Tuesday, 23 December 2008

The Fighters Only Xmas Boxing Bash

I think most readers would know that we at Fighters Only are anything but a bunch of suits. Of the core members of the team, more than a couple of us regularly train in one combat sport or another, so Advertising Manager David had the idea of setting up a little 'team building' visit to his boxing gym in the name of Xmas goodwill.

David's been boxing since he was a kid, and his coach Bob very kindly agreed to open up the gym, Ryton ABA, especially for us.

Myself (Hywel), marketing manager Jim, David and our resident pro MMA fighter Peter Irving donned our boxing gloves and got stuck into a very traditional boxing workout. We got started with a thorough warm up and followed it with plenty of bodyweight exercises, callisthenics, shadow boxing before moving onto the focus pads.

Bob took Peter off to one side to, as David put it, "show him how to break someone's jaw", while David and another of the lads from the club, Chris, took turns in holding focus pads for Jim and I.


Once we'd knocked about 8 rounds of padwork out, it was into the ring and onto sparring. If you're hoping for stories of well-hidden grudges or office rivalries bubbling to the surface and resulting in heated scrapping, you'l be disappointed, but that's not to say things weren't 'energetic'.

It's been about five years since I last stepped into a pure boxing club, so it was a bit of a wake-up call. It was a very enjoyable evening and very different to the usual training you would expect in an MMA session, but it really highlighted how shaking your training up a bit can benefit your game.


Anyway, happy New Year everyone, and look out for FO in 2009. It's gonna be awesome.

posted by Fighters Only Mag Editor at Tuesday, December 23, 2008 << Back To Main Page