“Fit” or “very fit” I marked on the registration page on the Vanda Promotions site.

Well, there are many types of fitness and the (anaerobic) one that is measured punching around inside a ring or on bags is only remotely related to an easy 10-15km (aerobic) run twice a week.

Clearly, my focus will be on getting the anaerobic fitness in good shape. All in all, likely because of my aerobic fitness I recovered fast in between the rounds of training. I am on the right track.

I train at DEF as you can see from this movie (except the training…).

The first training session would start today, 5 January, in Hong Kong. But as I am still in Holland I took the opportunity to inhale fresh, crisp and clean air for my first serious training session.

Tomorrow, January 6, I fly back to Hong Kong, arriving on Friday and rest assured, I will be wearing my gloves this weekend in good memory of the Dutch Windmill.

If not, let me start by saying it was a very well organized event, again, by the Vanda team. The atmosphere was great, of course, the crowd stood vocationally strong behind the home team, but it was a positive atmosphere. The long legged San Miguel girls, the cheerful expat white collar supporters, the occasional real boxing fan probably admiring the guts but less so the technique of the fighters; in all, a true nice “evening out” for all who had bought a ticket.

For the Hong Kong Dragons, there were some early signs this event might turn sour though. To start with, Breson, our trainer and corner man for the tournament, got stuck at immigration. It later turned out that he had been held at the airport from 2pm until close to midnight, when he was put on a plane back. A very curious situation which I shall not deal with here, but very unfortunate that he did not get the appropriate help to get him through immigration. If I would have known, I could and would have used my credit card to guarantee him entrance and settle his hotel bill if that was what was needed.

Then there was my fight, the first one. I intended not to make the same mistake as I did with David Morrison. And I succeeded. In round 1 I totally smashed Neil, my opponent. In round 2 and 3 I let the pressure off, and admittedly, I got very tired in round 3, but I recall having punched back at every punch he threw at me. Where I was at peace with the loss against David Morisson, I am less so with this one. I have heard the judges’ decision criticized for being “highly disputable” to “this is robbery” and it is unnecessary to debate that further here, but this loss was a sour one. Neil is a nice guy, though, and we were on good terms before (see photo) and after the fight – thanks for the Asahi beers!

Let me go through the other fights very briefly:

• The second bout was Alex fighting a guy 10 cm taller and it turned out to be difficult to deal with the extra reach. Alex lost. We were behind 2-0.
• In the third bout Tommy fought with high precision and speed which resulted in a clear win. Score 2-1.
• The fourth bout was the clash of women which to some could have been the most spectacular fight of the night, won by our Ulrica. It was 2-2.
• In the fifth fight Richard lost to an opponent who perhaps was awarded the win for 3 or 4 ferocious looking attacks that made Richard more look to be in trouble than he really was. Score 3-2 for Singapore.
• In the sixth fight, between two heavy weights, we had an awkward situation. Adam, who was the WWCBA highest ranked  heavy weight, was the one who punched continuously throughout all 3 rounds – I do not recall having seen one single punch back in round 1 and 2 from his opponent. Yet, somewhere around minute 1 in the third round he got a punch to his chin which floored him. After his 8 seconds he was still somewhat weak in his legs, but towards the end of round 3 there was nothing the matter. It is close to a mystery that Adam lost this game. Singapore 4 – Hong Kong 2.
• The seventh bout Hugh was up against an opponent who was later awarded the best boxer prize. Hugh lost and so did we lose the trophee: Singapore leading 5-2.
• In the last bout Graham, despite his multiple injuries, intimidated his opponent by fierce and powerful blows. A just win and some extra honor for Hong Kong, losing 5-3.

The referee was great, the judges, although in some instances not entirely followed by some observers, did a good job. The boxers, from both sides, gave it their all.

And for me personally, as I explained to a friend earlier, in reality I did not really fight to win against this opponent, nor for the Cup. I fought to settle my previous loss(es). And I did, however, in the course of which I lost track of what it really means to be boxing: you have to destroy your opponent, here and now.

Having thought it through,  I believe the judges’ decision about my game was principally right after all. It is not only points or damage to the opponent that helps you to a win. Neil behaved in the ring like a better boxer than I did.

At the ends of the enormous grass field of the Padang the tent is being set up.

Taking this picture, in an intense heat, I started to get a feeling of how hot it must have been during the 14 rounds in the Thrilla of Manila in 1975 between Ali and Frazier. It is good to keep that fight in mind. Boxers who did not want to give up, and when Ali wanted to give up, Frazier’s corner was faster. But too late in many ways; the boxers had punched the health out of one another. In the end there was no winner, champion. Keep this in mind.

But not too long, because  this is the last night this cup is on Singapore soil: we are going to bring it home!

We are the champions, weeee are the champions …

Focused on hard sparring, no mercy sparring, stand still and punch back, retaliate before thinking, we all feel confident we are ready for the Singapore Lions on December 11 in Singapore for the White Collar Boxing Asia Cup 2009.

I am mentally as ready as I can be. I will not walk back like I did in my first fight. I am now really looking forward to exchange punches. Punch harder, more precise, more often. I am ready.

Except for the miss spelling of my last name, this poster looks good.

Can you imagine how Neil’s eyes will look like AFTER the fight?

But perhaps not enough because on December 11 2009 I will be representing the Hong Kong Dragons in the Asia Cup against the Singapore Lions. Very short notice, will need to train hard in coming 3 weeks.

I like that feeling. Let’s call it motivation without cause. Something like what drives the heroes of Robert E. Howard. My good high school friend, Remco, pointed me towards this suicidal character whom we all know from his Conan the Barbarian fiction. A boxing practitioner himself Howard knew what drives men to pick up gloves for honor and glory.

And he wrote a lot of grief poetry about other things as well …

More than a week ago I had lunch with David Morisson who treated me to an excellent lunch. We had an interesting and pleasant conversation and the below photo impression of the fight seems somewhat weird now.

In the name of sport, of boxing, and for charity – these are some great memories …

My first punches were similar to those I threw around during hard sparring.  But then I quickly realized that was not enough, too much adrenaline flowing through both of us to be bothered by controlled impact. So I tried to throw harder and 2 or 3 extra. And that was, just 45 seconds into round 1, that I realized I was not going to have enough oxygen to box this match out in comfortably-tired mode like I cruised through most boxing trainings.

I believe round 1 was still interesting to box and to watch, round 2 a little less, but in round 3 I was in serious troubles. I saw openings and I saw my opponent making mistakes as he kept on coming, but instead of exploiting the weaknesses, I was focusing on plain survival. Despite having thrown and scored several high-impact hits, overall I threw less punches and I believe David Morrison was the deserved winner, by unanimous point decision as you can read on the Vanda Blog entry on the event.

I believe someone from David Morrison’s table filmed round 3 – definitely not my best 2 minutes, but you can have a look anyway. As soon as I get the official video I will publish the entire match, but for now enjoy my troubled round 3. Well done David Morrison!

Not easy though, especially the defensive blocking techniques in boxing, hold two gloves tight in front of your face to “neutralize” a jab, or hold your gloves tight next to your ears to neutralize a hook,  or duck, are counter-intuitive to what wing chun stands for:  (chain punch) attack to “neutralize” jabs and hooks.

Perhaps defense is not the right perspective to discuss this topic anyway. I will give away some of my offensive strategies in this 10 minutes video …

In the evening I went with my family to Kowloon and we walked the Avenue of Stars, indeed, where actors have their hands imprinted on the floor tiles and where Bruce Lee‘s statue is a main attraction – not for 3- and 4-years olds though whose ice-creams were being refused.

Of course I had my picture taken with the all time martial arts hero (who added elements of Western boxing to, for example Wing Chun to form his Jeet Kune Do), but what’s more interesting, right behind the Bruce Lee statue, walking the Avenue of Stars 2 minutes direction Star Ferry, you walk right along the Intercontinental Hotel. Bruce Lee, Intercontinental Hotel, White Collar Boxing, Intercontinental Hotel … a sign, this is the place where exactly 2 weeks from now I will be fighting.

Hold your hands like this daddy, just like me and Bruce Lee …