ODT advertising sales manager Tina Stevens bravely stepped into the ring for the Southern Showdown charity boxing event on Saturday.
Well, I did it! What an experience. And I don't say that lightly.
The build up was huge, and extremely nerve-wracking.
We had a medical and weigh-in on the Friday night, with a briefing from the fight judges and referees. They went through all possible scenarios - including what to do if you end up falling out of the ring. I thought they were joking, but no, apparently it happens a lot.
Saturday was a production run-through, so we knew where we had to be, and when.
I spent Saturday afternoon mostly on the couch, and Candy Crush on my iphone took a hammering.
Our fight was scheduled number 8, and it took an eternity to get there. I watched the first two fights from the boxer's suite, and started to get wound up, so left and had a strong black coffee.
I spent most of the rest of the time in the blue change room trying to keep calm and focused. The atmosphere in the change room was a nervous one, but also the team were really supportive - we were all feeling the same way.
Our blue team didn't start the win/loss ratio well, so the pressure came on for the tail-enders to bring it on home. Which we did - Woo hoo!
I felt like I took awhile to warm up - but Cherine and Lani used their magic (aka throwing a few punches) to get me to focus, and by the end of the warm up I felt awesome.
Walking through the curtain was unreal, and I got caught up in the hype of it all. Normally I wouldn't even dream of punching the air or dancing to the ring - but hey, it was a once-in-a-lifer type moment.
There was a quick intro, a chat from the referee and it was all on. The noise was huge, and so was Anna's punches - she came out firing. I was given some advice from a previous contender to take the early ground, so had to make sure what I threw was going to count.
I seriously don't remember too much about what punches/combos I threw, I remember noise, yelling, the heat from the ring lights, a few in the face, but most of all the sheer exhaustion of it all. By the third round I was gone.
It took everything for me to keep my hands up, and put some punches out. All Ryan told me in the third round was to make the last 16 weeks count - it was all down to these last two minutes - and they were excruciatingly long. Every muscle in my body was depleted.
When the bell rang at the end, all I wanted to do was throw up, but even my gut muscles didn't have it in them to do that.
To be honest, I thought it was messy, and we were so exhausted that we were throwing punches at each other for the sake of it. We trained sooo differently from that - the combos went, the footwork went, I don't even remember catching or blocking any punches!
Anna is a real legend - I know how hard she worked to get in the ring, and was proud to be the one chosen to go up against her.
So are the training team. They must pull their hair out sometimes, but they are really patient. To have us fit and ready to go in the ring after only a few months really shows how skilled they are at what they do.
The night was brilliant, so well organised and a real experience to be part of. The Hospice will benefit by $22,000, which is just awesome.
I am going to miss training with the crew, and the other contenders - a fantastic bunch of people.
I will miss Eldon's ‘talks' (especially the ones that he forgets halfway about what he was going to say in the first place), the laughing at people trying to master Ryan's special roly-poly thingy's and the break-dance type maneouvre. (I am certain there is a hidden-camera in that place, I can hear them laughing now).
I won't miss the welts from the skipping rope, the early mornings, the ladder push-up drills or my mouth guard (sorry Cherine, I know you ended up with that on Saturday night).
If you are thinking of doing it next year - go for it, you have my wholehearted support and respect. It truly is something I will look back on with pride.
Now, where's my wine.
(By the way, apparently you are supposed to get yourself back in the ring unaided. Pffft, as if I would be capable of doing that. If I ended up outside of the ring, it would have been from a bloody good punch, and I am sure that there would be no way I'd be able to get back in the ring, even if I wanted to, without help).
