Cutting Weight...

[Chris Nagel]

Come on Venom, you can't let them off like that. You gotta be like your name here, if they ever forget the golden rule of boxing, then it's your obligation as a fighter to remind them. I gotta say I been there, and handling yourself is as important as the opponent and doing what gotta you gotta do.

Relax a bit but sharpen up, all you need is some good fights like this that open your eyes to what you should do, so in the next go around you'll be on a roll.

Sometimes you gotta let loose becuase a buch of should's become nothing but regret and long nights what could have been.

But... you still pulled it off, my hat goes off to you. But next time, I want a hear the news about you seeing your opponent make the mistake that gives you that perfect opportunity in which you brought it to them.

Anyways how's your arm, is it dead? I had a friend that had something like that but he was lucky, a week or so after and he was back into it.

Right now I'm in shape but I don't feel quite fighting fit right now, I've been working here at home but soon I'm going to start going back to the boxing gym here in Flint Michigan, "Joe Byrd's Boxing Academy" and get some more fights under my belt. Maybe later on you and me can swap war stories.

Anyways take care of that arm and let us know how things go.

[Blackvenom-2001]

I go to an Ortho Surgeon next week. My family physician doesn't think it is completely torn in half but that it is probably a second degree tear meaning that 50 - 90 percent of the muscle actually tore.

It was weird. I was warming up on March 3 by shadow boxing as normal. Almost immediately after shadow boxing the back of my right arm started to burn. By the end of the night I told my coach that I thought I had pulled a muscle. I have always just worked through pain like that I should have rested the arm (hindsight) but I didn't. The next day my tricep in the back of my arm was so sore I couldn't touch it... but it wasn't deep in the muscle just like a bad, bad bruise underneath the skin. I could also feel a lot of crinkly stuff (hemotoma) right underneath the skin. I worked out that Tuesday and Wednesday and did everything but uppercuts with that arm becuase uppercuts hurt bad.

By Friday it didn't hurt as bad... but it still felt bruised and I could feel a knot right underneath the skin.

I sparred on Friday night... and on Saturday I went over to a friends house and he was like... what in the world did you do to your arm. My whole right arm from the arm pit down to the elbow was black and blue... I mean a dark purple... it looked nasty. I was like good grief... but my arm wasn't hurting so I thought everything was ok.

I practiced the week of the 12th through the 16th and sparred heavy again that Friday night... sometime in the night I woke up and my arm was killing me. I got up and went and looked in the mirror and my arm just looked funny. If I held it out straight it looked like I had an old ladies arm on the right side... the tricep muscle was hanging down and was all knotted up. I mean if felt like I had a tennis ball in the back of my arm down around my elbow. Turns out that was just congeled blood in the muscle from the tear. I rested that arm all last week before the fight. I didn't tell anyone about it as I still wanted to fight but I knew something was seriously wrong at that point.

Now I'm just waiting to see if I need surgery... or if the ortho surgeon thinks this will heal on its own. I will know in a week or so. In the meantime I am just focusing on remaining in relatively good shape by doing my road work.

Looking back... I think all of this came about because of how hard I was pushing my body. I just wasn't giving it any rest. I'm 32 and was in the gym 4 hours a day in intense training for at least five days a week. It just caught up to me.

We shall see...

Blackvenom-2001

[Chris Nagel]

That's rough dude. Sometimes you gotta get past that work past the pain mentality and just listen to your body at times like this.

I hope you don't turn into an old lady, or you're going to have show up at the gym in one of those long granny blouses.

What did your doctor say?

[Blackvenom-2001]

Still haven't seen the Ortho... will see him next week. I have not worked upper body since the fight and am just taking it easy. To be truthful my whole body needed the rest. Hopefully I will be back at it in a week or two... and if I do have to have surgery have already decided that my jab and left hook are really going to have to develope because I will still spar with one hand if I have too... just won't glove up the right so I remember not to throw and maybe even tape it to the side of my head... heck I have been needing to do that anyway as I still drop it too much at times.

Watch what you say about turning into an old lady... haha... I might be old, but I still know how to throw a punch... don't worry I know your picking... and there is no way I'm showing up at my boxing club in a dress!

Yea... I should have stopped when I first hurt it... but oh well I am a hard head son-of-a-gun!

Blackvenom-2001

[Chris Nagel]

Lol, you stubborn sob.

Good luck, hopefully your Ortho won't tell you that you need a new arm something. Maybe underneith that bluish-purple lump is a lucky break. Your body's telling you it can't go a 100 everytime you want to floor it. It needs a breather once in a while or it'll be like a viscious girlfriend that won't get off your case.

Anyways hang-tough venom, and stay away from dresses!

[Chris Nagel]

You still alive venom?

Let me know how your arm is coming together. If all else fails I can send an evangelical minister to your house to shout it into rejuvination. All you have to do is flip through your channels during the time they play most of the infomercials.

Anyways take care of that cannon of an arm.

[Blackvenom-2001]

Yea still alive... I have decided to actually listen to the doctor and take a full three weeks off. To tell you the truth it has been sort of nice as I had basically lived in the gym for the last four months.

My arm is coming along well... Next monday I plan to start back into some very light shadow boxing and some bag work... and will see if by the following week I feel as if I have recovered enough to start on the focus pads and more intense training.

Easy does it I guess... unless I tear it further I am not looking at surgery so that is a good thing. I actually ruptured the sheath that encases the muscle. The best way to describe this is to take a bannana and put it on the floor and then step on it... the skin is the sheath and when it ruptures the "meat" pushes out through the split... basically what happened with my triceps...

I will probably always have to be a little bit careful with this arm... meaning lots and lots of stretching before hand and I have learned my lesson about proper rest... haha... but other then that I'm ready to go again...

Blackvenom-2001

[Chris Nagel]

Nice to know you're still alive. Oh nice analogy by the way, tell your gym buddies you have to get your banana back into its' peel, and I'm sure they'll understand.

Take it easy, we all need some R&R... You-- go get laid. Doctor's orders.

And the next time your arm is bitching maybe you'll listen.

[Blackvenom-2001]

I followed the Doctor's orders last night... tell the doctor thanks it really helped speed up the recovery process... haha!

Blackvenom-2001

[Chris Nagel]

Way to stay busy... [Insert Banana metaphore here]

Anyways how's your arm holding together?

[Blackvenom-2001]

Haha... I'm going to have to remember to stay away from Bannana metaphors in the future.

I'm happy... I start back in the gym again on Tuesday of next week. Yay me!

Blackvenom-2001