Coach Ian – Week In Review: 08/22/2021
Book I’m Reading
North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail
By Scott Jurek and Jenny Jurek
Run Streak and Running Goals:
Progress: As of 8/22/21, I’ve now run 1,019 miles for the year, while maintaining my 234-day run streak.
Crossing 1,000 Miles!
Articles of the Week:
Manny Pacquiao and When a Boxer Should Retire, Kelefa Sanneh
“Roach is a beloved figure—one of the sport’s great talkers even though, at age sixty-one, he has a voice that is subdued and sometimes fragmented by the effects of Parkinson’s disease. “Maybe I’m wrong for teaching people the sport that maybe gave me the disease I have,” Roach tells Dixon, but he says he tries to protect his fighters, with mixed results. “I’ve told seven guys to retire in my lifetime,” Roach says. “Five told me to go and fuck myself.” He remembers that, when his trainer told him to retire, he refused. “It’s easy for you to say but it’s all I know,” Roach responded.”
Should Manny Pacquiao Retire?, Scott Christ
“And you have to wonder, if that’s what Manny Pacquiao is now, is he going to want to fight again? Manny didn’t commit to an answer on that, but he had said before the fight that this absolutely could be his last. Pacquiao seems like a guy, as I said earlier, who won’t want to hang around the boxing game just because he’s still good, and he is still good. If he can’t look himself in the mirror and fully believe he’s the best out there and can beat anyone at the weight, I just don’t think Manny Pacquiao will continue on in boxing.”
Amanda Serrano: #1 P4P in Women’s Boxing
Say what you will about Jake Paul headlining a major PPV, but I’m most excited about Amanda Serrano having her chance to showcase her talents on PPV. Even if you don’t like seeing YouTubers having a major platform, the truth is that they’re here to stay and boxing would benefit from them stacking their undercards with talented fighters. For example, having Regis Prograis was a great addition to the Jake Paul – Ben Askren undercard, which was unfortunately spoiled by him facing a guy who had no intentions of fighting him.
I’ve noted before that I think that Amanda Serrano is the #1 P4P fighter in women’s boxing, but has often been overlooked. She’s won 9 world titles in 7 different weight classes and scored 30 knockouts over her career. Keep an eye out on her!
Boxing Highlights:
Congrats to Mark Magsayo on winning over the experienced Julio Ceja with a knockout-of-the-year candidate. I had Magsayo down big as he seemed to be broken down to the body prior to him catching a second wind and stunning Ceja and then knocking him out. I really didn’t like Magsayo’s reactions to body shots in the middle rounds as he hunched over and put his head straight down, with Ceja punching right around the elbows with hard, uncontested body shots. Magsayo was breathing heavily and always in retreat and it was hard to give him any rounds when he was retreating the whole way. But he showed the heart of a champion to regather himself and press forward to score that knockout blow.
Manny Pacquiao vs Yordenis Ugas:
Congrats to Yordenis Ugas on a great victory over the legend Manny Pacquiao. At 42, Manny Pacquiao is still faster than most fighters and put up a great fight. But it’s clearly not the same Manny who would come in and out of range or pivot off at angles after throwing. Ugas had success early with his jab and later found his overhand right. Manny never pivoted off to his right after throwing his two, and seemed to be more reactive towards Ugas, waiting for his overhand and trying to block it. I had Ugas winning quite handily, but credit Manny for always wanting to take on the best.
I told my friends I wasn’t going to watch Manny Pacquiao vs Errol Spence, because I had a bad feeling about that one. Too many boxers hang around for too long and it doesn’t look pretty when they finally lose. When Ugas was named Spence’s replacement, I decided I could stomach the fight and I wanted to watch what I hope to be the last fight of Manny Pacquiao’s career. While Manny didn’t win, he held his own in there and put forth a respectable effort for him as a 42 year old.
Unlike previous fights, he really sounded like he’s going to hang them up. I really hope he does. He has nothing left to prove. He can beat a number of good fighters in his division, but not the Terence Crawfords or Errol Spences of the division. Keith Thurman was the last fighter of that caliber that he beat in 2019 and I don’t think he can replicate that performance again.
I remember when Manny Pacquiao beat Erik Morales in their third fight in 2006, I thought that was the peak of his career. How wrong I was. I never in a million years would have imagined that Manny Pacquiao would go on to win twelve major world titles in eight different weight divisions and become a global superstar. He became an icon and an inspiration to many young fighters, such as Magsayo noted above. Congrats on an incredible career, Manny.
This Week at Dreamland Boxing:
Our classes have been increased to 16 people per class. Intro to Sparring and Members Only Sparring are underway. See the full updates here. 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:
- Focusing on fundamentals – slowing down and perfecting technique
- How to hold mitts
- Breaking down Mayweather’s mittwork routines
- 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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