Sparred 3 hard rounds yesterday. 

For the first 2 rounds, went against the large fellow who has given me the biggest challenge so far and whose name I learned is Poojay. A tall heavyweight in the modern sense of the word who hits hard. Corner coach warned me as such and told me to focus on body shots. I did just that and made a habit of getting much lower than the last time we sparred. I made a lot of his shots miss overhead, others grazed me, and a few hard ones landed flush, throwing me off-balance for a second while I was in the middle of moving, but nothing caught me by surprise. He either didn't land anything as hard as last time or I was simply experienced enough to know what he could dish out. 

Had a plan of catching him with a rising left hook springing up from a crouch, and though his guard was open during the attempt the hook fell short each time. Moving forward with it is something to practice. On the other hand, saw success with my overhand right landing.

I also experienced my first clinches in sparring (besides Muay Thai). He'd move in close and it would just happen. It's definitely not something I ever look to initiate. I had just reread some of Angelo Dundee's book and was at the part where he described George Foreman pushing his opponents into position, and without thinking I started doing that in the clinch. Him being big and strong just drove me feral and wanting to pit strength against strength. Corner coach had to shout out at me twice "Don't push!"

Third round was against someone else who tagged in, the dude I sparred last time. He has experience but gets tired quickly. I myself was more tired than usual come the third round from losing my head a few times the previous rounds and either loading up on punches or engaging in wrestling. This guy came in aggressively (he told me afterwards that he wanted to take advantage of the fact that he was fresh and I wasn't - fair!) and I got tagged with shots I should have been able to avoid. One made me lose my right contact lens, which is the first time that's ever happened. Ignored that and after about a minute of finding my groove against him, I started making him miss and landed jabs and straight rights. There was a distinct moment the course of the round switched when  I saw one of his rights coming at me like it was in slow motion and I thought c'mon, you can dodge these.

Blew my noise afterwards and noticed a little blood. Front tooth and neck are also a little sore. Nothing too bad.

Going forward: I need to really train being better at in-fighting. I'm too comfortable being an out-fighter against people my size and shorter. I realized today I still tense up too much when throwing punches on the inside.