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22
“Time,”Glenn called out before he set his watch for sixty seconds.
Cruz caught his breath as he walked around the heavy bag that was on the floor and took a drink of water. Glenn watched the time tick down.
“Alright, last one.” Glenn said as the seconds ticked down to one. “Same energy. Go.”
He clicked his stopwatch which was set for ninety seconds as Cruz got into position standing in a guard straddling the bag and resumed the to the ground and pound drill. Basically, the bag was on the floor and Cruz changed positions and hit it as if it was an opponent with as much strength and speed as he could.
“Mix it up,” Glenn called out when he noticed his cadence was repetitive. “Faster.”
Cruz moved, splitting the guard and getting side control before landing repetitive strikes. Then he moved back to a mount and rained down punches. He continued shifting his position, cadence and strike velocity until Glenn said, “Time.”
“Good job, today.” Glenn told him as he stood and walked in a circle to cool down.
“Thanks, bro.” Cruz nodded. “I really appreciate you.”
Glenn had worried the young fighter wouldn’t take him seriously since he wasn’t from the world of MMA and he hadn’t had a professional fight in ten years. But that hadn’t been the case at all. The kid was respectful and would do anything to improve his skills. Even listen to a washed-up boxer, apparently.
The resounding sounds of gloves hitting the heavy bags, squeaks of bodies rubbing against the mats, and rock music blaring was Glenn’s idea of Zen. He was in his element. After being back in the gym for the past month to train, he realized just how much he’d missed it.
Being in the gym was like coming home again. He’d grown up there. His first amateur fight was when he was fifteen years old and he’d been training for a year before that. He’d asked for boxing lessons for his fourteenth birthday. He’d been asking to take boxing lessons since he was ten, but his mom thought it was too violent. His dad had always loved the Rocky movies and Glenn remembered becoming obsessed with the sport from those films.
But on his fourteenth birthday his dad took him to Gianni’s Gym which was owned by Lloyd Gianni, a welterweight champion. But it wasn’t Lloyd that Glenn’s dad brought him to see. It was Charlie Rizzo.
In Glenn’s opinion, which happened to correlate with many sports analysts, Charlie Rizzo was the greatest boxer of all time. He remembered being star struck when he saw him standing in the corner of the dark gym working with a kid who was jumping rope. He’d thought that just meeting the legend was his present. But it turned out to be so much more than that.
Charlie told him to get in the ring to see what he had and the rest was history.
He’d spent every waking minute that he wasn’t in school at Gianni’s Gym. Even when he wasn’t training, he hung out there and soaked in the environment like a sponge. He watched the other boxers with their coaches. Watched films on fights.
He lived, breathed, and slept boxing.
To this day, he didn’t know why his mom had changed her mind and got him lessons, but if he had to guess he would say it was his dad. Hugh Maguire was a quiet man compared to Glenn’s outspoken mom. From what Glenn had seen, most of the time he let his mom have her way. But when he decided something, there was no changing his mind. His mother used to say that Glenn was just as stubborn as his father, and he’d always taken that as a compliment.
Glenn felt himself getting misty eyed as he remembered his dad. Being around his Uncle Sean and Aunt Rosalie had brought up a lot of feelings that he’d pushed down for the past ten years. He missed his parents. Badly.
“Hey man, can I talk to you?” Lucky Dorsey called out over the music.
Glenn sniffed and wiped beneath his eyes before following the gym’s owner into the back office. When they walked inside, Lucky shut the door and Glenn knew that this wasn’t just a catch up. He took a seat across from Lucky.
“Cruz is looking great,” Lucky opened.
“I agree. His stamina is improving every day. The kid trains hard. If he keeps it up, I have no doubt he’ll not only be ready for Johnson, I think he’ll dominate.”
Lucky nodded. “I agree and that’s why I want to offer you a full-time position here. I know you planned on going back to Chicago after the summer, but I hope you’ll at least consider what I have to say. I’ll double your salary, full benefits. I don’t just want to build a successful gym, I want to build a legacy. I want Lucky’s Gym to be the premier training facility in not only the States but across the globe and to do that, I need trainers like you.”
Glenn was pretty sure that it already was a premier training facility across the globe. Cruz had come over from London to train. He was honored that Lucky wanted him there full time.
“You are good with the younger guys,” Lucky continued. “You know how to talk to them, how to motivate them.”
Glenn had learned everything he knew from his coach Charlie Rizzo; he’d learned from the best. Charlie was like a second father to him. When he lost his dad, Charlie had been there for him. Any talent he had coaching was because of Charlie.
Lucky leaned forward, resting his forearms on his desk as he threaded his fingers together. “Also, I’m not sure if you’ve ever considered getting back in the ring, but I’d fully support you if that was something you’d be interested in. You’d be part of the Lucky’s Gym family and we would partner with you for sponsorships, management, whatever you needed.”
Glenn remained quiet. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say. He’d been considering the move to Hope Falls pretty much since the day he’d arrived. But that was a huge lifestyle change. Not just for himself but for Bree. He had to consider what was best for her. Yes, she had family here that loved her and she loved her cousins, but she also had friends in Chicago, and she’d been asking about them a lot since they’d been there.
She was young, though. And if they made the move, he was sure she would adjust. And her being around his aunt and uncle were the closest thing he could give her to grandparents. Zoe didn’t even speak to her parents. Still…something was holding him back from agreeing and he wasn’t sure what it was.
