No despair about sparring again

By Tony Jeffries on May 26, 11 04:28 PM

TODAY was a big day for me. After 90 days out, I finally started sparring again.

I cut my eye in a fight with Tommy Tolan just before Christmas, and needed 18 stitches in it. I thought the cut had healed, but it opened when I began sparring again in February, and I had to have an operation to remove the scar tissue.

It's taken until today before I could start taking punches in practice.

It's been such a frustrating time for me, the longest since I had a hand operation in 2006. But you've got to make sure you take your time, so that when you do start sparring again everything's great.

I'm really confident that's what will happen this time.

It was actually 2007 before I sparred again after my operation, and I was a bit worried about throwing my right hand. Now my hand's perfect, I feel like I could put it through a wall.

I had no worries about sparring this time, I knew it would be sound.

I've spent most of the 90 days working hard in the gym, so I'm probably fitter now than I've ever been. The thing now is just for me to get sparring fit. It will take about 50 rounds of sparring before I'm ready to fight again.

I started doing four rounds, and I'll build it up to six at a time, then eight. When I get to ten rounds, that's when I'll be ready to get back into the ring.

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