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By Patrick Kehoe - Wiping his perspiration beaded brow with an off handed flick, an aging Muhammad Ali winced slightly, straightening up while seated on the masseur’s table at his Deer Lake training camp, explaining his entire training regiment as “tryin’ to get my speed up... I’m workin’ on my timin’, my speed!” Routinely, he’d even pop a few left handed jabs to complete his thoughts with visual aids.
Old fighters tend to strip away the pretensions of youth. They aren’t interested in building up a repertoire, an arsenal of effective weaponry. Old fighters want to get back to the basics, keen to keep things as simple as possible. So over and over they work on what they remember to be the fundamentals of what made them successful. For some it might be walking sparring partners, trying to again embody the relentlessness of pure purpose. Beat on the heavy bag and visualize what power really means when properly delivered; that was Rock Marciano’s fixation. Others spend hours in front of mirrors, trying to retrace the exacting patterns used for defensive measuring, the secure gloves at the ready posturing from which their counter shots shower unsuspecting opponents.
Up at the Golden Boy Promotions Big Bear Training facility, ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley works on his reflexive boxing, the speed driven hyper hitting style that made him lightweight champion and then the pound for pound king of boxing, at the start of the 21st Century.
Working again under the glaring eye of his father Jack, ‘Sugar’ Shane jitters and jolts, crafting his sparring sessions to peeks of frenetic stealth, skipping in and out, laying down rapid fire combinations as often as sparring partners effectively close down the distance he sets with his left jab. He knows that’s what Miguel Cotto, his next foe, will be doing closing fast with dangerous intentions. [details]
Old fighters tend to strip away the pretensions of youth. They aren’t interested in building up a repertoire, an arsenal of effective weaponry. Old fighters want to get back to the basics, keen to keep things as simple as possible. So over and over they work on what they remember to be the fundamentals of what made them successful. For some it might be walking sparring partners, trying to again embody the relentlessness of pure purpose. Beat on the heavy bag and visualize what power really means when properly delivered; that was Rock Marciano’s fixation. Others spend hours in front of mirrors, trying to retrace the exacting patterns used for defensive measuring, the secure gloves at the ready posturing from which their counter shots shower unsuspecting opponents.
Up at the Golden Boy Promotions Big Bear Training facility, ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley works on his reflexive boxing, the speed driven hyper hitting style that made him lightweight champion and then the pound for pound king of boxing, at the start of the 21st Century.
Working again under the glaring eye of his father Jack, ‘Sugar’ Shane jitters and jolts, crafting his sparring sessions to peeks of frenetic stealth, skipping in and out, laying down rapid fire combinations as often as sparring partners effectively close down the distance he sets with his left jab. He knows that’s what Miguel Cotto, his next foe, will be doing closing fast with dangerous intentions. [details]
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