A cold night away from the ring

It’s my last official week of boxing. I can’t believe it’s been a month already. Wednesday is usually the day during the week when I hit the gym, and then again on the weekend. But, by Victoria standards we got a snowstorm and so I’m home-bound tonight. Don’t believe me? That's me on the way into work.

Because I’m having a snow day, I thought I’d take some time to learn a bit more about the sport, and have some fun. Here are two videos I found via friends that are on YouTube.

This one is a great example of what would surely happen if I was ever able to get into a real boxing match. (Seriously, I’ve got dance moves that could rival this guy!)

This video shows where I’m headed with my boxing career – MTV’s Cribs. (I just need to get a few more photos of myself to post around the house.)

The MTV video is of Manny Pacquiao. He’s a professional boxer from the Philippines and an eight-division world champion (according to my favorite source, Wikipedia). Watching Pacquiao made me wonder about weight categories, because he seems quite small (not like the big boxers I usually imagine). I’ve never really paid much attention to the sport, so all boxers seemed the same to me. In reality, there are all kinds of weight categories and titles to win. In the 2012 Olympics there will be the following categories:

•    Women’s fly weight 51kg
•    Women’s light weight 60kg
•    Women’s middle weight 75kg
•    Men’s light fly weight 49kg
•    Men’s fly weight 52kg
•    Men’s bantam weight 56kg
•    Men’s light weight 60kg
•    Men’s light welter weight 64kg
•    Men’s welter weight 69kg
•    Men’s middle weight 75 kg
•    Men’s light heavy weight 81kg
•    Men’s heavy weight 91kg
•    Men’s super heavy weight +91kg

For Canadian girls like me who only talk in pounds and just love to share our weights with the world, I did a wee bit of calculating and figure I would be a women's light weight (-60kg)… if I bulk up! Famous boxer Muhammad Ali was rated as a heavy weight (but his 1960 gold medal was in the light heavy weight category). Lennox Lewis won the gold for Canada in 1988 as a super heavy weight (a category that didn’t exist prior to ’84). Because 2012 will be the first time women fight in the Olympics since forever, I can’t say who will win in what category. But you can bet I’ll be paying attention this time around.

See you soon for my final boxing post.