Must see TV: Frederick Wiseman’s “Boxing Gym” on PBS!
The American documentary filmmaker, Frederick Wiseman’s latest film is called “Boxing Gym.” Released in 2010, the film presents an unfettered look at Lord’s Gym in Austin, Texas.
The gym is owned and operated by Richard Lord, a former professional boxer who opened the gym over 16 years ago. It accommodates a cross-section of boxers: young and old, men and women, plus an array of kids, all of whom come to the gym for reasons running from fitness on through training for amateur and professional fights!
The film is a loving portrayal of what many of us think of as our home away from home where camaraderie, focus and hard work are our daily diet, not to mention a dream or two.
PBS will be airing the film in its entirety @ 9:00 PM on Thursday, June 16th (Eastern Standard Time). Check local listings for an exact time if you are out of the New York City Area.
My daughter successfully tested for her next level in Aikido yesterday wowing us all with her prowess, strength, sweet laughter and compassion.
Compassion is perhaps a strange way of describing acts of tossing her “Ukais” from one side of the dojo to the other — but was just that as she worried her way through this person’s hurt back and that person’s smaller stature all while performing the complicated forms she has come to master with such grace.
It got me to thinking that my daughter’s art — as it has become since she donned her first Gi at the age of 5 turning 6 — is so many parts herself, but also many parts her Aikido teachers who have patiently, and sometimes not so patiently, taught her the large and small points of placing her body in this or that posture.
The more important lessons though have had to do with taking responsibility for herself and for how she comports herself through the rituals of the culture of Aikido. Along the way she is finding moments of body-mind union — where she loses her self-consciousness to act in a kind of unison. This last is the hardest, and yet as I watched her yesterday, I knew that she was well on her way.
It got me to thinking that her dojo has become her village filled with all the nuances of a community each playing a part in helping her to grow into a young woman. It also got me to thinking that boxing gyms seem to have that same effect on young people. They learn an art — essentially an art of violence, and yet what they learn is not violent at all. What one sees is an inculcation of gentleness, sure not all the time, but the intimacy of learning those arts does give rise to the village life for those kids — seen scampering around, their heads jostled as they imbibe the skills of honing the body and the mind into a kind of harmony.
And its not just kids. Adults can find that subtle part of village life too. A community within a community where you work your butt off — and afterwards just hang around for a while to chit-chat with your friends and cheer on others as they put in the work too.
Now we’re talking, Main Event on Telefutura! Holly Holm v. Victoria Cisneros!
>>>UPDATE! HOLM TAKES IT
Holly Holm (L) defeated a game Victoria Cisneros in the "Solo Boxeo Tecate" Main Event broadcast on Telefutura on 6/10/11. Photo: Pat Vazquez-Cunningham/Journal
After an exciting 10-round competitive bout Holly Holm improved her record to 30-1-3 with an impressive win over Victoria Cisneros. Holm won by unanimous decision with all three judges rightly scoring the bout 100-90.
In the audience watching the fight was none other than French fighter Anne Sophie Mathis (23-1-0, 20 KOs). Promoter Lenny Fresquez, also announced a long anticipated Holm-Mathis battle scheduled for December 2, 2011!
Victoria Cisneros (L) and Holly Holm, Photo: Chris Cozzone
In an ask and you shall receive moment … the “Sólo Boxeo Tecate” card will be broadcast tonight, June 10th on Telefutura featuring the “Duke City” rematch of Holly Holm v. Victoria Cisneros.
Holly Holm v. Victoria Cisneros, 2009
Holly “The Preacher’s Daughter” Holm (29-1-3, 9 KOs) will be fighting Victoria “La Reina” Cisneros (5-11-2, 1KO) in the 10-round main event rematch promoted by Fresquez Promotions at Legends Theater, Route 66 Casino, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Cisneros is a late replacement for the Holm’s original challenger, Cindy Serrano who suffered a fractured nose during training. Other promoters for the Solo Boxeo fight card are Golden Boy Promotions and Don Chargin Promotions.
Cisneros had been a very late stand-in in their first meeting, filling in for Melissa Hernandez who pulled out of the fight at the last minute due to a dispute with Holly Holm over Holly’s hand wraps — Hernandez’s camp had not observed Holm’s hands being wrapped and while Holm offered to have them rewrapped, Hernandez pulled out of the fight.
As part of the promotion for the main event bout, if you’re local to New Mexico, you can vote for the fighter in the main event who displayed the most character in the ring by sending a text message to 55333. Voting will be open through the end of the weekend.
The other woman’s bout on card Brandi Montaya (0-1) also saw her opponent bow out and is waiting to see if she will have a replacement.
The full card roster with the weigh-ins is as follows:
Holly Holm 141.5 vs. Victoria Cisneros 137 Joaquin Zamora 158.5 vs. Elco Garcia 158.5 Fidel Maldonado 136 vs. Eddie Ramirez 137 David Proa 126.5 vs. Willie Villanueva 127.5 Marc Selser 140.5 vs. Joel Vargas 145 Martin Gonzales 136.5 vs. Antonio Garcia 136 Brandi Montoya 110 vs. TBA
There are a couple of exciting women’s professional boxing bouts coming this weekend that will be worth watching!
Oh right, not on television because they won’t be broadcast, but *hopefully* available by video stream — and thanks to the boxing fans out there, we’ll be able to catch some rounds on YouTube in the ensuing days following the bouts.
Detecting a mood? Given that no less a bout than Christy Martin’s 6-round heart-breaker with Dakota Stone was relegated to Top Rank’s video stream (that inexplicably gave out at the beginning of the 5th round for some viewers), why should the fighters this week expect any different?? Ssshhhh.
1. Amanda Serrano fighting for the North American Boxing Federation Title @ Roseland!
Brooklyn-based undefeated Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano (9-0-1, 5 KOs) will be fighting to capture the vacant NABF super featherweight title against Jennifer Scott (2-3, 2 KO’s) in an 8-round bout on June 11th! As quoted on Saddo Boxing.com’s Boxing News, Serrano said, “This is my first fight in New York City as a professional boxer. I’m very excited to know I’m going to have a lot of family, friends and fans there supporting me. I want them all to see how far I’ve progressed. It’s going to be a fun night.”
Serrano had wanted to fight former NABF champion Maureen Shea, however, the bout was turned down and Shea purportedly was stripped of the title for refusing to take the bout.
The Serrano-Scott fight will be part of the the Boricua Boxing II Card @ Roseland part of which will be broadcast on Showtime. Given that Scott has lost her last three fights, I leave it to Girlboxing readers to surmise the likely outcome!
The full Saddo Boxing.com article can found here. WBAN also has a piece on the fight here.
2. As a reminder there’s great boxing this weekend in South Africa!
As a reminder, New Zealand’s own Daniella “The Diamond” Smith will be defending her IBF Women’s Welterweight title against South African Noni “She Bee Stingin” Tenge on June 11th at the Carnival City Big Top Arena in Johannesburg, South Africa. The link to the earlier story is here.
We’re talking 95 degrees fahrenheit today people and 98 tomorrow … in New York City! That means summer is full on upon us and time to think about working out in the heat.
Personally, I love working out when it’s hot. My muscles have an instant lube job and after a while the cascading sweat is like a cooling shower! There are, however, some good tips to keep in mind, especially as the humidity begins to rise along with the questionable stuff in the air.
1. You’ve probably guessed this one! Drink PLENTY of fluids, not so much that you’ll drown, but as a constant flow so that you keep hydrated. You should also avoid caffeinated drinks and remember to drink some water 15 or so minutes BEFORE you get started.
2. Don’t forget you need to eat in the heat! They don’t have to be huge meals, but small little tastings will more than suffice — especially salads and fruits. They’re delicious, nutritious and will help keep you hydrated.
3. Realize that if the humidity is high, you are that much more susceptible to suffering from overheating and other symptoms of heat stress such as nausea, light headedness, dizziness and so on. That means you need to drink even more, and recognize your own limitations — before you get started. So don’t plan a 5 mile run in the middle of the heat of the afternoon if you’re not used to running in the heat! You could well end up with heat prostration in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge!
4. Get acclimated to the heat before full-on exercising. At Gleason’s Gym, while there are exhaust fans and overhead fans that keep it fairly cool (no A/C — its a boxing gym!), it still gets pretty hot on 90 degree + days. Given that we’ve not had a lot of warm days in the gym, it’s likely a good idea to take it slower than normal to get your body used to performing in the heat and humidity. A couple of weeks ago we had a pretty hot day — and my problem was the air quality. Between the high ozone and the pollen I found I actually had to stop a few rounds earlier than planned — so be flexible, and know your body.
One trick is wearing a wet sweat band and throwing water on your head between rounds — I find that helps me a lot.
5. Be careful not to get caught in extreme temperature changes. If you’re planning a run and you’re coming out of your really c-o-l-d apartment into the heat, take a few minutes to get used to it. Conversely, if you’re in the high heat and hit a frozen gym — do the reverse. Acclimatize before hitting full on into a workout.
6. Wear sunscreen, replace your electrolytes and S-T-O-P immediately if you’re feeling any of the following: dizziness, nauseous, shortness of breath. You’re going to want to cool down and remember it’s okay to seek medical attention if you really need help.
June crept up out of nowhere it seems. Places like Cadman Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn are a riot of late spring color as flowers pop of everywhere and the heavily laden trees already feel like July from all of the rain.
Last night we sat outside till dusk at the Greek Festival held every June in our neighborhood.
The food was amazing and the deserts that much sweeter when mingled with the early June air.
While not exactly Greece, it felt warm and comfortable to sit outside under the gathering darkness with hints of Greek music underscoring the lively talk of the people sitting around at the festival’s many outside tables.
As as schoolgirl, June was always my favorite.
I counted down the days till the end of the month when school would let out and was forever being chided in the class room for looking dreamily out of the window.
I have that feeling now — wanting nothing better than to don shorts and a pair of flops from here on out.
That and to head on over to the gym to workout in the heat and sweat some more.
I watched the Christy Martin – Dakota Stone fight last night*.
Christy put on a F I E R C E performance, matching the much younger Dakota Stone and then some, not to mention putting her down on the canvas for an eight-count with a classic Left-Right combination that was letter perfect.
By now you likely know that Christy broke her right hand during the 4th round — and proceeded to fight much of the 5th round with her left — only to have the fight stopped in the 6th and final round after throwing the right hand once too often and absorbing some punishment as well putting her into a world of hurt.
At that point, the Ringside doctor called the Ref over who stopped the fight giving Dakota Stone the TKO and the win. The shame of it was Christy was ahead on all three cards and would have won the battle.
What really wowed me was Christy’s TRUE warrior spirit.
She came out swinging and never stopped even as she took some punches in the 3rd round that clearly rocked her a bit. She also worked combinations through out, throwing jab-jab-rights and mixing them up with body blows, upper-cuts, overhand rights and more jabs.
There are a lot of younger, slicker boy-boxers that could learn a thing or two or three from Martin’s performance, not the least of which is old-school true grit.
I applaud Christy’s tenacity and spirit — even as I hand it to Dakota for garnering the win.
Whatever happens to Christy next, she can count this girlboxer as a friend and a fan for life — ’cause let me tell you, she earned it.
* I could only watch the first four rounds and the beginning of the fifth before the webcast signal died (subject for another night I think — Why aren’t women’s bouts being broadcast on television?!?!?).
By that I mean facing down whatever inner demons are lurking about to wreak havoc with the flow of your energy at any given moment as you push out from yourself to pound the pavement, pound a heavybag or work through the defenses of an opponent.
Often that process means letting yourself get out the way of what it is you’re trying to accomplish so that you can do it at all – analogous to someone in your corner shouting “let your hands go,” only in this case it’s yourself screaming from within impeding your ability to let loose until something snaps and you can.
That knot, that little twist that seems to kink things off can be the difference between gaining and losing. Finding your way to moment-to-moment accomplishment versus feeling choked off from where you want to go.
Where it hurts most is in the ring. Rather then feeling your opponent to know how best to move your body — as brilliant an improvisational pas-de-deux as ever one could hope for — somewhere the knot kicks in to stultify movement and telegraph the huge boom of the ego that is the difference between sensing your opponent’s weaknesses so that each movement flows to a perfect place and landing on the canvas because you’re looking for things rather than doing things.
I’m not sure if I had one of those days or not — or why this comes to mind; probably it’s because I’m finding myself getting closed off for unaccountable reasons, which when I stop and let go, flow out of me so that I’m in a place of calm again.
Whatever it is — letting it go can be as easy as just getting out of one’s own way by doing something to jolt the system; say singing out loud or maybe throwing on some salsa to dance part of the night away.
Okay … so when was the last time Friday Night Fights had a women’s bout??? Hmm.
Not in the mood for the non-stop “pithy” banter of Teddy and friends?
I say … how about some Friday Night Fights of our own!
Well here goes … with special, special thanks to the diehards out there that take the time to post these remarkable women’s bouts on YouTube!
Bout #1: Great boxing! Ana Maria “La Guerrera Azteca” Torres vs. Jackie “La Princesa” Nava! (From 4/16/2011) Ten rounds of pure non-stop action! (Shown in two parts)
Bout # 2: Jr. Middleweights! Layla McCarter vs. Cimberly Harris in Colorado (From 2/12/2011)
Bout #3: Yesica Bopp vs. Romina Alcantar. From April 2011. Action starts about 6:00 in. (From April 3, 2011)
In a first for women’s boxing, South African women’s boxer Noni “She Bee Stingin” Tenge (10-0-1, 8 KOs) will be challenging the IBF Women’s Welterweight current champion belt-holder and New Zealand’s own, Daniella “The Diamond” Smith (10-1) on June 11th at the Carnival City Big Top Arena in Johannesburg, South Africa. According to promoter Branco Milenkovic, this will be the first legitimate women’s championship fight to be staged in Africa — not to mention South Africa.
Tenge, 29, is undefeated and also holds the WBF Women’s Welterweight crown — though the thinking goes that the IBF crown is the bigger “jewel.”
Smith captured her world championship belt this past November when she defeated Jennifer Retzke. In an article on May 20th in New Zealand’s The Northern Advocate newspaper, Daniela Smith, 38, is quoted as saying “It’s the first time that I’ll be fighting at altitude and so that’s going to be different but hopefully it won’t make too much of a difference.” (Click here for link.)
Smith has also noted that there’s not a lot of footage on Tenge, so she is preparing for everything and anything for her upcoming bout.
For a preview of the upcoming action, check out the video footage of Daniella Smith in her bout against Jennifer Retzke. No word yet on the media outlet for the South African championship duel.
The gym is owned and operated by Richard Lord, a former professional boxer who opened the gym over 16 years ago. It accommodates a cross-section of boxers: young and old, men and women, plus an array of kids, all of whom come to the gym for reasons running from fitness on through training for amateur and professional fights!
Girlboxing 