Monday, September 10 2012
Thursday was an action packed day for the Haymakers team on the island of Manhattan. We started the day bright and early at Mendez Boxing to check out Charlie Alovisetti (pictured left) spar and hit the bag. Charlie's comfort with the bag is obvious and shows through his fluid movement and crisp punches. Next up we visited the ever entertaining Jamie McDonald, donning a suit and tie, boxing gloves and the Wall Street Journal for a photo shoot. After a verbal sparring of which pictures would be kept and which would be deleted from his training album, he changed into his gym clothes to start his work out. While Jamie insists his biggest strength is jumping rope (or "skipping" for all our British fans), his boxing skills are improving every week. After Jamie, we hopped on the subway and headed back to Mendez to meet up with Peter Meskouris. Peter's comfort with the sport shows in the way he moves around the gym with ease. We watched as he warmed up, hit the bag and did some shadow boxing, proving he is a force to be reckoned with. Next, we hit the pavement and arrived at Church Street Boxing gym to watch training partners Reed Werbitt and Mike Barbara move around the gym. After taking a moment to survey the myriad magazine clippings of motivational pictures and words plastered all over the walls, it was time to get down to business. The boys warmed up, hit the bag, did some shadow boxing and got their sweat on- then it was time for us to move to our last gym of the day. We arrived at Trinity Boxing as the sky was beginning to get dark to watch John McDonald, Eric Goldfisher and Joe Mele. The energy at Trinity is palpable and everyone totally means business. Joe sparred for a few rounds while Eric hit the bag and John worked with a trainer on the mitts. All three looking more and more fierce. To see all of their training photos, click here.