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Hey everyone, I wanted to start a thread about my boxing team so as to not overrun the coach and trainers thread with them.
The gym I work out of has north of 400 members, more BJJ black belts than you can shake a stick at, and 3-5 current or retired UFC fighters coaching or training on any given day. I was at one point the head striking coach, amateur mma coach, Dutch kickboxing coach, and now I’m lucky enough to be more or less left alone as I run my boxing program. I still work with a few mma pros, still occasionally travel and work corners but for the most part I’m happy doing my thing focusing on the sweet science.
I’ve got probably a dozen boxers registered with USA boxing with fights under their belt and another half dozen I expect to pop their cherries this year. I’ve got 3 other coaches on payroll (plus 2 for cardio kickboxing), one who’s a coach in training, and another who trains with us that I’m trying to court away from another gym.
Sufficient to say, it’s a lot.
I started the program from scratch during the tail end of the pandemic. I put some horsepower into growing our members (90% of the boxers are here for fitness and fun, thank Christ.) but the owners are handling that so I just get to teach boxing and win fights.
I wanted to highlight 3 of my athletes specifically. The three I see with the most potential to take the sport somewhere serious at least as amateurs. Long term goals are making team USA which is crazy considering they all got late starts by boxing standards. I’ve got a few others who can really box and move and deserve to be mentioned with a ton of potential too but I’m waiting to see if they can get their personal lives together in a way that will allow them to succeed.
first up:
collin, aka “superbad”
I’ll post the other two tomorrow, I’m tired and ran out of steam.
The gym I work out of has north of 400 members, more BJJ black belts than you can shake a stick at, and 3-5 current or retired UFC fighters coaching or training on any given day. I was at one point the head striking coach, amateur mma coach, Dutch kickboxing coach, and now I’m lucky enough to be more or less left alone as I run my boxing program. I still work with a few mma pros, still occasionally travel and work corners but for the most part I’m happy doing my thing focusing on the sweet science.
I’ve got probably a dozen boxers registered with USA boxing with fights under their belt and another half dozen I expect to pop their cherries this year. I’ve got 3 other coaches on payroll (plus 2 for cardio kickboxing), one who’s a coach in training, and another who trains with us that I’m trying to court away from another gym.
Sufficient to say, it’s a lot.
I started the program from scratch during the tail end of the pandemic. I put some horsepower into growing our members (90% of the boxers are here for fitness and fun, thank Christ.) but the owners are handling that so I just get to teach boxing and win fights.
I wanted to highlight 3 of my athletes specifically. The three I see with the most potential to take the sport somewhere serious at least as amateurs. Long term goals are making team USA which is crazy considering they all got late starts by boxing standards. I’ve got a few others who can really box and move and deserve to be mentioned with a ton of potential too but I’m waiting to see if they can get their personal lives together in a way that will allow them to succeed.
first up:
collin, aka “superbad”
18 years old
165lbs
8-1
This fuckin kid. Started with me 2 years ago after he kept getting in trouble for backyard boxing with his dipshit buddies. Collin trained for a year before I let him fight (I generally over prepare guys for that first one, I’m a worry wart with high standards). He went out and TKO’d the kid. His second fight he would of done the same but I had him hold back bc the officials were nervous since the kid came in almost a weight class lower after we had agreed to a match bout at 165. Collin put an 8 count on the kid in the first and second rounds and then jabbed and moved for the remainder. For the third round I told him to box and not hurt the kid, no 8 counts and he pulled it off. Fight 3 against a boxer with 6 fights from Texas who had just knocked someone out. We boxed his ears off. 4 was another tko, this time in the first.
at this point we got an offer against a dude with 12 fights and I said fuck it, let’s test his mettle. This wound up being Collins first loss in a highly competitive match. I don’t disagree, we lost but it was close. Afterwards we found out that the opponent was fresh off taking second place at the national silver gloves tournament. We had a rematch 2 weeks later and Collin won, wobbling the guy and putting a standing 8 on him in the third. They had a rubber match scheduled a week later but the kid’s coach reached out to me and said they don’t want it. They were dropping down a weight class and didn’t want to box Collin again. Coach said he’d never seen his kid hurt like that. (Nice guy, fantastic trainer. we’re arranging some sparring soon). We’ve had 3 more bouts since then, all wins.
Our next tournament is a big one up here in Oregon. Collins first time in an open division, adult tournament. I’m nervous but expecting him to win. (That’s always my expectation, regardless of the field).
I don’t. Have any full fights to share. I might have a few buried on my phone, but nothing online. It’s all well and good though, we have a hard enough time getting local guys to fight him that I don’t need a bunch of tape floating around of him mollywhopping opponents all over the ring.
Clip from his debut:
Clip from Fight 7, first one in the adult division:
Fight 8 corner advice:
Because he’s just a big goofy kid:
165lbs
8-1
This fuckin kid. Started with me 2 years ago after he kept getting in trouble for backyard boxing with his dipshit buddies. Collin trained for a year before I let him fight (I generally over prepare guys for that first one, I’m a worry wart with high standards). He went out and TKO’d the kid. His second fight he would of done the same but I had him hold back bc the officials were nervous since the kid came in almost a weight class lower after we had agreed to a match bout at 165. Collin put an 8 count on the kid in the first and second rounds and then jabbed and moved for the remainder. For the third round I told him to box and not hurt the kid, no 8 counts and he pulled it off. Fight 3 against a boxer with 6 fights from Texas who had just knocked someone out. We boxed his ears off. 4 was another tko, this time in the first.
at this point we got an offer against a dude with 12 fights and I said fuck it, let’s test his mettle. This wound up being Collins first loss in a highly competitive match. I don’t disagree, we lost but it was close. Afterwards we found out that the opponent was fresh off taking second place at the national silver gloves tournament. We had a rematch 2 weeks later and Collin won, wobbling the guy and putting a standing 8 on him in the third. They had a rubber match scheduled a week later but the kid’s coach reached out to me and said they don’t want it. They were dropping down a weight class and didn’t want to box Collin again. Coach said he’d never seen his kid hurt like that. (Nice guy, fantastic trainer. we’re arranging some sparring soon). We’ve had 3 more bouts since then, all wins.
Our next tournament is a big one up here in Oregon. Collins first time in an open division, adult tournament. I’m nervous but expecting him to win. (That’s always my expectation, regardless of the field).
I don’t. Have any full fights to share. I might have a few buried on my phone, but nothing online. It’s all well and good though, we have a hard enough time getting local guys to fight him that I don’t need a bunch of tape floating around of him mollywhopping opponents all over the ring.
Clip from his debut:
Clip from Fight 7, first one in the adult division:
Fight 8 corner advice:
Because he’s just a big goofy kid:
I’ll post the other two tomorrow, I’m tired and ran out of steam.
