A Few Updates on the Fight Show

In the last couple of weeks, the hassle of having to organise this show has almost made me want to quit, go home to bed and not bother anymore. Then there are moments like the one yesterday, which made everything seem worthwhile. I was in town, picking up Christmas presents when I came upon a Santa suit for sale. Now myself and the ring girls have been looking for a Santa’s Helper suit befitting a ring girl since we started organising the show 2 months ago, and we haven’t found anything until yesterday. I was given a choice of which one I wanted out of three, and it was with great pride in my organisational skills that I turned to the lady and said “I’ll take the skimpiest ones please”. Ah the small victories. I did this for you guys and don’t forget it.

So it’s now just two days from The Fight Before Christmas and things are coming together nicely. We’ve had a couple of dropouts due to injury from the card, but no more than could have been expected from such a large amount of fights. It’s looking like we’ll have 13 good quality fights on the card from beginners right through to the best Ireland has to offer in McCombe and Murphy, which is eactly what I wanted from the show, an opportunity to showcase the new talent alongside the best national talent. Luckily for our guys, none of the dropouts were from opponents of ours so all of the KO fights are still on.

We had our last training session last night, a light session for the guys who will be fighting with one last blowout of the lungs for one or two. From here it’s just make weight on Thursday and then relax until fight time. On a personal note, I’d like to say that in spite of all the headaches of training and organising, the lads have been a pleasure to train most of the time and their condition does them credit.

Conor: Our young lad who has been training with the seniors a bit for this show has shown that 15 year olds can take down much bigger 24 year olds!
Grant is a little runt and I’d love to beat the tar out of him, he’s like the little brother I never wanted. He’s done really well and is getting stronger all te time too.
Keith joined up the squad a bit later but has shown he’s well capable and I look forward to getting him for a full training period
Kyle is like a machine and I made it my goal to try to tire him out, it didn’t happen too often. Add a few more skills onto that frame and we’ll be looking at an impressive fighter in the future, he’s already a real handful.
Yous has to be the moaniest guy I ever trained, but in between the “Merde!” shouting he got through a lot of work and kept the smile on. I’m looing forward to seeing him fight.
Colin has had to train alone a lot and put up with jibes about his age, not from me though cos we 30+ guys have to stick together. He’s missed out on some training but is one of the most experienced guys so I think he’ll take the win.
Olli has all of the ground skills a fighter should have, and he’s added to those some pretty decent striking and impressive fitness now.
I don’t thing Aaron will be too offended if I call him a cruiser, in that he was cruising in the gym for a long time. Since he took the fight he’s gone from being a guy in okay shape who had some skills to being a guy in excellent shape who can keep using those skills round after round. Probably the most improved guy inthe gym.
Jonny is everyone’s least favourite sparring partner. There are always things I’d have him do better but because of the level he’s at he is improving by inches and not yards. He’s taken another leap forward this training period. He’s up against a really quick, aggressive guy on Friday, and it has all the signs of being a great fight. I’m looking forward to it!
Me. I’ve stood around watching you all but I’m back in training once this is over. I look forward to you all beating the living crap out of me for a while until I get the motor running again.

My respect gentlemen.