Former 2 Division World Champion Danny Garcia 37-3 21KO's and Trainer Angel Garcia Expose how Hard sparring Ruins Fighters Careers. #dannygarcia #angelgarcia #boxingsparring #boxing #boxingnews #ysmsportsmedia
@ewwwyourfac3 Eight hard rounds with Hagler will change your mind. Vito was ruined so was Mugabi and Mustafa Hamsho. These fighters were totally changed after Hagler they never beat another good fighter after him. Vito would get hit and start staring into space. HARD FIGHTS CHANGE FIGHTERS TOO!
Thats a fact, just look at James Toney, all he did was spar, no road work or other training, just hard sparring and it shows. You can barely understand a word he says
youre not suppose to spar light, unless you want to fight light too. what you do in sparring is what you do in the fight as well. if you just do boxing for hobby then its different you can spar only light if you want.
Old school fighters like Sugar Ray Robinson very rarely spared more than 3-4 rounds 1 or 2x a week...they worked on specific things and sparring 100s of rounds for free was not necessary when you fought regular anyway.
Imagine padding your resume and getting paid while honing your skills against the bum of the month on the regular. All this while receiving seldom criticism. from the fan base. Maybe even reach more fans. I’m not saying this critically. For pros today who thrive on real visceral hard contact, who want to tour, and who are physiologically resilient; it seems like a lost golden age. But course there’s an oppressive, exploitative quality to the classic form of boxing industry too. And while it hasn’t exactly gotten better today, there’s at least space for fighters to look after their mental and physical health. Personally I believe the best way to improve your fighting skills is to actually fight. But it comes at a cost(if you aren’t a defensively minded wizard). How can you improve skills when your brain is compromised.
@@kevinmahon7848it's not just the gyms it's the culture of Philly. I'm not gonna dox a gym but I remember it got so intense in a gym it turned into guns in the streets. Now not only did they have a bout to worry about they now had to worry about some beef
Yes, really 'sparring' was meant to be 'playing boxing'. You are doing 'pretend' boxing. The problem is these guys who decide sparring is no-playing real boxing fights
There's a fighter called Troy king, dude bragged about how he gave amir khan that 'work' in camp so they kicked him out, seemed aggressive and looked like a top prospect till a retina issue derailed his career. Sad in a way, but it reminded me of what Danny said here. Came to work the jab, and your opponents wanna say they worked you over
I agree with the professionals. They in the sport. I think sparring has lost its initial point since social media became a thing. You use to spar to work on game plans or weaknesses, now it’s to one up the fighter and brag abt getting the best of them.
@@MrClassicmetal that’s by choice or who they chose to sign with. Staying sharp don’t mean you have to use someone as a come up. These cats don’t have no honor or integrity for the sport.
@@d3uce3306 That's my point, I agree 100%. You'll notice that it's usually guys from a certain promotional outfit who love to yap about those mythical sparring sessions.
@@d3uce3306it’s hard to stay active no matter who you’re with. Mostly only the star fighters can fight at will like Canelo, AJ, Tank. They can fight as little or much as they want.
@@cheetonation Yeah, CTE is real in combat sports. Especially if they're sparring constantly. CTE is also very common in football. Jovan Belcher, Aaron Hernandez, Junior Seau, Chris Henry, just to name a few, took their own life and were later diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
@@waedjradi everyone knows what CTE is, at least anyone who has an opinion worth following. I'm pointing out that even a guy like Rogan who hasn't put in a quarter of the work like Mcclellan has felt the damage back then. that's how vicious sparring is.
Sparring is like a 2 edged knife...On one hand its like the main tool to actually learn how to fight...I remember myself looking like Floyd Mayweather on the bag, throwing sharp and fast, working on the angles etc, but in sparring i was getting beat up by guys that their technique was all over the place just because they sparred all the time...By the time i started sparring regularly, i was improving vastly each session and i'm not kidding! All the flashy things i was doing on the bag/mitts i was finally able to do on a real opponent...But this brings me to my second point which is wear and tear physically as well as mentally...And the mental part i think is the most important... Knowing that practically every day of the week u gotta show up to training and go to war with some random guy (or guys) takes away the fun i think...At least for me that's what did it
I need to hear this, been out of the gym cause of health problems and studying strategy’s and perfecting technique, understanding timing and distance all that so when I go back and start sparring consistently I’ll actually make progress and not just gain sparring ability which I eventually lose once I turn it down abit
Makes sense, because Monzon's game was to punish guys until they crumbled. Guess he figured it wouldn't be long before a boxer was finished if you put that style of attack on a guy week after week in the gym, himself included.
That is why in soviet amateur boxing system there were no hard sparrings. You were not allowed to hit your opponent like a crazy . There were a lot of work "in pairs" where fighters were working on technique, speed, movement and tactics. Most of boxers with over 300 bouts (fighting without gear at early days) had clear mind at old age.
Dmitry Pirog was saying that too, when he was coming to the US, he had to bring his own guys from Russia cuz in the US guys only spar to kill. And by bringing his own guys they could do light work practicing slow sparring or working as you said in pairs , working on certain things whether it's infighting, defense, jab etc. Anthony Yarde actually said the same thing he doesn't really spar spar
One of the biggest reasons that Ali ended up getting so punch drunk is because of all the gym wars that he had back in the 70’s. There were a lot of young heavyweights who wanted to make a big name for themselves, and beating up the great Ali was a way to do that. I remember a big heavyweight from Miami named Jeff Simms busting Ali’s upper lip open in the gym once..nobody wanted to just SPAR with Ali, they wanted to FIGHT him!
LOL, but he's not wrong. Same happend to Joel Diaz, he became a trainer cause he got fucked up in sparring when he was a pro, his eye is also looking south of the border.
Danny speaking facts even the best fighter in any gym has a target on their back in sparring so it’s for real like that for guys like him who are world champs.
@@NixonS243 Very. Back in the 2000’s when 50 and G unit were the one’s, I always thought Llyod was the best/most underrated. Rotten Apple was always bumping in my car.
Idk how it be now a days but I know when I was fighting amateur 07-09, my gym had PLENTY of gym wars. That was when I got completely burnt out of it. Hard sparring every day like it was basically trying to stay alive.
Very true. I remember years ago when I boxed when I was training for fights, I always prayed to God before I sparred . sparring is a fight. Just like Danny said.
When I heard Terry Norris had more than 300 amateur fights, I quickly understood where his condition came from. He was clearly effed by those amateur bouts, the sparring sessions, and the fights where he took some very deadly shots from Simon Brown, Julian Jackson and the guy from the US army who dethroned him.
@@californiaswimteam Yeah, my goals are #1 not to incur long term damage by taking punches to the head and #2 to get better at fighting/sparring. So yeah one can spar 100's of rounds and surely get much better.....BUT gonna take lots of hits.
It's a great things if you work with people that know how to spar with speed and know what level of power to throw, to the point where you have to focus but not feel like you're in a fight.
Great conversation to be had here. If you’re interesting in boxing from a historical standpoint, you’d find in the pros and amateurs you had guys who had hundreds, if not several tens of fights and lived long lives without much decline. Look at Mexican fighters famed for wars, practically all their greats are alive and lucid. There is genetic qualities that affect who can handle punishment-- most iron chinned fighters usually don’t suffer much trauma after IMO, and many guys had trauma without much sustained wars. Why? Sparring is a key answer. Particularly in Philadelphia, you used to have the famed Philly Ring Wars, and Philly fighters were famously hard to beat-- Marvin Hagler’s losses were mostly to Philly fighters. But they had a short prime from all the wars. Chris Colbert, can barely handle a shot now because he was famous for extensive sparring. James Toney, a defensive wizard who fought an extremely long career, taught by a legendary trainer never took a huge beat down-- but is slurring heavily. Toney famously says he only sparred, didn’t do heavy bag or etc. Sparring is the only true way to hone your skills-- but it should be measured and kept controlled. I don’t think in the 20s-50s extensive sparring was the norm. Maybe some historians can answer.
Toney slurring is definitely from sparring. Everyone he's worked with says he's the worst, every round is a war. He says he spars that way because he was brought up in a pit ass gym where guys try to flatten you 24/7. At least that's what I think he was saying.
@@back40flopdogg30actually Micky Rourke got his face rearranged by sparring top guys like Tony. That's why his face looks all crazy today. So yeah, Toney was crazy in sparring
@@rootofalleviThailand is a poor country, and that’s where that sport is the most popular and highest level, so of course the money isn’t the same, but they definitely figured out a better way to spar than boxers have for longevity. Thais be having over 100-200 fights easy…because they know how to train without damaging themselves. And we’ve seen plenty of them cross over into boxing and become world champs there as well..
@@Gus375eh they also past prime by like 25 and get in pro fights as small children, getting kicked in the head as a child isnt good for brain health. Also culturally traditional muay Thai just isnt as aggressive as a sport, composure is more valued than pure violence, thats why Ramon Dekkers lost so many matches that westerners felt he dominated
@@JeffPenaify if you’ve ever seen a Dekkers fight you would know he was a blood and guts type of fighter aka he absorbed a lot of punishment and no, thais fight all the way till about their mid to late 30s..what are you talking about? They also show much less ill effects of the fights. saenchai is like 42 and still fights. Traditional muay thai used to be much more aggressive, watch some golden era fights, you seem to be lacking some muay thai knowledge, watch more fights..
This is the one thing Muay Thai does better during camp than Boxing and MMA. In Muay Thai you do it to learn and it is prohibited to go hard during sparring, that's why they got over 200 fights and still going. Also, amateur boxing in Cuba does it well as well, during sparring they aim to hit the shoulders instead of the head.
Bernard Hopkins was talking about it long before. He said how do fighters go to the clubs after the fight instead of resting? After all the beating in the gym and not in the fight. He also said sparring takes away more of your health than the fight itself
I train a fighter to a world title the boxer never sparred I was told by many people at the time it can't be done, couldn't agree with you enough thanks for the content.
Yea, that’s the problem with most boxers, there only gym fighters from leaving all their fight in the gym. I was like that as well until the end of my boxing career.
100% I used to be all about hard sparring every week. Now I can’t spar at all and can’t fight anymore. Still teach and do light sparring or just body sparring know. But it’s SUPER easy for me to get a concussion now. And when I get hit, I feel loopy for a few days after. Takes a while to feel “normal” again. To many concussions. It’s nothing to play with for sure. Sure you may think it’s fun today, but when you get a bad one, it sticks with you for the rest of your days and you have to learn to deal with a new “normal” now. I’ll never feel how I felt mentally in the past, I was hunting / looking forward to that for a while, but it’s something I have to let go of and understand this is just how life is now. I’ll say this, sparring is important. But you don’t need to have hard gym Wars every single day / week. It WILL come back to haunt you one day 🙏🏼
It's so true, I wish I had thiught about this before all the sparring I did in my youth. And I didn't even get very far, sparring caused an injury that stopped me dead in my tracks as a young man before getting to my 2nd amatuer, now I've got crazy headaches and can't even box anymore. Stay safe and spar smart or hard but less often if you're going to spar.
I’ve been in boxing since I was a kid I coach now all my life I’ve seen my own team mates get destroyed and generation after me get destroyed cause of too much and hard spars .. lead by trainers who have never been in the ring … honestly it’s sad a couple that I trained with only in our early 30s slurring bad and one can barely hit the bag .. boxing is boxing but trainers need to do better at protecting younger fighters
@@JDirty-w-tha-30 if you join a gym from the outside coming it can be a little difficult to discern who is a knowledgeable trainer or who just teaches punching and no defense just fight your ass off and say a prayer kind of trainer.. my purpose is to train the mind and body and slowly build young kids or grown men into a sound intelligent boxer … If you want to join a gym check one out get a feel for some of the trainers … keep in mind good trainers almost never yell or smack their fighters or have to be the loud one .. and a good trainer will ask what do you want out boxing .. compete? Just be in shape? Or self defense? Those are the 3 main reason people walk Into a boxing gym .. and from there a good trainer will know what to do .. not throw you in the ring quick .. a lot of drills and when the time comes to spar a good trainer will take it slow correct your mistakes in the ring with you and build you up from there
My trainers growing up where old heads from vieques PR they came up from that old school in the 60's and they always told us sparring is to practice the motions and learn not hurt your stable mate
Glad to see you guys talking about these gym wars & how ppl don't care about the fighters.This makes me think of Andrew Golota v Tyson! Golota was hurt, really hurt, & his corner tried to send him out for another round. So Golota quit & I'm glad he did. If you don't take care of you, no one else is either.
A lot of fighters leave their fight in the gym from sparring hard and often. Sparring can sometimes be worse than an actual fight. Don't burn yourself out sparring, there's so many other things to work on preparing for a fight.
Mannn i never looked at boxing this way ima look at it way different and i used to train as a kid for a while and stopped in my teens but im thankful in the same time for not continuing it as my teens. 🙏🏼
i agree, in sparring you take a lot of punishment and many fighters get hurt because of it but there is a benefit in hard sparring, maybe not all the time but there is a benefit. would you rather find out your limitations in the gym or a fight?
Sparring is about working on what you learned and applying it. The more emotional the sparring, the more wear and tear (not just your brain, but your joints, tendons, muscles)
Go watch footage of sparring with Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, Joe Louis, or Cuban amateurs today who dominate Olympic boxing. Emphasis on skills and defense, but not trying to kill someone.
Im no robert garcia, but i am an experienced amateur boxer, i will say this, sparring is critical if you want to be any good at fighting. To get good at fighting you have to fight. But unfortunantly it comes at a price. Now i personally would say that not every spar has to be hard. I acually have sparring partners that ive worked with for years and we can throw fast punches without putting much power in our punches. I feel that is how most spar sessions should be , but i feel it is also important to spar hard at certain times but also be defensivly responsible, and another thing with my normal partners we all pretty much know each other and have each others timing and rythem down so that makes it wayyyyy less likly to get hit hard with a clean shot, and we know when to pull our punches. But at the same time it is still important to spar with different partners too though, but in the end i would say take things in moderation when it comes to sparring. Also me and many partners have more of a learning mindset then a competive mind set
No, you know what the real problem is, it's that mfs don't know the definition of sparring. It's all these big ass egos that think they need to prove something in the gym, that's not sparring, they've turn it into a pissing contest and it's a damn shame.
I think we have to look at maximizing the returns of sparring. What percentage better are you getting after the rounds? Were they quality rounds? Did you have the tools to defend yourself or did you take damage for no reason? Just imagine someone who is lacking defensive tools, and also lacking learning awareness. Over a 5 round hard sparring day they are going to take more damage and learn less than someone who has the tools to defend and also learn efficiently. I hope that in time, fight culture can learn to optimize sparring rounds, maximizing skill attained vs damage taken.
@@sonofapollo5892 Rolly cracked hitchens very hard in sparring, gave him some brain damage. He has never been the same after that sparring session which is why today he is not as aggressive.
Very wise words from the dad and son duo. I always liked Danny Garcia, he foght and beat alot of big names. In my opinion the best Rican fighter after cotto during his time
This is always been a good idea boxers Parr others than down the road that same fighter made it now they fight each other and one knows the other better its like giving someone the edge to know how to beat you , bad business if you ask me.
