1 hour straight sparring

[Hulk]

This sounds inhuman to me so I wanted a professional opinion on it...

I been boxing for 4 years now, had a few smokers, but all my boxing has been done at an MMA gym as its the only show in town.

Anyway I'm thinking of going to spar at a sister MMA gym in a nearby town, and apparently on fridays they spar for 1 hour straight.

That means no breaks, 3 min rounds, with only 30 second rest in between. No water breaks. Nothing.

So that would mean 16 rounds in an hour with about 10 mins total rest with those 30 second rests.

Is this possible ?

It seems ridiculous to me. Unrealistic.

[Slim the BoxingManiac]

One of my fights, I was fighting my cousin, who at the time was the number two middleweight in Minnesota. It was a fight to the finish.

We went twenty rounds with out a break. Uninterrupted. One hour. I loved every minute of it, althought I was getting pounded numb. The only reason we stopped there was because I was bleeding all over the place, and he didn't want to hit me anymore. That was the first time I legitimately got my ass beat. I slept like a baby that night.

So yeah. People have went on for longer.

[Hulk]

One of my fights, I was fighting my cousin, who at the time was the number two middleweight in Minnesota. It was a fight to the finish.

We went twenty rounds with out a break. Uninterrupted. One hour. I loved every minute of it, althought I was getting pounded numb. The only reason we stopped there was because I was bleeding all over the place, and he didn't want to hit me anymore. That was the first time I legitimately got my ass beat. I slept like a baby that night.

So yeah. People have went on for longer.

You are full of shit. I was looking for serious responses to this from trainers/fighters etc.

Good story though amigo

[Slim the BoxingManiac]

One of my fights, I was fighting my cousin, who at the time was the number two middleweight in Minnesota. It was a fight to the finish.

We went twenty rounds with out a break. Uninterrupted. One hour. I loved every minute of it, althought I was getting pounded numb. The only reason we stopped there was because I was bleeding all over the place, and he didn't want to hit me anymore. That was the first time I legitimately got my ass beat. I slept like a baby that night.

So yeah. People have went on for longer.

You are full of shit. I was looking for serious responses to this from trainers/fighters etc.

Good story though amigo

I'm not full of shit.

If I was full of shit, I'd have said that I'd have beaten the hell out of him. But I didn't. I got my ass handed to me by one of the only good fighters I've boxed.

[Gocougars3]

In my experience, it hasn't been a great thing to go with a plan for doing so many rounds. Usually in long sparring sessions emotions run over, technique suffers and injuries occur. There are pros in our gym that go 15 or 16 rounds with 30 second breaks (particularly when the outclass their partners). I have seen guys getting ready for ten rounders go 6 rounds with 2 different high level guys (that was one minute rests). With your experience I would say 8 rounds is enough to get great conditioning and salvage some technique but even that is a lot. If you feel good during a given session you could always decide to go another round or two but I think you get diminishing returns after a point. This is a boxing opinion, I only did MMA for a short time and didn't love it but I got more gassed in that than I did boxing. Sparring at an outside gym is almost always rougher than sparring at home. I suggest more frequent, shorter sessions.

[Hulk]

In my experience, it hasn't been a great thing to go with a plan for doing so many rounds. Usually in long sparring sessions emotions run over, technique suffers and injuries occur. There are pros in our gym that go 15 or 16 rounds with 30 second breaks (particularly when the outclass their partners). I have seen guys getting ready for ten rounders go 6 rounds with 2 different high level guys (that was one minute rests). With your experience I would say 8 rounds is enough to get great conditioning and salvage some technique but even that is a lot. If you feel good during a given session you could always decide to go another round or two but I think you get diminishing returns after a point. This is a boxing opinion, I only did MMA for a short time and didn't love it but I got more gassed in that than I did boxing. Sparring at an outside gym is almost always rougher than sparring at home. I suggest more frequent, shorter sessions.

Thank You very much.

I would be sparring boxing rounds with mma sparring partners essentially. Some are pros and some are amateur fighters. I completely agree a bout the point of diminishing returns. And I can't believe that amatuers and such are able to go 16 rounds, something isn't adding up. I wish I could spar less rounds there, but that is their program. I would have to do what their routine, and that is supposedly 1 hour of sparring, constantly changing sparring partners varying from 150 lbers to over 200 lbers, never sparring more than 1 round at a time with the same guy. Its going to be crazy.

[greynotsoold]

About twenty years ago, I saw something like that in a gym. They had a kid, maybe 14 years old, 112-115 pounds, that was pretty good. He'd won some 50 amateur fights and they were preparing him for a tournament. Every Thursday he'd be in the ring for two hours and he'd spar everybody, all the kids in the gym, up to a 25 year old 220 pound southpaw. Personally, I thought they were trying to kill him.
A dozen years later I saw, in another gym, the same sort of thing. This time, the guy that would spar everybody had been the national #1 amateur in his weight class and was preparing to turn pro. He'd spar with everybody, every night, and fight 'for real' 4 round sparring sessions on Saturdays. With him, it was just work because he knew how to fight (currently 13-2 as a pro) and rarely if ever took a clean shot.

[Hulk]

About twenty years ago, I saw something like that in a gym. They had a kid, maybe 14 years old, 112-115 pounds, that was pretty good. He'd won some 50 amateur fights and they were preparing him for a tournament. Every Thursday he'd be in the ring for two hours and he'd spar everybody, all the kids in the gym, up to a 25 year old 220 pound southpaw. Personally, I thought they were trying to kill him.
A dozen years later I saw, in another gym, the same sort of thing. This time, the guy that would spar everybody had been the national #1 amateur in his weight class and was preparing to turn pro. He'd spar with everybody, every night, and fight 'for real' 4 round sparring sessions on Saturdays. With him, it was just work because he knew how to fight (currently 13-2 as a pro) and rarely if ever took a clean shot.

WOW

Those are some exceptional fighters. Seem to have a death wish on the surface.

I believe remarkable fighters can endure such a grueling routine, but I cannot believe that amatuer mma guys with 0 fights or 1 fight can keep up a pace. And EVERYONE apparently goes through this 1 hour straight sparring session on fridays and they go hard.

If it turns out to be true I know I'm screwed

[erics44]

I have sparred 10 two minute rounds with a minute in between and been relatively fresh at the end, i think i could have added another 6

but then added a minute to each round and half my interval would have been pushing it

[Hulk]

I have sparred 10 two minute rounds with a minute in between and been relatively fresh at the end, i think i could have added another 6

but then added a minute to each round and half my interval would have been pushing it

That is admirable. You were/are in good shape.

You know as well as I do though that there is a world of difference between 3 min rounds with 30 second rest and 2 min rounds with 1 min rests.

[Slim the BoxingManiac]

See, when you hear stories about what some of these fighters have done, what I've done really isn't all that unbelievable.

Out of roughly 125 fights, only ten or so of them are memorable to me for something special happening.

[erics44]

I have sparred 10 two minute rounds with a minute in between and been relatively fresh at the end, i think i could have added another 6

but then added a minute to each round and half my interval would have been pushing it

That is admirable. You were/are in good shape.

You know as well as I do though that there is a world of difference between 3 min rounds with 30 second rest and 2 min rounds with 1 min rests.

to be honest ive never tried 3 minutes and 30 seconds rest

i reckon adding another 6 to the 10 i did would have been a lot of hard work, id have had to have been at a peak to increase it in any way

[Howlin Mad Missy]

FTechnical? full contact? light? Body only? all will make a difference

[Hulk]

FTechnical? full contact? light? Body only? all will make a difference

full contact, no headgear, 14 oz gloves, hard as you want to go.

They all go kickboxing, but I'm a boxer and thus only want to spar boxing, no kicks.

Now I learned that one of the trainers said you can sit out a round or two, and if the head trainer is in a good mood then its 1 hour of 2 min rounds, if not then its 1 hour of 3 min rounds.

[Slim the BoxingManiac]

For that type of fighting I'd recommend 16 ozs, but 14'll certainly do.