Botti Sorng (Lesson Two) - Left Cross To The Jaw = Pain

This mornings training -
4km jog
1 round shadow boxing
1 round fast punching on bag
3 round thai pads
2 rounds boxing sparring
2.1 rounds technique work (see below)

So I had to spar Paul again today. You will remember that he is the English guy who turned my left eye socket purple (still purple) with 3 or 4 overhand punches. Today was a lot better but there's still room for improvement. Despite not sleeping much because of the fight night last night I was still amped for this and looking to improve on my last performance. In the first round I was attacking 85% of the time but...he was smart and just waited for me to punch myself out. But I had him on the ropes for most of the round and and landed a good uppercut to his jaw, as well as some good body shots.

Come round two and I was exhausted, and it showed. My jabs slowed and I paid for it when he waited for me to jab then hit me with a right punch which I blocked and a left hook which I didn't. It was a fantastic punch and connected with my jaw. I remember wishing I had said yes to the offer of using headgear. But we saw out the rest of the round after which I retired from due to being so damn tired. After this one of the trainers took over and they went for one more round. I liked that Paul waited until I'd done 3 rounds on the thai pads before he sparred me. Maybe we can go at it again tomorrow but I'll see if I can walk properly first. The people watching it really enjoyed it and were surprised at how hard we were going at it. I learned a lot, and managed to dodge all his overhand punches so I'm happy. Sparring is great fun, despite getting punched in the face.

After that I did two rounds of technique with german guy, countering teep kicks (push kicks). For the third round we swapped partners and I went with some new guy who is big enough to have a part time job as a truck. I blocked his teep and went to counter with a kick to the stomach when he decided to drop his elbow down to block it and connected right with the centre of my left shin.

Fuck.

It almost dropped me, I've never sworn so much in my life. This was made worse by his overbearing wife, who decided massaging my left leg would help. Despite telling her 5 or 6 times to please stop touching it while I fought off the urge to throw up she persisted until someone finally bought some ice when she left me alone. She's a nice person and meant well but holy shit it hurt.

So now I am limping everywhere and will probably have to take this afternoon off but I'm hoping it will get a little better in the next 3 hours so I can at least run.