Achilleas skyped me two years ago when I was severely crippled and shaking in pain. He cheered me up and agreed to help me with my Greek questions for the Aryas and Alexander projects. I recall he schooled in England where he lifted weights and kick boxed, and that he attended a Dog Brothers gathering and fought with sticks in Athens. It is important for a boxing coach to at least see the man. Achilleas looks like a small heavyweight to me. These kind of men do very well in bareknuckle boxing and are built more for MMA. He reminds me of Paul Bingham, with a bigger head and more brawn. Like Paul and other boxers in their 30s have discovered, being a 5’ 10” inch man just over 200 pounds is a rough deal in a boxing gym that is geared towards competition.

The reasons are:

-1. Your coach is focused on competition fighters and you are already too old for amateur team meets, especially for Olympic coaches. You are a low priority. I made do by being an assistant coach, helping with flexibility, being an example of hard work, and being a mentor and connection for jobs. Anything you could do for the coach to help with his young men outside of the ring, or maybe just paying him extra to give you some private lessons, will help.

-2. Men in their 30s who are fit and strong, scare young boxers. These men are either youths or in their 20s. They have limited empathy and will be afraid of you on a gut level. They will also be taller and quicker and tend to use you as a punching bag.

-3. You are heavier than you were when you were their age. By boxing standards you are overweight, especially if you are a powerful fire plug weight lifter like you. That muscle costs and drags and anchors.

I will address these points after your query.

Achilleas is a very sharp mindful man, with a family and a job requiring his brain. My goal with all of my fighters, and with readers who ask advice, is to keep them from injury. I am a Blue Corner coach. If boxing is our car, you are the driver and I am the air bag. Most competition coaches, Red Corner coaches, they are the stick shift, the gear box. They have to take 13 year old kids to the nationals by 18, Olympics by 21, and pros by 24. When that kid hits 30, he is already putting on too much weight and losing reaction time. Most of those guys do not stick around to help coach, but move on to work or dissipation. A coach with brains might let a hard working, over the hill boxer, fill in for all of the experience that bleeds out of the gym after 30. In America you can’t even compete in Golden Gloves after 36. Tell your coach you are training for bare knuckle as a baseline, that you are really an MMA man. That will help him slot you in his mind.

[My answers below will be in brackets.]

…

6/25/25 Email from Achilleas

Mr. LaFond long time no talk. How's everything?

[Since recovering enough to travel 20 months ago, I have done dozens of hours of sparring and have had over a dozen fights of various kinds and over 30 machete duels. I have hit a ceiling for strength gains since the socket ligature in both hips are torn and the femoral nerves are screaming at me and threatening to keep me from walking. I have to coach boxing tonight then rest for a week. It seems I will be tapering off my activity until January, at which time I expect to retire to assistant coaching by age 63 in the spring of 26. I still do the basic DDPY exercises that I modified and the ones I invented to get my spine working again. I do these every day. Thank you!]

I've been keeping up with your blog and I truly enjoy the entries. I love the videos on the "InTheseGoingsDown" channel as well. Always entertaining and informative!! 

[I will be spending a week with Mister Grey doing videos, so send him any requests you want. I am emailing this response article to Achilleas on 6/26/25.]

I had a boxing question. 

As you remember I was in-and-out of martial arts for seven years. From kickboxing, to MMA, to Krav Maga, to Kali, all whilst lifting.  After COVID hit, I never went back to training martial arts but I continued with lifting and DDPYoga. Although, due to a colleague edging me on, I started training in boxing. It's been a month.  

[Lifting, being “on weights” as Mister Jimmy Hines would say, makes you look and feel scary to boxers and guarantees you get hit harder by the same punch that would feel lighter at a lighter weight. Many boxing coaches do not know this, many good coaches.]

First things first, I'm amazed that even though I've never done boxing before I could spar with the seventeen- and eighteen-year-old prodigies this gym has - don't forget I'm thirty-four and, apparently, this gym is training people for the amateur leagues of Thessaloniki. But even though I wanted to stay in that gym for eight to nine months, I'm actually thinking of quitting after one month and I'll tell you why. It's the first time in my life that whilst training I have people exclusively head-hunting me. Now you tell me it's literally boxing (!) but I've never realised how many other tools I was using before in other martial arts to create distance. 

[This is an easy fix. The impact you feel comes with blocking with large gloves, especially if wearing head gear.]

Funny thing is, I always get out of training completely unscathed as (almost) everything gets properly blocked. But still the shock of the punch does go through the block and - of course - I do feel it. And here's the million-dollar question. Should I stay for these other eight months as I initially planned or just leave?

[Stay.]

After everything I've heard in regards to sub-concussive blows I don't know if I should continue. Everyone is talking about CTE and martial arts these days and I just don't know how much of this is blown out of proportion.

[I’ve been punched over 10,000 times cleanly and have now had 27 concussions, including a stick shot to the head last month. You have a good skull, much better then mine—you’re a Greek! My squib head has survived exactly 50 years of getting punched. Concussions are the big enemy. The small blows will cause a gradual erosion of the outer material of the brain over decades. Eight months sounds good. Besides, I doubt if you are good at getting hit yet. Blocking is the crudest form of boxing defense which I have returned to at the nadir of decline.]

Even though the training and the sparring is going surprisingly well I don't feel confident in getting hit on the head repeatedly (even whilst blocking) as I'm completely clueless on the long-term effects of it.

[Only 2 of the roughly 200 men I have handled have had long term brain issues form getting hit. Both of these were from extreme power shot concussions, one in stick competition, and one sparring the hardest hitting 174 pounder in the U.S. The erosive effect is not from light sparring, but moderate to hard sparring that does not cause concussions but still “rocks” your brain.]

As someone with years of experience I think you're the best person to tell me on how to proceed and the risks involved. As for me telling you that I wanted to do boxing for eight months and then just go back to weightlifting I had decided that way before my first training session. Unfortunately, the fire I've had under my belly for martial arts is long gone for some reason.

All the best Sir! I hope I'll hear from you soon!

Achilleas

…

Okay, young man, you have decided on being a strong man rather than a boxer, a decision appropriate to your age. Boxing, you took up on a dare, it seems. So, since you are now in a self-defense setting, let’s use this ego-induced situation to improve your chances of surviving a street ego situation. If a college mate could goad you into the ring, then a couple of jerks saying mean things to your lady could goad you into a brawl. As a strong man you want to survive their sucker punches so that you can throw them around, tear off their car door, and do other goon stuff you walls of meat can do that I can only write about in adventure novels.

Bare knuckle boxing is now big.

Tell your coach, that is where your heart is. That’s no lie. You are preparing for a bare knuckle affray we hope never happens.

Ask if you can discard the head gear. It applies more shock to the brain, due to its weight, weight distributed furthest from your neck, and as a bridge with the blocking glove. It just helps with cuts and holes in the skull from super hard punches. You can’t sell this. But you could say you are looking to bare knuckle and want to practice more head movement and less blocking.

When you spar only throw jabs. His boxers can always use work against a jabber.

When your left gets tired, jab from southpaw. His boxers can surely use help against southpaws.

Only throw light punches so you don’t get hit so hard getting caught.

Move side to side, not away, not in, but side to side, while you jab. This is good work for your partner and keeps you from getting caught on your heels going in or back.

Give up the body. Make it an obvious target. You look like a barrel of ape meat. Let them beat the body and when thy come upstairs for your head, duck, bob-weave to the side, coming up and out with the jab.

Always try to get behind him. While he is side-stepping and turning to prevent this he can’t hit as hard.

Practice rolling with a punch then jabbing, roll and jab. Must guys that roll come up with a hook that can get them hit hard.

Important: when jabbing, slide your lead foot forward on the ball of the feet, not to the heel. This is a slick jab used by light hitters against hard hitters. You are not trying to win, but to learn how to minimize his punching power.

At the end of the session, ask your coach if you can do an extra round where you have no gloves on, just wraps, and don’t throw, while one of his men throws at you. If he says yes, practice coming forward while moving side to side from the waist, like early Tyson. Do not clinch, but check to his elbow, shoulder and hip and try and get behind him. Keep your fingers together! Amateurs are not allowed to clinch.

If there is a pro in the gym, ask to do an extra round of this, light, with the clinch on, so he can practice avoiding and breaking clinches and you making them.

Practice waist rolls and rolling with punches with your mate who talked you into this, on your own time.

After this bare handed defense, you should be better at air breaking with your wrists when blocking. The head gear makes a solid connect with the curve of the glove, as does a large glove rested on the temple and transfers force through to you. Without the head gear, you have more room to let your wrist give like an air brake and not transfer as much force to your forehead/temple, and thence to your brain and neck. This is mostly about your NECK. Heavier guys, even with strong necks, take more force to the neck when they get hit.

Only 8 months?

Go for it, eagerly, carefully and forget punching, punch only enough to give your sparring partners something to defend. But crowd them and make them work on movement and keep their punch count up. The more punches they throw, the better your chances of learning how to roll with the punches in only 7 months. Do not come in straight, like a bull, even though you look like one. Stalk them like you are a panther, LIGHT ON THE LEAD FOOT, trying always to be close enough to get hit, but at an angle where they find it hard to hit you with authority.

Achilleas, have a good time in the gym.