Six minutes, how bad can it be? – Hugh

As we slowly exited yet another lockdown I, like many others, found myself in a bit of a rut.

And as if by magic (the magic of Facebook Ads…) I saw the perfect opportunity to get myself out of the isolation induced groove by signing up for a white-collar boxing event with Ultra White Collar Boxing.

The ad offered eight weeks of free boxing training, improved fitness levels, and a ‘HUGE’ black-tie event, three things I couldn’t turn down.

Upon finding out that the format of the fight would be three two-minute rounds, a rather naïve part of me thought, ‘ahh, it’s only six minutes, how bad can it be?’

Ironically, it was roughly three minutes into the first training session that I realised the error of my judgement; breathing hard, sweat pouring down my face and seriously aching arms just my reward after 180 seconds of sloppy shadow boxing.

By the end of the first one-hour session, it was clear that boxing required a level of fitness that I had never dreamed of, much less obtained.


Of course, the realist in me knew that the first few sessions would be eye-opening, even demoralising, so to make sure I had no option but to keep with this commitment I set up my JustGiving page and announced the decision to my friends and colleagues.

When that first donation came in, there was no backing out. Especially after seeing such encouraging words from my mates, including “I wanna see a KO, don’t care who” from Rizzle82.

As the weeks rolled by, I conquered a litany of boxing sessions, HIIT workouts, skipping routines and weekend walks to get myself ready for the fight.

It wasn’t until just over a month into the training that we started sparring as a group and I got a real sense of what the fight night would be like. Staring at another opponent and not just a set of boxing pads.

Although we are always told to go with ‘light’ sparring, it never takes long for somebody to connect with a solid hook, the red mist to descend, and the swings coming in faster and harder.

As I write this it is just 10 days ‘til fight night. My fitness has never been better, I’ve made some friends along the way, and I can’t wait to put all this training to the test.

Not only that, but I’ve raised nearly £800 for Cancer Research UK! I’m still taking donations so if you could help me get closer to my target it would be massively appreciated. Please donate here.

I have heard from multiple sources though that no matter how prepared you feel, as soon as the crowd starts roaring and the adrenaline kicks in, the weeks of training go out the window and primal instinct kicks in.

So long as I remember to keep my guard up…

*** POST FIGHT UPDATE ***

A few days on from the fight I’d like to say that I won over the three rounds, but certainly took a bit of a beating.

I managed to keep my guard up and score a healthy amount of points over the first two rounds, but by the third round I was absolutely frazzled.

I’m extremely pleased to win my first fight, but I will be holding on to my 100% win rate for the foreseeable…