Private Boxing Show at The Aria in Downtown Minneapolis
Back in November, my boxing coach asked if I'd be interested in fighting on a private boxing show to be held at The Aria Reception Venue in Downtown Minneapolis. The event was to be hosted and sponsored by a local bank, and this would be their end of the year customer appreciation party. I was anxious to get another fight in before year end, so I jumped on the offer.
As I've come to expect for amateur boxing, the week leading into the event, I still didn't have an opponent. My coaches and I continued to train, knowing that the chances were good that I'd get matched. Sure enough, a few days out, Devon Rismay of Element Gym in St. Paul stepped up.
I went into this bout joyfully ignorant, not knowing that Rismay was the 2015 Golden Gloves champ of St. Paul as well as having a pretty good boxing record of 13-2 compared to my 1-0 boxing record. All I knew was that one of my teammates at Uppercut Gym had given Rismay one of those losses, so I liked my chances going in and was determined to bring a good fight.
My main goal going into this fight was to win the first round. Slow starts have been the Achilles heel in my fight career up to this point. I'd made big strides in my game in 2016, and starting quickly was among the remaining major improvements that I'd wanted to make in the year.
The bell rang and I took off, ready to let my hands fly. My coach had talked to me about using my feet and movement this fight, and I'd missed a major point. Though I used great footwork in this fight, on many exchanges I'd move, but give up too much space and would be too far away to capitalize on the nice pivot or slide. I'd dodge an attack, but not be in a position to make my opponent pay for missing.
Still, this was a close, close fight where both I and my opponent were really digging deep. You know you've put on a good fight when your opponent's corner is telling you how well you did and how much you've improved since the last time they saw you fight.
I took the loss in stride, knowing that I'd really honed in on the aspects of my game that now only needed slight tweaks and I'll be beating the best amateurs in the area. These boxing fights really help me understand fighting more and I'll carry these lessons into my future fights be it boxing, muay thai, kickboxing, mma, or whatever. Fight. Learn. Repeat.
