Coach Ian – Week in Review 04/25/2021:
Book I’m Reading
The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less than 4 Minutes to Achieve It – Neal Bascomb
Run Streak and Running Goals:
Progress: As of 4/25/21, I’ve now run 479 miles for the year, while maintaining my 115-day run streak.
Boxing Highlights:
Emanuel Navarrete vs Christopher Diaz: Nothing but respect for Pitufo Diaz. Emanuel Navarrette is a guy who looks like he makes a ton of mistakes on tape, but is a handful to handle in the ring.
Navarrette keeps his weight on his front foot, throws some wide shots, but he hits extremely hard, uses his feints well, and throws with a ton of power. Navarette beat Ruben Villa handily in October, also landing his signature uppercut during the fight. Ruben Villa was a highly decorated amateur from Salinas who lost to Shakur Stevenson in the Olympic Trials, but he had trouble with Navarrette’s unorthodox style.
Navarrette was also too much for Christopher Diaz, who showed a ton of heart and never stopped trying to win. Early in the fight, Pitufo boxed from the outside, shifted stances, and used angles effectively, but Navarrette ultimately could land the harder shots. He seems to have an iron chin and was unphased by any shots that he took. Diaz transitioned to trying to fight on the inside and had some success going to the body, but Navarrette ultimately hit too hard for him there as well. Diaz constantly made adjustments during the fight, never looked discouraged or like he gave up on trying to win. He certainly wasn’t trying to only go 12 rounds. In the 12th round, he went all out for the knockout and landed a number of hard shots which unphased Navarrette. Navarrette then knocked Diaz out in the final seconds of the fight (doctor’s stoppage after a knockdown) to retain his title.
Edgar Berlanga vs Demond Nicholson: This isn’t what the fans wanted, but it’s what Berlanga needed. Berlanga went the distance with Nicholson, who was a crafty veteran who found ways to survive and landed some shots along the way. Nicholson landed a great shot in the 11th round, so Berlanga showed that he has a chin. And Berlanga dropped Nicholson again in the 12th round, showing he carries his power into the later rounds.
Josue Vargas vs Willie Shaw: Josue Vargas is the A-side of this event, but we know Willie Shaw as we’ve seen him locally in the amateurs and pros. King Ali Ahmed fought Willie in the amateurs (Ali won), but we knew that Willie’s explosiveness and natural power would make him a very good pro. Sometimes he doesn’t get busy, which really hurt him in the amateurs and still has hurt him in the pros as well. I didn’t see his loss to Omar Juarez, but in his loss to Jose Marrufo (later avenged) in 2019 he was outworked to lose a decision.
While Willie was somewhat impacted by his lack of activity, he was also simply outclassed by Josue Vargas, who boxed well from the outside but also took advantage of any moments of Willie’s inactivity by working on the inside. Willie started off hot, rocking Josue in the first round and rocked him again later in the fight, but those moments were too few and far between. Late in the fight, Willie’s explosive power seemed to diminish and he started lunging with a double right cross, which would smother his range and lead to them ending up in a clinch.
Overall, Josue’ amateur pedigree and overall experience showed. I think Willie is always in any fight with his power and will pull off an upset one of these days. But not tonight.
Joseph Adorno vs Jamaine Ortiz: What a fight. Early in the fight I was impressed by Jamaine Ortiz’s overall volume and speed. He throws a high volume of punches and finishes combinations quadrupling (or even more) his jab. Later in the fight, I liked how he used his volume punches and chopping double right hook around the temple to knock Adorno off balance. So while Ortiz was throwing more and Adorno was waiting for his moment to land a hard counter, he couldn’t sit on that power shot if Ortiz cuffed around his guard and got him off balance.
Despite Ortiz’s attempts to nullify Adorno’s power, Adorno still has that equalizer, with one punch knockout power ready to strike any time that Ortiz made a mistake. He dropped Ortiz in the 2nd and 7th to escape with a draw, while otherwise being outworked. At points, Andre Ward questioned his conditioning and body language as he didn’t seem too confident. It’ll be interesting to see if these two rematch and how they improve between fights.
This Week at Dreamland Boxing:
Our classes have been increased to 15 people per class. Also, open gym hours have been extended from 9:30AM to 12:30PM and a Beginner’s Boxing Class on Saturdays at noon with Coach Eric. See the full updates here.
Dreamland Boxing has re-opened for outdoor classes. Classes will be capped and there will be no waitlist for classes. Come join me on Fridays at 4:30PM for a workout!
Also, I have continued to host our virtual boxing sessions. Thank you to our members for keeping your memberships active and continuing to support our gym during this time. And I’m personally glad to have been able to aid in your boxing development all year!
Our virtual practices this week featured the following:
- Breaking down the Demetrius Andrade vs Liam Williams fight
- Combinations
- Bobbing and weaving
- Virtual mittwork
- Body weight circuits
- Kettlebell Single-Arm Swings and Turkish Get-Ups
- And more!
You can find a full list of drills if you are a current Dreamland Boxing member in the Premium Drills section of my website.
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