The knockdown.

[donnydarkoIRL]

White collar, by that do you mean a match between non-boxers?
If he's only been training for 3 weeks and it was the first shot he actually felt it probably came just as a shock to him.
Check his reaction this week, is he REALLY up for the fight or not, or maybe the slight over reaction may be a small cry to be pulled out rather than admit he doesn't feel up to it yet.

He's been in and out of a boxing gym for over a year.
I take no responsibilty when I'm not with him, but when he's with me I only ever spar light and ask the others the same.

Thats precisely what I am going to do.

Couldn't you just increase the pressure when you're sparring him?

I could but thats not what I really do.
In order for our sparring to pay any dividends for myself I'm just throwing my jab perfectly and defending as best I can.

How old is this Friend Don

He is 20 Scrap.
He works shift work, either earlys or lates.

three weeks is way too soon to be sparring, i know in a lot of gyms you will be thrown in right away but a novice must first learn and be fairly ok with the basics, way to early for this guy to be talking about fighting, anyways if he went down and was spinning after a light tap he prob doesnt have what it takes to even be sparring. stick to non contact boxercise or something lol

He's been boxing a while, he is decent with the fundamentals.

He has taken some shots in the past and there was no real reaction.