ass on the regular). And I was frequently tapped by Jesse Reid to spar his fighters. The first time I ever stopped a Pro in sparring it was one of his guys. That was nice.

 

[Bekim]

Listen to this:

http://heavyhandspodcast.com/episode-2-mayweather-alvarez-matthysse-garcia-luis-monda-boxing

And then to learn about me from an outside perspective from a VERY good boxing mind, listen to this:

http://heavyhandspodcast.com/13-dadi-astthorsson-interview

I boxed in my youth as my middle school had a boxing team, and my Grandfather was adament about boxing and wrestling for self-defense. In fact I met a guy here in Vegas who was a notable Pro who fought a childhood friend of mine from that program. That was kind of weird. At 34 I took a Pro fight under fairly crappy circumstances and lost. Instead of writing a book about everything that went wrong in that venture, I'm instead building my entire teaching perspective on NEVER having that situation happen to anyone I have influence with.

My greatest claim to actual fame was sparring. When I was at Top Rank I was pretty much the only Southpaw there, and at Welterweight I could spar anyone from 120lb'ers to middleweights who needed Southpaw work. When I got to Tocco's, it was pretty similar. So I sparred quite a few Pros for a few years. Jesse Feliciano fought Carlos Quintana. I worked with him a bit for that. Don Juan Futrell fought Hector Camacho Jr., I was one of the sparring partners for that (Don Juan was a much better fighter than his career depicts, dude beat my ass on the regular). And I was frequently tapped by Jesse Reid to spar his fighters. The first time I ever stopped a Pro in sparring it was one of his guys. That was nice.

I can see the passion and drive now. I did wonder about the path you walked.

Thanks for sharing that with us, it's always nice to read about your fighters but I always wondered about you as a trainer and the direction you took to become who you are.

Keep it up and thanks again.

 

[Sinister]

No, thank you. I started posting here again after a long hiatus (mostly personal stuff, had a second kid, etc.) because I want to remain accessible to those who have followed what I do for years. At this point I've garnered a fair bit of local fame, and e-fame, and I want to remain true to that notion. Sincere inquiries like this make it worthwhile.

 

[Noodles03]

Sinister, one day I would like to visit your gym in Las Vegas. I'm a Sonny Liston fan and I never realized that he used to train at Johnny Tocco's gym.

 

[Sinister]

Make it happen captain.