Tashkent, Uzbekistan, November 6, 2022: Be wary of social media if you want your boxer to be a knockout in the ring was among the many nuggets of information boxing coaches at the OCA Stage 2 Development Programme in Tashkent were left chewing with on the penultimate day of the five-day course.
The sage advice from former Canadian national coach Gordon Apolloni to 18 coaches from 12 NOCs in Central and South Asia was: “Never post any of your fighters’ bouts on YouTube. Why provide footage to your opponents making it easier for them to research your fighter.”
From fight plans to goal setting, the former four-time Canadian welterweight champion (67kg), briefed coaches from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan on Sunday, November 5.
“As a young coach, soon after my fighting days were over, I benefited a lot by sharing ideas. Knowledge is power and what the Olympic Council of Asia has done to bring together all these different countries together under one room is absolutely brilliant,” noted Apolloni.
There was never a dull moment during his three-hour lecture at the boxing gymnasium at the College dedicated for Olympic hopefuls in Tashkent. Apolloni showed his Italian heritage freely in lively and animated interaction, one time even falling to the floor to show how one of his boxers had been knocked down.
That boxer was Mark Simmons, the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the heavyweight category. “In the first round, Mark was knocked down in the opening seconds, but still managed to hang in there. When the round ended, I told him ‘Mark, forget about what happened. Your fight starts now’.”
Simmons went on to win the gold medal and went on to have a record of 201 wins in 241 bouts. “When I meet him now, he always tells me ‘Gord that was the best piece of advice I got in my career’. You have to be able to remain cool under pressure and not panic, so that your boxer can benefit,” said Apolloni.
The Ontario-based Apolloni was also full of praise for the Uzbekistan boxing structure and the facilities available to the youth. “It is amazing what is on offer for boxing in this country. It has the full support of the government. In Canada we probably have 5,000 boxers in total but here there is more than 5,000 in Tashkent alone. It is absolutely incredible.”
