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Thereās a shot from my recent rematch against Twosleepers I just canāt stop looking at. There he stands: poised, focused, not even bothering to protect his face, scanning my defence for weak spots, deciding where the next missile will go.
Twosleepers and I are almost the same weight and height, but the similarities end there. Age-wise, he could be my son. A Southpaw, heās a challenge to my Orthodox stance and mind. Heās a Swarmer, Iām a Slugger. In our first match he outpunched me at a whopping 4:1 ratio, humiliating me in my own ring, showing the world what young Asian speed, skill and stamina can do to ageing European brawn.
When he challenged me to a rematch, I knew what Iād be facing: a slick, superior Chinese war machine. Still, I was eager for the fight. Twosleepers has got quite a fanbase and in our first match he basically turned me into a prop to show off his skills on. But Iāve got some followers of my own, and I wanted to show them I can do better than be forced to play the part of punchbag.
When I stepped into the ring for our rematch, I knew what was in store: a barrage of swift, sharp punches aimed to dazzle his fanbase ā and me. But this time, his strategy didnāt faze me, nor did the bone-chilling āHeh!ā that announces each of his punches have the desired psychological impact. Also, I knew what to do: throw a brutal, coldhearted punch that would shut the Chinese War Machine up and make him respect Dutch Firepower.
And sure enough, at some point in Round One or Two I drew blood. A small cut on Twosleepersā lower lip ā but still a first in my boxing ācareerā. (Strangely, though we used three cameras to film our match, I havenāt been able to identify which particular punch caused the cut. Trust me, Iāve looked the footage over hundreds of times.)
Still, ducking, bobbing and weaving, Twosleepers managed to avoid most of my punches ā only to immediately counterattack, exposing the flaws in my defence with envy-inducing speed. A massive left hook to my jaw briefly rattled my nerve in Round Two and could have been the setup for a quick KO, but that would have robbed Twosleepers of the chance to show off his superior ringmanship for the full five rounds.
I really did fight better than in our first match. Less flustered, more confident, challenging Twosleepers to do his worst. But instead of my liver, he targeted my pride. Once more I got creamed statistically, China out-punching Holland at an even more embarrassing 5:1 ratio this time.
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