Just Ashley and me tonight. I have been worrying about my ribs, the pain intensity seems to come and go however writing this the day after - having just done a 5k run I feel on good form...
I don't know what went wrong tonight - sparring with Ashley was a disaster. I must have taken a 20 or so big blows to the head despite him saying he wouldn't hit me hard. I was worried about my ribs and as a result failed to stand up straight. He was different to fighting Dave - 6ft tall and over 16 stone for a start, but very very good at slipping my punches and (because I was in too close) coming in between my punches. I don't think I managed to land a right punch without getting one in the head.
Only one good moment: earlier in the session Jason told me if an opponent is bearing down on you then an uppercut never fails. In our last round this happened and I got him with a nice left. So my mind is working, I know what I should be doing but physically I didn't deliver. I felt like I was a human punchbag but Ash got puffed out very easily which made it a tiny bit easier for me to break through his blocking muscleman arms. By the end I was furious with myself, my head was spinning and again my nose was black.
In 4 weeks we're supposed to be visiting Steve Robinson's club (the Steve Robinson best known for working in Debenhams as a storeman in Cardiff, then with just two days notice, he accepted the fight against John Davison in 1993 for the vacant WBO Featherweight title and won the contest on a points decision). I don't want to embarass myself.
Other than being such an idiot, I should take out from this evening: stand still momentarily when delivering punches; keep my distance (how many more weeks will I write this); don't always circle the ring.
Saw Jas this morning and he said if I wanted to improve I had to shadow box every day, do hill sprints rather than long runs and watch as many fights as possible of the likes of Ali, Khan, Sugar Ray Leonard etc.
