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- Feb 22, 2005
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Here's a look at another of my guys, and particularly one who likes to move forward. You've likely seen him getting roughed up by Cyclone Mike in the thread about him. But he's hit another gear since then. The back-story is that one of our resident trainers (and journeymen) Alvaro Morales, left the Gym. When he did, he recommended me to a few of his fighters. Jonathan was the one that really stuck. I'd seen potential early, but I wasn't sure how much initially. Jonathan liked to move forward like 85% of Mexican fighters do, but he also liked to bait his opponents into making mistakes to attempt to capitalize on them being out of position. What's strange about him is that he's athletic enough, but with no real defining characteristics. No blinding speed, no big power, no exceptional agility/balance, no exceptional physical strength. I stumbled upon the one intangible he was good at with the Reballdo, guys has EXCELLENT hand-eye coordination, a good sense of timing, and when he hits a pace, he can go unlimited rounds. Good endurance. This is how he looked back at the beginning with me. Fortunately, we were able to just kind of refine Alvaro's teaching, which I have a lot of respect for:
The Reballdo footage you can view here.
We had our first bout together, and I kinda thought he got hosed in it:
Then the second bout together was a nail-biter. It's tough to see but he landed cleaner punches, it's incredibly difficult to win an Amateur fight off the ropes, though, and of course...I don't like a pressure fighter acquiescing to being backed-up:
In his 4th bout, he was ahead of a Russian opponent when he caught a clean right to the nose, and it turned into a faucet. It was stopped immediately. But that and the subsequent Doctor recommendations gave us a lot of time back at the drawing board. He's another one I had to do some mental/emotional conditioning with. He's an incredibly nice guy, which is no damn good when he'd be nice at the wrong moments. He'd also second-guess himself quite a bit. So it would take him longer to initiate engagements than it should if he's going right at the opponent. The first time I saw him REALLY tap into his inner-Mexican was against Joey, who likes to stand and bang, but can be very smart about pacing:
For a long while I had a good trio of people to work with him. Mike, in the above thread, would kind of run him over with his own truck. Joey had a less ruthless pace, so there was a lot less anxiety and more fun. Then I'd occasionally put him in with Bleu because they're both thinkers:
Cont'd
The Reballdo footage you can view here.
We had our first bout together, and I kinda thought he got hosed in it:
Then the second bout together was a nail-biter. It's tough to see but he landed cleaner punches, it's incredibly difficult to win an Amateur fight off the ropes, though, and of course...I don't like a pressure fighter acquiescing to being backed-up:
In his 4th bout, he was ahead of a Russian opponent when he caught a clean right to the nose, and it turned into a faucet. It was stopped immediately. But that and the subsequent Doctor recommendations gave us a lot of time back at the drawing board. He's another one I had to do some mental/emotional conditioning with. He's an incredibly nice guy, which is no damn good when he'd be nice at the wrong moments. He'd also second-guess himself quite a bit. So it would take him longer to initiate engagements than it should if he's going right at the opponent. The first time I saw him REALLY tap into his inner-Mexican was against Joey, who likes to stand and bang, but can be very smart about pacing:
For a long while I had a good trio of people to work with him. Mike, in the above thread, would kind of run him over with his own truck. Joey had a less ruthless pace, so there was a lot less anxiety and more fun. Then I'd occasionally put him in with Bleu because they're both thinkers:
Cont'd
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