BACK to AllenJFrantzen.com HERE for Allen's reviews of boxing books
January 2023
Coach and TA end 2022 with 2,800 rounds September 2022
We get to 2,700 rounds
Coach becomes a grandfather
My boxing book comes out, dedicated to Coach Izzy
Birthdays
May 2022
Earlier pictures here
June & July 2022 fights here
July fights at 1.8.7
Coach, Leo before Leo's fight
Start of the fight, and between rounds
Gavin, from the old days at EKF (left, picture from 2017) The team
Runs in the family June 2022 fights
June 12: Leo's fight at 187 Boxing in Chicago Leo and Coach before the fight Leo gets the Win More pictures at here
May 25: IDIF boxing team, Paolo's farewell
Recent Loyola University graduate Paolo in the center, next to Coach Izzy
May 6: Leo's fight at Lights Out Boxing
More pictures at here March 15, 2022
January 4, 2022: our last day in masks
Starting 2022, 2,418 rounds and counting
We had 2,021 rounds in the books to start 2021 and ended the year with 2,418 on December 31. Our 2021 in pictures:
April and May 2021
June and July 2021
August and September 2021
October and November 2021
Back to October 2020: Mean Feats
A lucky day for me in the ring, sparring Oct. 23, 2020
These 3 pictures are about 15 seconds of boxing. Most of the other 17 minutes and 45 seconds didn't go so well for me.
Looking back to 2020
October 2020
Coach Izzy & Allen back to sparring
We resumed twice-weekly workouts June 13, 2020, with our sparring count at 1,865 rounds. We began sparring in September with 2 2-minute rounds, then 3 2-minute rounds. By October we were up to 5 3-minute rounds, and our count stood at 1,887. By the end of the month we up to our usual 6 rounds and had 1,927 rounds in the bag. It took time to get used to double masks, but we adjusted.
We are grateful that Coach Tony and Coach Taylor keep EKF fitness-ready, and I am grateful to my terrific Coach and boxing brother for all he does to keep us safe.
Here's our history 2015-2020. And . . . Excerpt from "Boxing and Masculinity," my August 2020 talk to the International Conference on Men's Issues. Excerpt from Boxing and Masculinity: Fighting to Find the Whole Man, my book-in-progress
Looking back to the good old days, starting November 2019
Coach Izzy, Allen, and Dee (left) and Cleveland (right)
The highlight of our year was the great boxing demonstration Coach Izzy organized for the 2018 Cubanofest at Riis Park Aug. 10-12. On Saturday, Aug. 11, Coach and I sparred 3 rounds.
On the left, it looks like my right upper (black shoes) is lifting Coach (white shoes) off the canvas, but don't you believe it
Above, looks like he missed me, but don't believe that, either Coach figures he won & who am I to disagree? It is always an honor to get in the ring with this great fighter, but this time we did it with fighters and coaches and a few more bystanders than we have at EKF.
IzzyDuzIt Boxing was featured in June 2018 on the
4BoxingNews.com website. Congratulations, Coach! Great to see you and your boxers getting this attention.
Round Count
At the end of 2018, Coach Izzy & Allen had sparred 1,367 rounds. Pictures below start with January 2018. We started sparring in Fall 2015.
900 rounds January 2018
951 rounds of sparring as of March 3, 2018
Round # 1000 Saturday, April 7. We pushed the number to 1005.
The Coach is always promising to put some BBQ sauce on his boxers' ribs to teach us to keep our elbows down. I figured it would be good to give him my favorite flavor, Bull's Eye Original, along with a T-shirt to associate a great coach with a great brand.
Below, left, coach is suggesting the approximate
area where the hot sauce will stick.
About the sauce, Cook's Illustrated (which I think is the best cooking magazine there is) wrote (June 2017)
"In the end, our winner was once again the aptly named Bull?s-Eye Original BBQ Sauce. This moderately sweet, tomatoey sauce offered just enough spice and smoke,
producing a well-balanced medley of flavors with no specific flavor dominating. Our winning product was delicious and versatile, and it wasn?t too thick or thin. We?ll be using this palate-pleasing sauce all summer long." (Quoted from www.cooksillustrated.com.)
Israel Gonzales, the man behind Izzyduzitfitness. On Oct. 31, 2017, we sparred round #840 (date of pictures left & center above). We started sparring in late October 2015, so it took us 2 years to rack up this number of rounds. It's a good thing the coach can modify his punches or we would have had to stop about the time we started.
Coach Izzy and I crossed the
700-round mark July 5, 2017. Then we switched from 2-minute rounds (doing 6 rounds per session) to 3-minute rounds (4 rounds per session). We did 5 3-minute rounds for a couple of sessions, and then moved up to 6 3-min. rounds, twice a week.
Pictures above August 2017.
Here's Coach Israel Gonzalez with some members of his boxing team (September 19, 2017).
In July 2016 we hit 300 rounds, having worked together about 8 months. Called for a cake. July 2016
Thanks, coach, for making it real.
Shots after sparring at Extreme Kung Fu @ 5951 N. Clark, Chicago.
Pictures from 2016
April 3
May 3 & 10
June 7
July 26
Besides having a lot to learn about boxing, I have a lot to learn about posing for boxing pictures!
Aug 2, 9, & 30
Sept 13 & 24
Oct 11, 18, 22, & 29
10/18/2016 a lucky day for me, actually landed one! Big fun & bragging rights, small cost. Coach says I hit myself with my own gloves, but . . . .
Other pictures from 2016 May 2016 at EKF Starting at EKF September 2015
Boxing at Extreme Kung Fu @ 5951 N. Clark, Chicago.
I started with Thursday night and Saturday morning boxing classes. The fitness class on Thursday was tough but gave me a chance to get to know Coach Izzy, and soon I switched to working in the ring with him as my coach. We started sparring Oct. 22, 2015, 3 2-minute rounds.
By the end of 2015, Coach Izzy Gonzales and I had gone 93 2-minute rounds. That's a lot of sparring! Thanks to a great coach!
When we started out, coach had a "dry" look at the end of our sessions (upper & lower left), but not any more.
Boxing at the Evanston Boxing Club 2011-2015, four great years
One door closes at the EBC, another opens. The Evanston Boxing Club closed at the end of July 2015.
Here are some of the last pictures I took there after my last workout with Andrian.
And here are some
workout and coach pictures around the EBC that I took in my first years there, 2011-13.
February 22, 2014, was one of many Fight Nights at the EBC. Loyola Boxing Club founder Ryan Motzel sparring, below.
Pictures from my work with Coach Mark Carlson in August 2013. Photos by Mark Carlson.
In December 2013 I stopped in Northfield, MN, for a short workout with Gordon Marino at St. Norbert's College.
Marino is a boxing correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Summer 2012: work with Mark at the EBC, a clip I put up on YouTube. Go here:
For a while in 2012 I trained with Pete Spengler at Studio 360 in Lincolnwood Adventurous in those days, I went to Corpus Christi, Texas, in November 2012 to meet boxing coach Rafael Davilla and boxers at this gym there.
Here are pictures from 2011, my early days at the EBC, working with Coach Mark Carlson, below right:
In August 2011 I helped some young visitors from Prague into gloves.
There were some great pro boxers at the EBC.
They included Russell (Rocky) Fiore and
Paul Littleton. That link shows Paul in an amazing video. You can find them both on Facebook and
at BoxRec--Paul
and Russell (requires login, but it's free).