Behind the Scenes - Saturday Night Fight

The two fighters featured here are Luca Cappoza, fighting in all black, for Calasanz' Norwalk school, and John, fighting in the white shirt for Peter Mottaza's New York City school.

Transcribed from an audio recording of Calasanz

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 And so the story goes...  

 
       Round 1            Round 2

Peter is a great instructor, a Greek guy, and a real guy who taught good martial art.  Prior this night in 1992 Peter had such respect for me that he told John to come and take 5 classes privately with me before stepping into the ring with any of my guys and he even paid for it himself.  For him to do that and tell that to a guy so young, so fit and so experienced was just unbelievable.  Just imagine the respect he had, and the lack of ego required for him to go and pay $100 an hour for his student to come take private training with me before taking the fight with my guy.  I still cannot even believe it, Peter is just incredible.

Because, if I would be a guy to be seen, I know that Bruce Lee was considered a Grand Master since day one.  But the beauty of it is that the people that knew him, of the people that knew Bruce Lee, they even knew that I was stronger and my martial art was superb in comparison with his martial art.  Now before you go calling 'blasphemy' understand, we are not talking about movies, we are not talking about as an actor.  Bruce Lee was a tremendous actor.  But to see that happen, to have that happen to me in real life, to experience a rival instructor scheduling his fighter to take 5 classes of private training with me before fighting one of my guys, its just incredible, even crazy.

 
Again the same thing happened with another fighter Michael Blazzie. If I remember correctly I think his instructor at the time was Tiger Schulmann.  Unfortunately Michael ended up in Norwalk Hospital for 10 hours in a coma when his bout came to an abrupt halt.


But moving on.. For me to experience those guys, to be training those guys and hearing them talk so much at the same time that I am training them to fight my guys...  John in particular would talk to me, "Oh my goodness Calasanz, I'm going to knock this guy out, I'm going to knock him down in seconds this is my fight.  It will be over so fast."  I mean, its just crazy, that I'm training him to fight one of my guys who has trained under me and here he is talking talking talking.  "Okay Calasanz, you are going to help me but I don't even know if I need that help."

Then to see later what happened in the ring... its almost ludicrous.

Luca Capozza prior to this fight had been trained only minimally in French kickboxing.  He trained with me for about 1 month then went off back to Paris.  He came back to me a while later and out of nowhere told me, "I want to fight."  So I told him, "Okay, you are going to fight Peter Mottaza's guy John.  He's not a regular guy though.  Really, you are not at his level.  He's a guy who has many fights and trains in Brooklyn and the Bronx.  He's a good fighter.  But Luca, I tell you, if you train with me for 8 hours just on counter attack, you can fight this guy, you can fight John and defend yourself."  I told him this and he agreed even after being told about John's superior skill; and he trusted me.

So I trained Luca for just 8 hours on counter attack.

When you look at the videos you can see all the counters, the great defense.  It's amazing what we did.  Luca, a guy who was just the equivalent of a casual yellow belt stepping into the ring against a guy who had participated in more than 70 fights.  Against a guy with a black belt, a guy with such precise and such strong punches.  Against a guy with the ability to throw a kick strong enough to knock down anyone it lands on.  Luca was just amazing, his performance was just amazing.  He was ducking punches or blocking almost everything and countering beautifully.  He ducked a lot of punches.  He ended up only taking a handful of solid blows while the rest ended up being blocked off or glancing at best.  What an incredible fight that was.  What a performance.

I can only imagine to be Peter, watching his guy getting knocked down, getting up, then knocked down again, up and down, up and down.  But, there was nothing I could do, I mean Peter respected me a lot and all I can say is sorry to Peter.  I mean, you were so respectful sending your guy to me like that.. but in the end his loss was not your fault or mine.  I know you are a great instructor, a great teacher.  It's just that John did not listen at all.  His focus was always towards fantasizing about how he was going to hurt our guy instead of focusing on learning or training.  But again, in the end reality had a nasty way of sobering him up.

All this was done based on the Calasanz system.  The fact is that Luca's success during that fight was because of only 8 hours training with me, Calasanz, because of training the best defense, because of training the counter attack.  Incredible.

... So, that is the story of all these things going on during Saturday Night Fight.

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Story Provided and Inspired by: Calasanz
Transcribed by: Alan Wedell

Simplicity of Boxing Revealed

When it comes to boxing there are different levels of participants.  There are those who compete at high levels of competition and those who like to hit the bag for exercise or just to punch something.  But boxing is not as complicated as many people think.

Boxing is a well suited activity for those that don't want to be competitors.  To be good at boxing a participant only needs a few basic things.  They need to be strong, grounded and be able to deliver basic punches effectively and develop great head movement.  In Boxing what one needs to be able to defend against and the ways in which one is legally allowed to strike is very limited.  You don't need a good ground game like someone in the UFC and you don't need good high-kicks like a Tae-kwon-do guy.  You need four great punches and a solid defense.

Travis Simms

Boxing is more simple that what people think.  If you are training to make boxing as a career, yes we understand you have to throw punches, you have to jump rope, you have to hit the speed bag and train the way a boxer trains.  But really, boxing is not overly complicated.

One of the ways I created such a big name in the past and over many many years is that people would hesitate and then they were done in seconds of being close to me or stepping into the ring with me.  Why?  Because it is not that complicated.  Create good hips, use your pelvis properly.  Good head movement.

Getting into it, if you are a boxer, and you are getting ready to do a fight in the top 10.  That doesn't mean that you can go for 10 rounds all the time.  While you are in the camp you are good.  You can go for 10 rounds. And then you can fight because you never get tired.  What about when you are not fighting?

That same championship fighter becomes identical to another guy who can box and is not a competitor but trains regularly, which brings the point as to why so many of my guys would hurt so many people.  Lou Petrillo for example.  Travis Simms (see above) is another one.  Lou Petrillo was training here recreationally with me, with Calasnaz, he would end up stepping into the ring several times for me.  But one particular time he stepped up to box with a guy training to go pro.  10 seconds into the fight the guy gets hurt.  Lou Petrillo brought him down.  How?  Because he was doing recreational boxing and creating power.  I told my guys this, my boxers.  "If you don't expect to step in the ring, this is how you box."  I would give them about 15 simple techniques to practice and some exercises to make them 20 -30 - 40% more powerful than the opponent. You would be surprised the damage that they could do.  Taking a punch from one of my guys is not the same as from someone else.



Keep in mind.  When I was younger I was 139.  I would step into the ring with a guy 180 pounds.  But because of my system and my training I was capable of generating incredible amounts of power on my smaller frame many times over that of my opponents.  People used to ask me, "What happens if you and Mike Tyson square off in the ring?"

Mike Tyson was a boxer.  I was not a boxer, still I am not.  I was one of the first guys to teach MMA.  It is easier to win.  To win a fight in a sport,  is not the same thing as winning a fight on the street.  That is the lesson that a lot of people, a lot of boxers got after the UFC came along.  To see a guy training for the UFC attack you, this is not today what used to be kyokoshinkai.  Kyokoshinkai was a brutal karate that just got so incredible, it was so beyond and very far, far out there.  The training was probably harder and more intense than training for the UFC today.  They would take kicks, take punches, I mean they would and could really take hits.  But those people couldn't survive today because they don't protect the head.  When it comes to the UFC we are now talking about something else, we are talking about a real gladiator coming at you.  This is no longer a game.

I was the guy who used to say, "I don't care, I believe that I can survive against anyone."  For many years I would say it.  But today I hesitate on saying that.  What about the guy who is ready to step into the octagon?  That is a guy with incredible physique and practiced technique and everything.  That changes the point.  Now, the same guy not training again changes the point.  But that's what I wanted to explain about boxing.  That boxing is not as complicated as people believe.

Okay, people say, "I want to learn all these techniques, how to move the head, all these punches, how to slip punches." all of that, and whatever else.  Look, to learn how to slip punches and move away, that takes time and training to master.  To do recreational, to cover up, to look good, make sure you are very loose, and to deliver the finishing blow, the one technique that when
you hit someone, they will go down.  That is not too complicated, that is simple.

That is Boxing here with Calasanz.  That is the Calasanz System.

By Calasanz
Edited by: A.W.