You will now be known as Muhammad Ali.

:lol2: @ HLJ this is a great example of why I missed you when you were gone ;)

Thanks Nirvana. (Sorry for the delay - I've been on vacation.)

Ali, I couldn't tell from your original post - are you boxing against an opponent, or against a bag? I have Bob, and Bob takes a lot of abuse. He used to be in the living room, until we re-did the floors. Now he's in the basement, so he doesn't get used as much.

I've been intrigued in the 2nd book of the Millenium Trilogy (the girl who played with fire) by the bad guy who has no nerve endings( non-functioning ones or something) and so there's pretty much no point boxing with him as the other person is always going to come off worst.

I never formally boxed, but I did spar with a buddy really extensively for a good long summer. We cleared some space in the living room (ah the joys of being bachelors), got some gloves on and set some simple rules (no ball shots, no head shots without permission) and punched the tar out of one another, mostly body shots. We'd either free-form dodge and weave trying to hit one another, or we'd take turns using one another as a punching bag by either punching gloved hands, on the back, arms, whatever. We'd stop for a while, lift some dumbbells, smoke a couple cigarettes, and get back up and do it until we couldn't get back up any more. We both lost a ton of weight and felt really good physically. I can't recommend it enough.

The first rule of Fight Club...

gloves are for sissies...

it sounds way more meat-headed than it was. we were in my living room, which was lined with bookshelves, and talked a lot about ancient history (sumarian and roman history particularly, two areas my buddy has a frightening amount of knowledge about). So sort of.. Academic Fight Club Talks.