With Enemies Like These, Who Needs Friends?

In the first few weeks of training everyone was trying to work out who they might be up against. Subtle questions regarding how much we each weighed was a good indicator, but it also seemed worth looking at who the coaches were pairing us up with, even just for skill work rather than sparring. As such I was utterly convinced I knew who my opponent would be.

I would be a liar if I said I wasn't nervous all day last Friday as we waited for the Weigh In that evening. It seemed strange to my friends - after all, this wasn't the actual fight! But I could barely eat all day and found myself checking my watch four or five times an hour. There was something about that evening that was suddenly going to make this whole endeavour much more real than it had ever seemed before, and everything was about to come into sharp focus.

I presumed that I would be fighting B. for very good reasons. He was only a little older than me (and we are the two oldest boxers taking part), of a similar height and build, and without any background in boxing at all. And when coach joked the first time we paired up "you do realise you will be fighting each other on the night", that just sealed it for me. So I started keeping track of his progress, where he was stronger than me (he was definitely quicker and with a heavier hit) and where I felt I dominated (I seemed to have more aggression, and was always moving in close and forcing him to move back).

The manager of the venue, The Exchange, got to see the slideshow that would accompany the Weigh In ahead of time, and asked if I wanted to know who I had been drawn against. I declined, as I wanted to savour the anticipation and uncertainty, but I did ask him to tell me was which bout I was in, just so I could be ready... Bout 6, just after the halfway mark, and by which point ten of the other boxers would already have been named. Assuming one of the female bouts would be in each half, that would leave myself and seven other male boxers by the time my bout was announced - still too many to have an accurate guess at my opponent!

For several sessions this went on, and even when we were not paired up for anything I would pay close attention to how B's skills were developing. And then one evening we were asked to weigh ourselves. It turns out that no matter how close we had been in weight and build on day one, we had taken very different paths during training. I had shed my fat at a ridiculous speed, but only become skinnier and lighter. He, on the other hand, had turned much of his into muscle. All of a sudden we were no longer in the same weight class, and I had to cast my eyes around once more to try and determine who I would be matched up with.

Some of the regulars in Molly Malone's collared me Friday lunch time. "Who do you think you'll get?"; "Do you have a preferred opponent?"; "You must have some idea!"... but I genuinely did not. I knew who it would absolutely not be, but I had trimmed myself down into the middle of the pool where everyone is pretty close. That afternoon I was distracted weighing up the pros and cons of each of my potential matches...

What I saw worried me a little. All of a sudden I was within weight of all these guys who were ten to fifteen years younger than me, naturally fitter, and with way more experience in the gym. It was at that point I had to switch off from thinking tactically about exploiting my opponent's weaknesses and really start to focus much, much more on just improving myself. After all, you can't tailor your preparations to several wildly different fighters... 

Even the best laid plans rarely go without a hitch, and despite all my efforts to be surprised someone leaked me my opponent's name within five minutes of me arriving at The Exchange. It turns out to be someone who even just two weeks ago I would not have considered a possibility, although the thought had started to cross my mind very recently. He's a guy I get on with well, who organised the recent Charity Pub Quiz with me, and who could very easily be a good friend - and our wives met that evening, and immediately got on like a house on fire. But for now, we have to get used to the idea of knocking lumps out of each other.

People have asked me since, what is he like in the ring, and what are my own chances against him. In truth, I haven't a clue. I was never once pitted against him in sparring, nor did it occur to me until recently that he might be an opponent and I should be paying attention to him. From what I have seen, he seems disciplined and determined, and pretty strong... but everyone has an Achilles heel. I just have to last long enough to find his!

So I raise a glass to my friend / temporary enemy - may we both hold our heads high and proud both before and after the bout! Oh, and I wish you a speedy recovery from the damage I am going to inflict on April 23rd... ;-)