Adam’s Cerebral Spillage

I took last Friday off to travel up to old London town with some friends to go and watch the latest in the Prizefighter series of tournaments. If you don’t know what I’m talking about and haven’t read any of my previous posts, Prizefighter is a format created by Barry Hearn to try and get some excitement and interest back into boxing now that MMA (and the UFC in particular) are slowly taking over. This was going to be one worth watching as we had Danny Williams and Audley Harrison on the card and they’re not famed for their love of each other. I’d have liked to have seen Michael Sprott too, but after a family tragedy he had to pull out.

We made pretty good time on the road on the way up, but despite my suggestion of heading onto the M25 from the M4, and wrapping around the bottom of London (which is by far the easiest way of getting to ExCel), the oh-so-helpful satnav took us straight through London. When I say straight through I mean straight through; we came up past the Natural History Museum, up Knightsbridge past Harrods, then on past Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus, and finally along the Thames within spitting distance of the Eye. The last time I was there was a warm evening in the summer and it was far less stressful than sitting at red light after red light in a carful of people trying to point the right direction. It’s amazing how much of it I didn’t take in the last time I was there.

After a slight detour, a quick freshen up and a few beers we wandered down next to the DLR to ExCel (which, by the way, has had a MASSIVE expansion built) and joined the huge throng of people who’d come to watch the boxing. Luckily we got there quite early, as we had unreserved seating – that is to say a free-for-all – and managed to get some good seats with a really good view of the action. There were quite a few boxing celebrities in attendance including David Haye (I can’t wait to see him fight Valuev), Amir Khan and Michael Watson, and a really good atmosphere thanks to the 5000 others packed in. I think everyone in there was expecting to see a Williams/Harrison final, especially after the completely random draw (honest guvnor) put them on opposite sides of the brackets. We didn’t get to see that fight though….

Williams got drawn against a guy nicknamed ‘The Fridge’ and it was easy to see why, he was over twenty stone. What should’ve been a walk in the park for Williams was one of the worst fights I’ve ever see, he was knocked down twice in each of the opening two rounds and barely threw a punch, just leaning in and holding on. It got to the point where we and everyone around us were shouting things like ‘It’s supposed to be a fight” and “Hit him!”. The third and final round was a bit better, but by then it was too late, he was out. Considering all of his boasting beforehand and stating that he’d retire if he didn’t win the tournament, it’ll be interesting to see what he does now. One of the other favourites, Scott Gammer, went out in the first round too.

Most of the entertainment for the evening came in the shape of Audley (Fraudley, Audrey, Ordinary) Harrison though. He famously won Olympic gold, then went on to do…. well, nothing really. He moved to America because apparently “there’s a better standard of competition out there and there’s noone worth fighting in the UK” (I’m paraphrasing). This didn’t win him any fans over here, especially after he only won about half his fights over there against unknowns. So every time he came into the ring, or did anything, he got booed. Honestly, it was like panto at times, but very amusing. The biggest cheer of the night came when he slipped on the canvas and fell on his ass. The final actually turned out to be worth the wait. A relatively unknown Irish fighter, Coleman Barrett, won through to the final thanks to some brilliant boxing and movement, he was easily the best technical boxer there that night. He met Harrison in the final, and despite out-boxing Audley for most of it, Harrisons class came through towards the end of the second round and a couple of thundering lefts put Coleman out. I think by the end of the night Harrison had gone some way toward getting some respect back from the fans, but he’s got a long way to go. He said he wants to fight Haye…. yeah, maybe not just yet eh?

An awesome weekend all in all, my first taste of live pro boxing and I definitely want more. There’s nothing like the atmosphere of a packed arena and hearing some of those hits land. Back to work this morning was hard, especially when it was so dark, me feeling ill, and after getting some very upsetting news when I got there, I could do with some cheering up.

Technorati Tags boxing, Prizefighter

I’m absolutely knackered today.

I wish I could say it’s because I had this wild weekend and am still recuperating, but it’s nothing as glamorous or hedonistic as that. After training on Friday I was all geared up and ready for the local Rock Night, which is my favourite night out and I hadn’t been for the previous three months. Well, now we can make that four months. I had a frantic call as I finished training to tell me that the taps in the new bathroom had broken and that water was basically pissing out behind the bath, through the floor and down into the kitchen. Water was running off the light fittings (eek!), out of the extractor fan, and there were huge damp marks on the ceiling where the joists meet the plasterboard. That little disaster put paid to any thoughts of going out, so instead I got an early night.

It was a good idea on the face of it, the kickboxing class on Friday night had been pretty hard and even today I’m still feeling the ill effects of trying to lift someones bodyweight with my shoulders in a sit-up stylee. I got asked at late notice to help with a grading on Saturday afternoon – a second Dan grading at that. It’s very rare to get a chance to see what happens at a Dan grading, so I took the opportunity to help out and to have some of it treated as pre-grading tests for my own Dan grading in the winter. It was a bit of an eye-opener and I can’t say it’s made me want my turn to come any faster. It was reasonably tiring even for me for various reasons, but mostly for a lot of no-pads sparring. There wasn’t anything in the way of pulled punches that afternoon.

I only had a few hours to get my dobok washed, dried and ironed again before I was back at the dojang at Sunday lunchtime, this time for the Gup gradings. It was relatively small compared to previous events, but all of the tension and nervousness was still present. Everyone did admirably well, but with all of the sparring, the big lesson after and then teaching the kids’ class afterwards I’m feeling shattered today. I’d have given just about anything for another hour in bed this morning.

Tonight’s not going to help me much, as Mondays are by far the busiest and most hectic with dog agility and BJJ almost straight after work, and then getting home at 10pm. I am looking forward to dog agility though. Although there’s quite a bit of running about and the chance I’ll land on my ass in the middle of a cold field again, it makes Murph so happy it’s worth it. He gets all happy and squeaky when we get near the place, and the fact that I have a big bag of cheese in my pocket tends to do the trick too. I’m thankful this is only a four-day week for me this week, as I’m off to London to watch the Prizefighter tournament on Friday. I can’t wait to watch the bouts and to sit down and do nothing for a few hours. Sprott’s pulled out, but I still hope I get to see Williams and Harrison knock lumps out of one another.

What I’d do for forty winks about now…

Technorati Tags dog agility, grading, Prizefighter, tired

October is starting to look like it’s going to be a busy (and expensive) month. I’m booked up for the first couple of weekends already, and I know there are birthdays and suchlike in there too.

First up is a trip to the capital I’m really looking forward to, I tend to always have a great time if I head up to Londinium. That first weekend three friends and I are heading up to take in some Queensbury Rules, that is to say we’re going to watch some boxing! In an attempt to make boxing more popular again, in the face of some seriously stiff competition from MMA franchises such as UFC, a new format of boxing evenings has been introduced and is getting more popular all the time. We’re going to the next HeavyWeight Prizefighter tournament. It follows a straight knockout tournament style, starting with eight fighters and ending the evening with one victorious finalist. The fights are 3×3 minute rounds which should ensure a) the fighters are exhausted by the time they get to potentially their third fight of the night, and b) there’ll be plenty of action. The difference between this and previous tournaments is that it’s starting to attract some pretty big names to fight. We’ll be watching the likes of Danny Williams, Audley Harrison and Michael Sprott slugging it out, and Danny WIlliams has put his British title on the line! It was originally going to be held at Bexleyheath, but thanks to it selling out instantly and the organisers wanting to add another four thousand(!) seats, it’s been moved to the ExCel arena, a place I’m no stranger to.

The second weekend sees me heading to Kimbolton, somewhere in the middle of Peterborough, Cambridge and Northampton. I’m going up for the British Tang Soo Do championships as a bit of a last minute decision, but I’m really looking forward to it now. Originally I was going to skip it in favour of the Europeans the weekend after in Poland, but it looks like that isn’t going to happen now. It’ll be nice to meet up with the various Masters and hundreds of other students, and no doubt share a beer or two with them.

We’re having a really good spot of weather at the moment, almost like a consolation for the summer that never was. It’s actually really nice driving into work when it’s like this, the sun sits really low in the sky and it all feels really fresh. I was grinning and singing away to a bit of Angels & Airwaves on the way in today and it was glorious. This weekend should see a few more celebrations too, my friend’s new wife has her birthday, and another friend who’s just come back from Korea has belated 30th celebrations due too – whether she likes it or not.

Oh, and as if by some divine miracle, the lawn I sowed a couple of weeks ago is starting to sprout like crazy. It feels all fuzzy and soft and is already looking nice and green. I think I’m going to let it grow as it is for now and then in the Spring get a rotovator in for the day, turn the whole lawn over, get rid of the rocks and debris, and re-seed it. It should give a really nice thick, healthy lawn and I’ll be able to fill in the bald patches. If only it was so easy to do the same with my head.

Technorati Tags competition, lawn, Prizefighter