Haymakers Media Day

Get excited, this is a post with mostly pictures...

This Sunday we took a road trip to the Cambridge Y (with Dena and her daughter, Ava) for Haymakers' Media Day.  If you'll remember our post from a few weeks back, this was our big day interviewing with Bob Neumeier! 

He looks EXACTLY like this in real life!

First off- let's give a little shout-out to the Cambridge Y boxing facilities! It is a really old space in the basement of the Y with the ring right in the middle of the room and a track/balcony running around the outside (this comes into play later...).  They also have a lot of cool old equipment that's a pretty stark contrast to the bright, shiny, new equipment we're used to at SB...

There were many components of media day, each more embarrassing than the last. The biggest highlight was obviously the interview with Neumie.  Jess and I did an interview together and then we each did an interview with our opponent...

N & J with Neumie

Nora and opponent, Shelly

Jess with opponent, Stacy

Mr. Neumeier actually asked a lot of pretty heavy questions like, "So, who do you think is going to win?"....while you're sitting right across from your opponent!!  Yikes!  Occasionally my reaction to extreme discomfort is to try to be funny, so I may or may not have told him that my fight with Shelly would be the fight of the century.  What an ass!

We also had to take "Tale of the Tape" photos where we look tough.  Jess is apparently really good at this - she's got that unapproachable look ;)   I, however, did not fare as well.  The photographer on Sunday was the first of what is now two photographers to tell me that I am bad at making a serious face.  In the end, he just let me smile!  I really should have been taking lessons from Ava.  She has the look down pat!

Ok, so I may have accidentally dumped a little water on her head to get this reaction....but I was trying to make her a paper cup hat! It was really cute!

We also did some taping with our opponents where we watched each other shadow box in the ring and then hit the heavy bag.  Again, an embarrassing task.  Why did we need to watch each other?

Getting our instructions on what to do in the ring

I think the funniest part was our group shots on the balcony.  At one point they had all of the fighters standing along the balcony with our shadows being cast on the wall behind us.  At first it was pretty cool and I felt like we were a part of this scene from Ocean's 11:

 I love this movie!!

However, once all 28 (or however many) of us were up there we didn't fit side-by-side so we had to squish in reeeeeally close together and look over each other's shoulders.  Now, we are all a part of this great event, but most of us don't really know each other, so it was a very quick getting-to-know-you session.  "Hey! Nice to meet you! Mind if I rub up against you awkwardly while that camera light blinds us and we're all uncomfortable because we don't know if we're being filmed or if these are still shots? Great, thanks!"

We made some new friends.

THEN the best part was that they had all of us run around the balcony throwing punches and every once in awhile the pace would slow or someone would stop and we came dangerously close to crashing into one another or punching each other in the back of the head.  I don't think the hilarity of this scene can be translated into words.  If you come to fight night hopefully you will get to see some footage of what I am describing and it will all become clear.

While this sounds like an action packed day, there was also a lot of sitting around and waiting, which for me translated into playing Ava's beauty salon.  Not that I'm complaining....

I think we have found the key to what will help calm me down before the fight...

So I had her do it on the car ride home too, what of it?  It's normal to put a friend's daughter to work brushing your hair, right?  Her tiny fingers are the best for getting the tangles out!

I've been told my smile can light up a room!

Final verdict:  Media day was interesting but kind of exhausting.  Key for next time- pack more snacks! And practice your serious face (with smizing, obviously) in the mirror beforehand!