Hi all,

I found a clip of a Russian boxer doing isometric band work. I haven’t seen it done like this before. Russia has produced some of the best Amateurs for years. I have heard that their training regimes are brutal, with the coaches even hitting the boys if they don’t perform well. These isometric holds will be great for improving fast twitch muscle fibres. You can see his looseness and speed when he breaks out of them.

We will be open 8:00am to 2:00pm. There will be no Monday night class.
Sorry for any inconvenience.

Here is one of our new shirts. We have 2 other new designs that I haven’t posted yet.
I wanted to get this one out there because everyone is going nuts over it.
Only $13  —  Very nice quality shirts, just like the brand ‘American Apparel©‘.

Fabian Hill striking the pose :-)

Oscar De La Hoya began drinking and using cocaine, which then caused him to have infidelity problems in his marriage … sources connected with the former boxing champ tell TMZ. 

Cool video of Bruno when he was coming through on the scene. Interesting to hear his trainer Terry Lawless and Jimmy Tibbs, both hugely respected over here in England, though sadly Terry died this year. His sparring partner in this video ( Leroy Caldwell ) compares Frank’s power to shavers and Foreman. Me and my dad always thought he was too muscled for a boxer, and that it made him mechanical in his movements. Like his trainer said, if he used his legs more, like Tyson did, then I think he would have been a champ for longer. People also said he was chinny, but I disagree. He was never stopped with a single shot, it was always serious combinations. Frank held a shot too well. Instead of going down, or even taking a knee for an 8 count, he would hang in there getting clubbed. Sad what happened to him after boxing, with drugs and then mental illness. But I like to remember him in his prime.

Hi folks.

Today i’d like to bring to you a video of the fighter who inspired Prince Naseem Hamed. Herol Graham boxed as a pro out of the same Sheffield gym as an 11 year old Naz. Naz learned his elusive style from Graham. Sometimes Herol would spar against two younger fighters, and just be defending, and they would struggle to lay a glove on him. When Herol faced Julian Jackson he was absolutely schooling him, then got knocked cold by a lethal right hook. He had the tag of being ‘chinny’, but he was sometimes poetry to watch. He fought some of the best in the world and gave them big troubles, but ultimately came up short . Some say the best British fighter to never win a world title.

Stevie, sure wish you could’ve been here with us to watch the fight, it was incredible. Non-stop action. Then to see Hopkins start the 7th round with push-ups in the middle of the ring just knocked you off the couch with excitement.

It will for sure go down in history as one of the best fights. It’s still hard to believe that Pascal did his 2 training camps at our gym for the ’08 Carl Froch & ’09 Adrian Diaconu fight. Shout out to our Irongloves Boxing Gym. And you can say you were here to see it all, what an experience, huh?

Both are true champs. Jean Pascal is still young, perhaps someday he will be where Hopkins is today. Hope you were able to find on the net Hopkins post interview. It was awesome, first off, he didn’t even seem out of breath or even tired. He spoke very eloquently & professionally, I think he gave some great mature advice to Pascal.

He held six division titles and had a 39-6 career record. His last bout was in December 2008 against Manny Pacquiao, which he lost in a technical knockout. He won an Olympic gold medal in 1992.

Among first to note De La Hoya’s situation was TMZ.com, which ran a statement from the American boxer on Saturday. It read:

“After doing an honest evaluation of myself, I recognize that there are certain issues that I need to work on. Like everyone, I have my flaws, and I do not want to be one of those people that is afraid to admit and address those flaws. Throughout my career and my life, I have always met all challenges head-on, and this is no different. I am confident that with the support of my family and friends, I will become a stronger, healthier person. I ask for respect and privacy as my family and I go through this process.”

De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, based in Los Angeles, was not providing information on him, according to several media reports. He was not at Saturday’s light heavyweight title fight in Montreal, despite it being one of his company’s biggest events of the year.

I’m currently reading Charlie Magri’s autobiography, called Champagne Charlie. He is up there among the best ever UK fighters, and was a real crowd pleaser with his all action style. Check out this fight, where he is challenging for the WBC Flyweight belt. He was willing to take a punch to give a punch. Notice the heavy right hand he was caught with right on the end of round 1, and how he still touched gloves with the champion before wobbling to his corner. He was a hard as nails little boxer and a lovely man too. He said in his book that he loved training so much, here is an excerpt.

” Now if you asked anyone who trained with me, or anyone who knew me when I was fighting as a professional, they’ll tell you the same thing. I always trained like an absolute madman. Some fighters have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the gym, but you had to drag me out of the gym I was so obsessed with training. Even as an Amateur, I used to train seven days a week, twice or even three times a day at the weekends. I’d run four times a week as an Amateur. I’d start my gym workouts with some stretching, then 30 minutes of skipping. I’d spar twenty rounds a week. The other lads would do a minute, jump in and out, but i’d do three minutes. I figured back then, that if I was in the gym every single day i’d be more prepared when my first fight came along. ”

I’ll finish with some words from Jim McDonnell, who is a top trainer and ex champ over here. He provided the foreword for Magri’s book.

” Charlie was, I believe, a freak of nature. I can remember punching the heavy bag alongside him, and as I was three weight divisions above my flyweight compatriot, I should have been the more powerful puncher. But Charlie was rocking the bag all over the place. To my amazement, and slight embarrasment, I couldn’t match his amazing intensity as he hit the bag, even though I tried in vain ! It confirmed the fact that he was truly something special, a pocket rocket, a power-punching machine, and a future World Champion.. “