“WHAM!” Dazzling lights streaked across my vision and, in a sudden dilation of time, I had the thought “so this is why they call it ‘seeing stars””. Through my blurred vision, I saw my sparring partner mouth the words “Sorry man!” I staggered over to Coach Todd and noticed that he looked worried, which made me worry. “Are you alright?” he asked. Through my mouthpiece I mumbled “You tell me.” Although my right cheek was totally numb, I feared that shock had disguised a much more grievous wound. While my imagination conjured up images of hideous facial trauma, Coach informed me that I was officially “done”. Shaken, I stepped through the ropes and out of the ring. It took all of 30 seconds for me to go from feeling like a champ to chump.
Earlier that day, I had tried to talk myself out of going to the Saturday sparring session at Gym Rat Boxing. With only four hours of sleep and a full day of work under my belt, I was deliriously exhausted. Sensing weakness, my mind took the opportunity to offer up some tempting rationale. “There’s a company picnic today,” it whispered, “You should go network and eat pie”. The machinations of my fearful psyche gradually intensified and I was a hair’s breadth away from succumbing when I had a flash of insight. “Maybe I’m trying to avoid going because I know I need to go!” I silently exclaimed, “I’m resisting the inevitable hand of fate!” My desire to save face with the guys at Gym Rat in addition to my plans for watching the UFC 105 pay-per-view later that night probably had something to do with it too.
My sparring partner “Dave” had encouraged me to take it easy on him because he was an “old man”. While this was an obvious ruse, there was also a glaring hole in my defense that had heretofore gone unnoticed. I had the tendency to hold my right hand a little lower than would be prudent, and with a crisp left hook, Dave made this painfully obvious. Of course, Coach Todd has mentioned this to me before, (“You’re dropping your damn hand!”) but previous sparring partners had not created much of an incentive to really take this advice to heart.
I ended up finishing out the day humbled but determined. Not only did I earn my first-ever black eye, but I also came away with greater self confidence; as a fighter, a husband, an employee, and friend. I walked into the fire and got burned, but I would be back.
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