My debut fight, opinions?

[Ghosthammer]

Very similar scene to what you would see outside my local kebab shop at 1am on a Friday night...

I'm only kidding fella fair play to you for having the balls, cant offer any tips as never raised my fists in anger, other when the misses gets a bit chopsy.

More pertinent question is why that m****er is sat ringside in shades? Unless he's blind of course and the hottie next to him is giving him a running commentary.

[GGG Gloveking]

Like the other guys said, you seemed to use the jab almost like a battering ram. You'd lean a little too far into it and get off balance at times. You were able to catch him a few times with the jab still, which is good.

Like you said about the 3rd, the right was there for you. You just seemed too tentative to use it. A few times he was open for the right following the jab, and a few times you got him.

Keep your head up, both literally and figuratively. You would drop your head down any time shots came, and were open. Keep working, keep training, and keep enjoying boxing.

[M2H25]

That was a great go for your first time out considering you only started in July, the important thing is that you stuck in there for the distance and didn’t stop trying for the duration. There are some good comments particularly about sharpening up the jab here, and adding more punch variety is very good advice since by your own admission you were planning on “hiding behind the jab”.

A big problem I saw was that you fell in during most of the exchanges, I know that this is probably down to nerves and will sharpen up naturally with time but if you can keep that to a minimum that would help a lot. Generally speaking you kept your stance on the move which is good and with practice you’ll be able to use your footwork to walk the opponent onto your shots in the future as the taller guy.

Overall not a bad debut and like you say you got that first one out of the way so you don’t have to worry about the nerves as much next time. The main advice really is to sharpen your fundamentals between now and then with both the feet and hands. Congratulations for getting into the ring and best of luck for the next one.

[OctoberRed]

Very similar scene to what you would see outside my local kebab shop at 1am on a Friday night...

Why are there always fights late night outside the kebab shop? Isnt that where Charr was shot?

[RossyJames]

Stick the jab and don't lower your head. Keep your eyes on the target (unless you gotta get out of the way of a shot). When you were jabbing you were leaving it out there and just pushing with your back leg. It was like a battering ram that didn't hit it's target, yet still pushed on. You did land some good jabs tough. But when you missed the jab instead of leaving it there and pushing why not just reload it and fire it again. And don't take such a huge step , with your front foot. Steps are small in boxing. By reloading I mean letting the force of your back leg, brining the shot back from his face only as far as it takes you to go from 180' knuckles to 90' knuckles, just a simple turn of your fist and bend of the elbow. As soon as you're are 90' again with your knuckles... Bang!! You fire the jab a 2nd time with your back leg/foot behind the shot, stepping forward just a bit.

You got up there and you did it man, that's the way you do it!

Why no right hands until the 3rd round. It gives the opponent more to think about if you show it earlier, but not too early!

How many times have you sparred would you guess?

Now, unlike so many in these forums, you have experience! Good job...…...Rockin'

That's another mistake I forgot to mention, I kept lowering my head but I think that was due to never being hit full on before, in sparring everyone goes easy of course so it was a first for me.

I really need to practice on my double jab as you've mentioned, at the moment it just feels like I am knocking on a door so it's why I stayed away from using it but with focusing on getting it a lot better it hopefully won't be a problem in the future.

And I wasn't using right hands in the beginning because I wasn't confident with it but when I used it for the first time, I'm unsure why I even tried using it but glad I did because it hit, and then it hit two more times before the final bell rang. If I hadn't of got those hits in I am unsure if I would be given boxing another go, I know that's such a quitter attitude to have but the third round I feel I did something right and after watching it over and over I feel that as I said, yeah I did something right so I'm going to continue due to that. Without that round I would be feeling like I didn't do anything to him at all and would be really questioning myself.

I've sparred about 30ish rounds in total, probably a bit more. But sparring isn't the same thing so I really needed actual fight experience

And small steps? I thought taking big steps and trying to bully him around the ring due to my height and reach advantage would work but obviously didn't.

[RossyJames]

F#cking fancy ass venue for your first fight. Noooooiccce.

You seemed waaaaaaay nervous first off. Like more than Id expect. You seemed to be using a lot of nervous energy maybe because of that which likely didnt do you any favors. Idk how much you are sparring but maybe you should be doing it more often til you gain more comfort in the ring & hitting & being hit.

If you just had jitters cuz this was your first time in front of strangers boxing disregard. Youll get over that eventually & its understandable.

The jab was very pushy as someone else mentioned instead of being thrown & snapped. Id work on that a lot. As a taller cat your jab is gonna be extremely important to your success in fights & its the starting ground for all your offense so make it as strong as you can. Itll make everything else fall into place better & easier.

Tighten up the defense. You just kinda held your arms up in front of your body the whole way.

Good first fight considering you jumped in so soon into training.

And one thing I always recommend to cats learning boxing is to go watch some Ricardo Lopez fights & try to do things you see him doing. He was one of the most technically strong boxers of the 90s & his technique is worth copying as much as you can. Also watch more high level guys who others talk about their abilities or guys you enjoy & try to use things they do as well. I think it increases your learning curve to be dealing with your own stuff in the gym & using time outside the gym to watch high level guys with abilities you wanna get as close as you can to.

Good luck in the future brother.

Fighting at a good venue was due to being a part of a good gym and a good competition, and by good I mean safe, it was so important to me that I found a good gym that has every boxers best interests instead of just looking for people to make boxers they have look good.

I've heard of a lot of people that have given boxing a try and got completely battered as they were put against someone that was just on another level and was a big set up to make them look good. I didn't want an ass of a boxing promoter to ruin my experience of giving boxing a try, especially as I knew my family would be watching so I did search around for a family based boxing gym and I luckily made the right choice.

And yeah I was nervous, on the day it's self I was getting terrible anxiety and was shakey etc but now that I've fought once I can't see it being a problem at all, I have problems with anxiety but once I've done something I adapt really quickly. I'll probably be a bit nervous for my next fight but nothing like before so I look forward to uploading that video and showing you all improvements.

Sparring I'm going to do it as much as possible, now that I've made friends in boxing outside of the gym we can spar etc and help each other, before I had nobody to practice with.

[RossyJames]

Good for you. You've got the right attitude and that's something that can't be taught!
You showed excellent endurance and and your right hand kept the other fighter off you. As a beginner it's important to fight guys at your own level so you can be successful and success builds on itself.
At this stage of development, it's important to focus on footwork and your jab. Power comes from the ground up. Work on the fundamentals, spar and watch boxing instruction on the internet.
Practice as much as you can but not too much that you lose your enthusiasm. Good luck and have fun!

Yeah I definitely want to fight someone with around the same experience and someone who's only fought once like I have for my next fight so that I can have more fun in there. It all depends on who joins the competition etc. I've still not met any of it's contenders except for a few people that fought on the previous one that said they're doing it again.

[RossyJames]

Very similar scene to what you would see outside my local kebab shop at 1am on a Friday night...

I'm only kidding fella fair play to you for having the balls, cant offer any tips as never raised my fists in anger, other when the misses gets a bit chopsy.

More pertinent question is why that m****er is sat ringside in shades? Unless he's blind of course and the hottie next to him is giving him a running commentary.

I think his names Clifton, but I am unsure due to the shades he was wearing. If it's Clifton he's a former pro boxer and runs an allied gym to Fearon's where I train.

Yeah did look a bit OTT LOL.

[RossyJames]

Like the other guys said, you seemed to use the jab almost like a battering ram. You'd lean a little too far into it and get off balance at times. You were able to catch him a few times with the jab still, which is good.

Like you said about the 3rd, the right was there for you. You just seemed too tentative to use it. A few times he was open for the right following the jab, and a few times you got him.

Keep your head up, both literally and figuratively. You would drop your head down any time shots came, and were open. Keep working, keep training, and keep enjoying boxing.

I feel that if I had better stamina and fought like I did in round three with using right hands etc it would have been a closer called fight.

[RossyJames]

That was a great go for your first time out considering you only started in July, the important thing is that you stuck in there for the distance and didn’t stop trying for the duration. There are some good comments particularly about sharpening up the jab here, and adding more punch variety is very good advice since by your own admission you were planning on “hiding behind the jab”.

A big problem I saw was that you fell in during most of the exchanges, I know that this is probably down to nerves and will sharpen up naturally with time but if you can keep that to a minimum that would help a lot. Generally speaking you kept your stance on the move which is good and with practice you’ll be able to use your footwork to walk the opponent onto your shots in the future as the taller guy.

Overall not a bad debut and like you say you got that first one out of the way so you don’t have to worry about the nerves as much next time. The main advice really is to sharpen your fundamentals between now and then with both the feet and hands. Congratulations for getting into the ring and best of luck for the next one.

Yeah the last thing I wanted to do was gas out and have to throw in the towel, it's probably why I didn't throw as much so fitness is key from now until December. I want to feel a lot more comfortable in there.

I think me falling around was yeah my nerves and just not being that experienced on my feet but it's something I'm going to try very hard to improve with in the future.