All right bullies, I need your input to form some census about how I should approach a upcoming friendly sparring match.

My friend and I been doing friendly trash talking (you know the healthy kind) to poke fun at each other. It's arrived at a point where we decided to settle our fun trash talk in a striking sparring match.

My friend has no striking experience (beyond TKD he took as child) and never done live training. He is bigger, stronger, taller, and in much better shape than me.

I have 2 years of striking experience and done bit of live training. I am 20 lbs lighter, 2 inch shorter in height, 3 inch shorter in reach, and cardio is in poor shape. I haven't done any training in months and haven't done striking or sparring in a year or more.

So I'm detrained, fat, and out-of-shape but have more skills and experience than my friend. My friend being recent fan of UFC is saying his physical capabilities as a bigger, stronger, better cardio and possibly faster than myself in current shape can beat my butt and handle himself quite well.

Let's say example of Brock Lesner was used as individual with physical prowess but no skill beating on someone with far more experience and skill by him. This is actually the point that got me to ask him to spar me to test his theory. Condition is that I spar him as I am. Meaning I'm not allowed to train or do any sort of preparation to regain my cardio and/or get back in-shape for the sparring match.

Question
- Should I go all out (all out meaning 90 to 100% of my full power) or not from start?

Sparring Rule
Modified Muay Thai
- No elbow to head
- No knees to head
- No takedown

Gears
- I will be wearing 16 oz boxing glove, shin pad, mouth piece, cup
- Friend will be wearing headgear, 4 oz mma glove or 16 oz boxing glove.

Uhhh, step one is make sure you and he wear the same gear or close to. If he wears headgear and 4oz gloves, but you wear 16oz gloves with no headgear, that's stupid.

You are gunna let him wear 4 oz gloves while you wear 16?!

Well barring that idiocy, I would use movement and let him blow his wad which will also give you a gauge as to how hard you should hit him(just match what he gave you)

tear him a new arsehole.. then shake his hand and buy him a beer.

Get mma gloves, you train yudo!

I remember friendly sparring someone bigger and more skilled than me. I had the speed advantage, but I wasted a lot of energy. His advice to me was to control the center of the ring and conserve my energy.

As far as going all out, a good rule of thumb is dish out what you expect in return. One thing I've noticed in a few throwdown vids is fairly light striking. So this got me thinking about friendly sparring as a striker with some ground cross training. I like going to the ground, but it's not my strong point. What I don't want to do is half ass it on my feet, then be on the ground with a grappler going all out. So here are some things I think you should consider, and yes I realize that you're in boxing gloves and likely not going to the ground:

1 - If you give it 50-75% and the big guy comes out swinging, sucks to be you

2 - If you haul off and hit this guy with all you got, and you don't get the TKO, he is going to reply in kind and then you're really in trouble.

So as long as you can live with number 2, that might be the way to go. Just realize that universal rule, dish out what you want in return. If he gives you a few light jabs that don't penetrate but you return all out, that's kind of a dick move.

at the end of the day.. if you don't go hard his strength won't play a part and therefore the challenge is a failure. you're probably not going to ko him anyway with you not being in shape and having not sparred in a year, no offence. so just hit him hard, let him do the same and both wear 16oz so you can both go to work the next day

Get someone you both respect to ref. Keep your hands up and move around. He'll most likely blow his wad 35-45 seconds in. At 45 seconds start throwing copious leg kicks. When he starts to worry about his legs punch him in the face. Wash, rinse, repeat until the bell rings.


WTF, you're in Edgewater? Send me a PM with time/place I want to watch. I'll even corner for you (I've always wanted to do that).

If it is between friends you need over the top entrance music! You should also each pick your favorite brand of beer and call it your sponsor!

This is a terrible idea all around.

But since you're going to do it anyway:

Start out with both of you wearing 16oz gloves and mouthpieces.

Spar at 50% and ramp up when he does, because he will he's currently got no control. The minute he pops you hard, knock him on his ass and keep knocking him on his ass until he calms down. Leg kick the **** out of him.

If he makes it more than a round with you and still wants to keep going, then you can talk about easing back on the protective gear. This is also predicated on him being nice and calm.

If he starts spazzing out you beat his ass without mercy until he chills out.

I agree with JP that it can be a terrible idea. That's why you need someone capable of breaking it up if it starts to go sideways.

this is of course, assuming the OP also keeps his head.. dont forget he hasn't sparred in a year. These people tend to throw wild shots once they get hit.

this is of course, assuming the OP also keeps his head.. dont forget he hasn't sparred in a year. These people tend to throw wild shots once they get hit.

I know Babo. I've sparred with him at throwdowns.

He'll keep his head. That's one of the reasons why I didn't offer any caution of him. He's a pretty nice guy and I see this going south and not in his favor.

Which is why I'm advocating he beat this guy's ass as quickly and mercilessly as possible until his dominance is firmly established. After that there should be much less confusion on the part of this sparring partner.

If you're going to do something this stupid, do it right.

For fucks sake wear protective gear, and have a ref/neutral observer break the pair of you up when this clusterfuck goes south (I estimate, within 30s of the bell sounding Round 1).

And vid pls.

I know Babo. I've sparred with him at throwdowns.

He'll keep his head. That's one of the reasons why I didn't offer any caution of him. He's a pretty nice guy and I see this going south and not in his favor.

Which is why I'm advocating he beat this guy's ass as quickly and mercilessly as possible until his dominance is firmly established. After that there should be much less confusion on the part of this sparring partner.

If you're going to do something this stupid, do it right.

Fair enough, well good luck to OP, is there a vid coming?

Fair enough, well good luck to OP, is there a vid coming?

I don't think it's going to happen. Which is not a shot at Babo. I just think they're going to collectively lose interest.

Generally, if two guys are going to glove up and beat each others asses, there's not this much though required.

Stupid idea or not.