Well we only have a few training sessions left, so I recon that if your not competent by now it’s late in the game. I can say that we’re all doing well and there’s been so much improvement since we all got together for the first time.

This week was our official weigh in. Some have been asked to gain weight, some to loose weight and others to stay as is. It’s been really tough for a couple and they have done amazing. Not to mention any names..👀 My man Jan: 20 kg gone, legend !!👏👏👏👏

I wasn’t expecting to take up the mic, but hey I’m smiling.

It’s very cold in here. It’s what you do apparently 🤣😂🥊

Only 1 week now.

I have put these two weeks together. The reason for this is that I’ve had a shitty week dealing with my mental illness. It came and hit me last week and being an ugly and unforgiving friend of mine, it took me out and dumped me into my usual place of misery and bed. I did turn up to a couple of training sessions, but they didn’t happen for me me, in fact the only thing that did happen was I hurt my neck when I received some heavy hits.

Good news is that’s all behind me and tonight (Friday 22nd March) we have the official weigh-in at the Exchange in Asia Square in the CBD.

My fantastic wife took control of a well organised and enjoyed quiz night. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend, however it was great to hear everyone’s comments. One of the squad thought that Sally did them regularly and wanted to know when the next one was. So that says it right there! It really went down a storm and we raised around $4000 SGD, which was fantastic. Cheers Sally, you’re the best xx

We were a number down on Saturday after the weigh in. Those of us who did make training had local kopi
in a hawker center down the road from Vanda

(A kopitiam or kopi tiam is a traditional coffee shop mostly found in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore )

Less that 2 weeks till fight night !!!!!!!!!!

I can’t believe that we are now only a few weeks away until fight night. I’m feeling pretty good about things and have learnt a lot over the weeks of training. Fortunately for me, I’ve been able to attend all the training sessions so far, unlike some. Bearing in mind that are sessions with Vanda are about technical training, I feel that I’m in an OK space. This week we haven’t done any sparring in the ring, as the coaches are mindful over us having our heads hit too much, for safety reasons. Last week it took a couple of days for my left ear to equalize after sparring. However, all next week we will be sparring hard again. Just gotta keep your arms up and protect oneself and take the extra supplement called ‘Man The F**k Up’😂😂

We’re all being regularly weighed and wondering who we will be fighting. We have a public weigh in on the 22nd March in Asia Square, although I’m sure that the coaches have already made their decisions. 😉😉

We have been concentrating on body hits and blocking. You definitely want to be blocking those hits and be quick to get the arms back up to protect the face.

I’m going to start to rest a little more by cutting down my Muay Thai and boxing at my MMA gym Evlove, for the last few weeks. Although I do miss not going down daily Monday to Friday, but it’s a lot with the Vanda on top, being 3-4 times a week too and I need to be rested for my bout.

Saturday mornings are the hardest for me. I’m still not a morning sort of person.

Saturday and today I’ve seen nobody apart from the bus driver..

Thanks Sam and Ryan for our training this week!! 💪

Please don’t forget to click my JustGiving page to donate. Thanking you in advance. You rock!!

This week has been another fun week. We have continued training on the bags, with one another carrying out various combinations, and of cause sparring in the ring.

One of the filming crew in the ring, Getting film together for marketing. We have a public weigh in on 22nd March. So I guess we’ll see them all again then…

We went off to MBS for some more video shoots. Half of us in white and half in black. Haven’t seen any of the video, but they seemed happy with our acting abilities. 😂

It was a very long day for us all. On returning to Vanda Gym we had a costume change, to be filmed again. This time in all black Vanda attire. It was an individual shoot, where we needed to do various shadow boxing. This is to be beamed up to the big screens on the night, along with our statistics. Not sure how I feel about that! However I’m pleased that the films of previous fighters talking about why they signed up, blah blah have been axed. I’d imagine they became very same, same and a bit boring for the attendees. In fact I would guess that everyone was to busy drinking and having fun, to be bother listening to that.

This week has been another good week of training. I’ve had to have a bit of a break from my Mauy Thai and only gone a couple of times. Vanda boxing training has been on the usually 8:15 pm evening sessions and early Saturday morning.

We’re spending more time in the ring doing technical sparring and I’ve got to say that I’m still finding it very hard to stay relaxed and not use up all my “tank’ in the first round and a half. It’s really hard when you have a flurry of punches coming at you, while attempting to counter punch, move and bob out of range to create an angle in order to get a combination in yourself. I’ve never particularly been into boxing. However I do recognize how hard it is on so many levels.

Camaraderie is still strong in the group, which is just fantastic and it was not what I was expecting. In fact I’m not the only member of the squad thinking along these lines. So maybe that speaks for it’s self.

Two people dropped out this week and at the moment I have no idea why. This now takes us to a 20 man squad. I have a good feeling that this will remain the ‘status quo’ unless we have an injury. We’re not going to be doing body shots in Vanda sparring, as this will lessen the chance of injury. Cracked or broken ribs can happen fairly easily and that’s a four week rehabilitation period. So we’ll leave that for the big night and train for these punches on the bags. In fact I’m so wary of this, that I’m pulling back on my MMA sparring and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu too. Sticking with pads and bag work only. I’ll be totally gutted if I get injured before April 6. So that’s the plan!

Mark and myself after a great time in the ring. I’m enjoying steeping out of my comfort zone, to be partnering up with heavier weight categories I’m 87 kg and he’s 106 kg. I’m keeping a lookout for who I maybe ending up fighting on the day and we’re being weighed every couple weeks. I’m in a group of 6 or 7 of whom we could end up fighting on the night.

Debrief and for those of you with keen eyes you’ll see it’s still only 8:40 am..💪🥊🥊🥊🤣

Saturday afternoon was excellent. What a lovely way to spend a beautiful sunny day meeting the squads wives and kids. Jan hosted an excellent BBQ and most people were able to attend, including coach Alexis. We ate so much meat. Below is only a token of what we had. Cheers Jan and Melanie.

Training is moving on and foot work, jabbing and the Boom right cross are becoming more fluid, natural, stylish and with a more relaxed posture. Well maybe not to look at, but it’s starting to feel that way.🤣🤣 We have been practicing our defense, learning how to block properly. This is taking the hits with gloves positioned in front of the face and moving your gloves quickly to anticipate left or right. The idea is to make sure you don’t expose yourself for the other oncoming hits. Burying is another move that consists of quickly tapping the on coming punch to the face away. The last is catching. Essentially this is putting your hand in front of the opponents punch to block it. I can hear you saying, “Why don’t you just move out of the way you idiot?” Well this too is a good option. But remember, part of boxing is to be able to take the punches! This can make your opponent tired and then you can attack. I’m actually OK with taking the hits. For those of you who know me, I’ve had a lot worse happen to me and I know that we always heal, given time. Brave and, strong, right!

This week is CNY (Chinese New Year, so time to hook up with some mate after Monday morning training. Great day on the beech was enjoyed by all.

I have to say that I’m really enjoying the training and the social side that we have in the squad. I have my head gear and gloves arriving on Monday. This is when we start sparring and I looking forward to this for a few reasons. One, I’ve only ever done light sparing and this is a game changer and two, I’m looking forward to see how the others face up and handle it. Being hit in the ribs , kidneys, stomach and chest can feel very lively too. I have a feeling that most of our punches will be going for the head. I’m going to make sure I do my best to mix it up. But that will all have to wait until Fight Night as we don’t want any injuries. Any how, it’s another growing exercise to step outside ones comfort zone and face new challenges. Oh! Yes, I do love a challenge.

Today Saturday, is the last day of training for this week. It’s been a long week with training on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and today things got real this morning. From now on we’re going to be doing, technical sparring and hard sparring. Well done to everyone, we’ve all got hearts of lions. 💪👊👊🥊🥊

This is Matt and myself left jabbing only. Wow it’s exhausting. Great job mate!

The wraps are on. The gloves are ready for action, but first, after banter with the boys, it’s warm up time. Bring on the skipping for 5mins. If you’ve never skipped, give it a go. Then try 5mins. I challenge you. For those of you that aren’t into boxing, never under estimate the level of training, athleticism, commitment, courage and mental strength that is required from any boxer at any level.

This week on Monday I started to feel that we were really in a very special situation to be in the White Collar Boxing and the reality of it all started to take it’s position, when we had our individual professional photo shoot. I can say I’m feeling excited and can’t imagine what it’s going to be like on fight night.

I enjoyed training with Jan on our jabs and 1-2’s. This time it was in the ring. A different feeling as the floor is sprung, so moving feels different.

I’ve been down to my gym to continue with my Muay Thai and should achieve level 2 anytime soon. So with all the different training I’m up to, I feeling pretty fit and healthy.

Good job I’m off the booze……….🍻

Saturday and if you could see the time on the watch it would read 5:30am.

With last weeks early run after the bus, I decided this really wasn’t the way to start my day. I left a little earlier.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

It’s strange to have met a bunch of goods guys that you know one of them you’re going to end up punching and pounding on fight night.

Training began with skipping, squats, press ups and burpies completing 50 of each.. before moving onto basic foot work. Dancing around with one (right) arm out stretched on a strange man’s  shoulder, gazing into their eyes. I paired up with Jan, a 6ft 6in beast who is half Dutch. Great guy to gaze at, while strengthening my neck muscles. We got pretty good but still no Billy Elliot in the room. Towards the end off our first session we were learning to punch properly with twisting hips, legs and straight arms, knuckles first, into our new found sparring partner’s held up palms. No high number counting required. Just 1 2 or 1 1 2…

Watching some fights during the week at a mates gym, to get a feel and inspiration. I’m pretty sure I was the only one without a beer in my hand.

Very Early Saturday morning..😴😴 🕠🌚More 🥊🥊🥊💥💥💥

Saturday morning early 5:20 am start. It felt like I was going to the airport…Vanda boxing gym was my destination in the city. 

After my breakfast and coffee, you would have seen me running and shouting at the bus, to stop! As I flapped my arms like a madman. With the aim of stopping the bus before it pulled out of the bus stop, dodging the odd car as I ran across the road. Almost counted as my warm up.

BREAKFAST FOR KINGS YUMMY

Actually it tastes better than it looks..🤔💪💪

With Alexis (aka Always The One)

Feeling strong after training 💥🥊🥊🥊

So after our early start and training session, we thought that a post breakfast was well deserved.