I met Chris a couple years ago when he began to train Muay Thai. He had some old boxing experience in his youth, racking up a bunch of amateur fights in a couple weight classes, and giving him a solid foundation of what its like to be in the ring. He was already a fighter. Though, he’ll be the first to admit, his Muay Thai was pretty terrible. I think he will still say that. Well, he’s super conscious about it, anyway. He’s working hard, very hard to fix that image of himself.
I’m learning a lot of things about how to be the best trainer I can be. I try to be supportive of most of my fighters, reassuring, and positive. I am learning that it’s hard to see what people’s potentials are, and sometimes you get surprised by a performance.
Now, with Chris, I’m probably the most “bad cop” of a trainer as I am with any of my fighters. I am a bit tough on him, and relentlessly yell at him about turning his kicks and committing to his hits. He always tries hard to follow my requests. See, our style is technique dense and focused on details. It’s a hard thing for many people to get. Honestly, having a strong background in boxing keeps things from coming as quickly to a fighter. Old habits need breaking before new habits can be formed. Even so, Chris works hard at learning our style.
This weekend, he put his work to the test. He fought a very tough fighter who ended up weighing in almost 10 pounds above what Chris did. Carmine Persico was hard as nails, taking some of Chris’s best shots and moving forward. Chris’s hands and footwork, old boxing attributes, served him well in the first round as he narrowly pulled ahead. In the second round, the student in Chris showed up. He began listening well, putting his hands right to his legs in combinations. He swept his opponent, landed flush hard kicks to the legs and body, and opened up opportunities. He hurt his opponents leg and was awarded a knockdown. Fighting through, his opponent continued to move forward and swing. It was towards the end of the third round when Chris pressed his opponent back into the ropes, pivoted beautifully, and landed a smashing knee to the body. Carmine folded into the ropes, Chris ran to the neutral corner and listened as i yelled instructions (illegally) on how i wanted him to finish the fight.
Before he was able to step back in, Carmine’s corner threw in the towel. Chris was awarded the TKO victory.
We’re really proud of him. He’s got a lot of potential. He is working hard and always getting better. And he’s more than a boxer now, he’s got some Muay Thai too. Every time he shows up in the ring, he will be better and better and have prettier and prettier Muay Thai. I can’t wait for his next one. Here is a link to the fight:
CLICK HERE
