Boxing News Boxing News
© Jane Warburton / Saddo Boxing
Yesterday, SaddoBoxing returned to Shinfield’s Gym in Somercotes, Derbyshire, England to check on the progress of Rendall ‘2Tone’ Munroe as he prepares for the fifth defence of his European Super Bantamweight title against Simone Maludrottu on November 20.
It was a cold morning but I received a warm welcome and coffee from Jason Shinfield, who was already waiting at the gym.
Rendall soon arrived alongside Prizefighter Cruiserweight Champion Ovill McKenzie and girlfriend as well as light middleweight boxer Simon Fleck, who had also come to train.
Donning a few layers of clothing, Rendall began training. McKenzie – also made to wear a thick jacket – soon got in to the swing of training and it wasn’t long before he was grinning broadly!
All three boxers skipped, shadow boxed, punched bags and took turns in the ring with Jason on the pads, followed up by –what looked like – agonising exercises on the mat. This – apparently – was the ‘easy’ bit! And would be followed by a run and uphill sprints.
The three men and McKenzie’s girlfriend set off for a run. Turning left out of the drive they ran uphill at the start of their route while Jason and I detoured to the right, walking around the pools to meet them at the site of the hill sessions. A scenic track edged with trees alongside the pools made for a nice location and all four ‘runners’ sprinted hard up and down the incline.
Jason told me that Rendall is always the one to catch, but after a hard sprint session the day before, Rendall didn’t look to be enjoying this morning’s session! It didn’t stop him putting in the effort though and he ran with determination!
Several times they sprinted up and down, then ran back to the gym where they were all doing ‘warming down’ exercises when we arrived back.
Once finished, Jason gestured to me to see Rendall. He was in the changing room and had set about the ‘peeling off’ process, that is – he was removing each layer of clothing. He must have been cooking inside all those clothes but he didn’t seem bothered by it.
A check weight that morning revealed that he was only three pounds over the weight and was well on target for the fight. “Rendall follows our diet and adds his own stuff”, said Jason, “and he doesn’t have a problem with the weight. He researches all the healthy foods and likes to read up about the next best super-food”. (After I mentioned I’d turned to spinach and yumberry!)
Rendall answered some questions on training, food and his toughest fight so far…..listen to the audio here.
Saturday morning, Jason confirmed that Munroe had a good ten round sparring session with undefeated Welsh super bantam prospect Paul Economides and Rendall’s weight today was 8 stone 12, or 124 lb, without having the sweat kit.
SaddoBoxing will be back at Shinfield’s Gym next week as fight day draws near.
Ovill McKenzie fights on the Munroe vs. Maludrottu undercard on November 20 while Simon Fleck hopes to fight soon.
