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ICEMAN DIARY- December 18, 2007: Big sparring day at the gym with near chaos at one point. I myself sparred ten rounds total with six different sparring partners (four of them did just one each) before Pito Cardona jumped in to do several rounds with three different opponents.
There were about fifteen different guys altogether who got work in today but all the sparring done tonight was overshadowed by the seven rounds (the seventh in particular) Mike-Mike did with a pro from Massachusetts who came down with his trainer and a few other guys from their gym. Now the guy Mike worked with was cool enough and it was just too bad he had to find himself caught in the middle of the beef that developed during the course of the rounds between Mike-Mike and the trainer. See, the trainer is one of these guys who is really, really gung-ho about all aspects of his being involved with boxing and he sees his fighters as all world beaters and all sparring as some type of chance to prove something on a personal level. Fighters know the type, definitely. I had heard about the particular trainer before from other people in the game in this area so it wasn't a total shock that something happened.
So Mike-Mike is sparring with the guy and it is quickly apparent that this particular guy on this particular day is not up to par with Mike Oliver. The trainer, though, every time his man even attempts to do something against Mike-Mike he yells out in Spanish, "Buena! Buena!" (Good! Good!). He's telling his guy, "Good good, that's it!" I am told he was also saying some derogatory things about Mike on a personal level while not realizing that Mike's girlfriend is Puerto Rican and, as a result, he knows enough Spanish to know that this guy isn't being particularly complimentary to him.
What made matters worse was the fact that Mike-Mike had gotten wind of the fact that this particular trainer had told someone in our camp last week that his guy was to strong for Mike-Mike but that if Mike wanted to then he should talk to his promoter about making a match between the two. Not exactly a way to ingratiate yourself among the people at the gym that is home to the boxer who you say your boxer will defeat without much trouble.
So Mike-Mike starts loading up with some good power shots on his opponent while yelling out with every punch, "Buena!" Of course the coach -who is standing on the ring apron- says something back and the next thing you know Mikey is really talking trash to the guy as he walks over towards him in a somewhat threatening manner. That little episode there almost set the wheels in motion for a full scale riot right there in that gym but I knew that we couldn't let this escalate, not in this type of gym. We train at L.A. Boxing Glastonbury, one of many in a chain of L.A. Boxing Gyms across the country that basically caters to working class men and women who are interested in getting away from a typical health club type workout and into something more demanding and exciting. That's where Pito and I come in, as we give classes several times a week to the gym members.
So at the exact moment that Mike-Mike is sparring and jawing back and forth with this trainer there is a gym full of people just ten feet away from the ring going through their one hour class that was in full swing at the time. All of our guys are there, too, as well as quite a large group from their Massachusetts gym. The gym manager recognized that this was a potential problem for this type of establishment and he quickly entered the ring in a desperate attempt to instantly squash any problems. I did my part, too, of course as did Pito, and luckily all ended up well enough but I have to be honest. Afterwards all of us were standing around talking about what happened and everyone in the gym agreed: If this was at our old gym in East Hartford or at one of the gyms we used to use in Hartford, this whole episode tonight might have ended up on the late night local news.
There were about fifteen different guys altogether who got work in today but all the sparring done tonight was overshadowed by the seven rounds (the seventh in particular) Mike-Mike did with a pro from Massachusetts who came down with his trainer and a few other guys from their gym. Now the guy Mike worked with was cool enough and it was just too bad he had to find himself caught in the middle of the beef that developed during the course of the rounds between Mike-Mike and the trainer. See, the trainer is one of these guys who is really, really gung-ho about all aspects of his being involved with boxing and he sees his fighters as all world beaters and all sparring as some type of chance to prove something on a personal level. Fighters know the type, definitely. I had heard about the particular trainer before from other people in the game in this area so it wasn't a total shock that something happened.
So Mike-Mike is sparring with the guy and it is quickly apparent that this particular guy on this particular day is not up to par with Mike Oliver. The trainer, though, every time his man even attempts to do something against Mike-Mike he yells out in Spanish, "Buena! Buena!" (Good! Good!). He's telling his guy, "Good good, that's it!" I am told he was also saying some derogatory things about Mike on a personal level while not realizing that Mike's girlfriend is Puerto Rican and, as a result, he knows enough Spanish to know that this guy isn't being particularly complimentary to him.
What made matters worse was the fact that Mike-Mike had gotten wind of the fact that this particular trainer had told someone in our camp last week that his guy was to strong for Mike-Mike but that if Mike wanted to then he should talk to his promoter about making a match between the two. Not exactly a way to ingratiate yourself among the people at the gym that is home to the boxer who you say your boxer will defeat without much trouble.
So Mike-Mike starts loading up with some good power shots on his opponent while yelling out with every punch, "Buena!" Of course the coach -who is standing on the ring apron- says something back and the next thing you know Mikey is really talking trash to the guy as he walks over towards him in a somewhat threatening manner. That little episode there almost set the wheels in motion for a full scale riot right there in that gym but I knew that we couldn't let this escalate, not in this type of gym. We train at L.A. Boxing Glastonbury, one of many in a chain of L.A. Boxing Gyms across the country that basically caters to working class men and women who are interested in getting away from a typical health club type workout and into something more demanding and exciting. That's where Pito and I come in, as we give classes several times a week to the gym members.
So at the exact moment that Mike-Mike is sparring and jawing back and forth with this trainer there is a gym full of people just ten feet away from the ring going through their one hour class that was in full swing at the time. All of our guys are there, too, as well as quite a large group from their Massachusetts gym. The gym manager recognized that this was a potential problem for this type of establishment and he quickly entered the ring in a desperate attempt to instantly squash any problems. I did my part, too, of course as did Pito, and luckily all ended up well enough but I have to be honest. Afterwards all of us were standing around talking about what happened and everyone in the gym agreed: If this was at our old gym in East Hartford or at one of the gyms we used to use in Hartford, this whole episode tonight might have ended up on the late night local news.
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