Cape Breton's Magazine

fee. Grab my gear, walk down Hannipan Ave? nue, that's the main drag there in Minne? apolis City. Go up to the gym. Get ready to work out around 2 o'clock. I was spar? ring with Del Flanagan, and he was the fourth-rank welterweight in the world then. His brother Glenn was looking after me, managing me then. So we sparred, like I said, anywhere from 5 to 7 rounds a day. We warmed up. We got in the ring. First we'd have to get dressed--taped your own hands and that-- and I'd get in the ring and I'd shadowbox --you know, to break a sweat, loosen up, do some bending exercises. Get all the kinks out of you. Then they'd come put the gloves on you and you'd spar. Some of those sparring sessions were pretty wild. So then when you finished sparring, then they'd put you on the heavy bag, you'd do a round or two on the big bag. Then they'd put you on the speed bag. Then they'd take you and the trainer--you know, you'd have the big palm gloves. He'd get you firing combinations. His hands'd be moving, tell you to hook, jab, hook, straight right hand, one-two punch. Then you skipped rope. Then you did calisthenics. You had to do a special lot for your stomach. 'Cause your stomach, it'd absorb a lot of punches and your stomach's got to be hard as a table.. So when you finished all that up, then you had a shower, got dressed. Then I'd head to supper. I'd have my supper. I'd relax. May? be later took in a movie or something like that. You weren't out late. Ten o'clock you'd be in bed. Be up early in the morn? ing, 6 o'clock, be on the road again. (Where did you find the time to work?) When I did get a job--I didn't have to be down to the nightclub till 9 o'clock. I'd work there till I about 11:30. So| I worked there; well, I ate there, too. Fellow who owned the nightclub, he was the guy that sponsored me up there--he| was a million? aire- -Tommy An? derson. And he was a fight promoter. So it was very easy to get time off. Once 1 o'clock came he'd say, "Okay, Gordon, time for the gym." So I just punched in about 5 hours a day, that's all, 4 hours a day. That's all I did. So that made it a convenience. Other times, like when I was boxing home here (in Cape Breton) I'd work nightshift --work anywhere--like on the railroad. I'd go to work usually 10 o'clock till mid? night. And work to 6. 7 in the morning. Like I said. I'd run home--that'd be my Whale Cruises CHETICAMP Scenic 3-Hour Boat Tours * June to October 3 Times a Day in July & August Contact Capt. • Bill Crawford, . Cheticamp Boat Tours, Box 10, Grand Etang, Nova Scotia B0E1L0 (902)224-3376 NO??'vSCOTIA -//c''j0i Picturesque Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton Island. Nova Scotia, f'fc'' Bike our Highlands ... because Nature has richly decorated the northern tip of our sea-swept Province-Cape Breton Island. A lush carpet of grass rolls out to the foaming sea. Brown-sugary sand stretches out to the sunset. Maples, birches and poplars gather in the glade. And our curling coasdine wraps around the gende valley and majestic mountain vistas. Walk Nova Scotia's Cape Breton at your leisure, for your pleasure. Call 1-800-565-0000 (ask for operator CJ 91) and request your free 1991 Nova Scotia Travel Guide-Canada's most complete provincial travel guide. Cape Breton Island Please send me a free copy of the 1991 Nova Scotia Outdoors booklet and Travel Guide. Mail to: Nova Scotia Tourism and Culture P.O. Box 130 Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2M7 CJ91 Name_ Street _ City Province _ Postal Code _ Telephone