At long last, got to spar yesterday. Up until my turn, everyone was paired with one other person, but I got called to the ring with 2 other opponents to rotate in and out with. Coach announced us as the "main event", which I got a kick out of.

I started out going 2 rounds against someone I've sparred with before. He's big and starts hot, but tends to slow down as time progresses. Right away I was landing jabs, but had some distancing trouble getting my right to land solidly. About 40 seconds in his groin guard came undone and I had to wait for his coach to reapply it. When we resumed, my right hand started landing a lot more, and I began to dig in a lot of body shots, more than I've ever landed in sparring. I felt him grunt when I landed a straight right to his stomach.

One left hook that he landed hit the back of my head and almost spun me around from throwing me off-balance but I managed to stop myself and using the momentum immediately recoiled with a rebounding straight right.

After round 2 was over, the coach announced I'm going to do 4 rounds instead of the usual 3 and he had the other boxer tag-in to face me. That felt really cool to get special treatment.

The second opponent for rounds 3 and 4 was a jacked dude who hit hard but was fairly slow. I immediately noticed that he wasn't going as hard as the first guy so I eased up on the power of my head shots, but still threw hard to the body. He did the same and while I don't recall him landing a single clean punch to my face, he landed some powerful body shots. Unfortunately, equipment malfunction plagued him too and twice we had to stop so he could have his coach reclasp his headgear.

Pros and cons of my performance:

+ Landed more body shots than ever.

+ Defense was the best it's ever been. Blocked numerous head and body shots. Didn't fall into the old rookie trap of trying to parry everything to the point that I end up reaching OUT to try and catch punches, leaving my defense a mess and tiring me out. 

+ Managed to balance aggression with staying relaxed.

- Feet are too jumpy sometimes, throwing me off balance.

- Left hook still falls short a lot of the time.

- Should have initiated in-fighting more for practice when I go up against the tall dude who wasn't here this time.