The Latest From 'The Tiger!"

Here's the latest blog entry from DC's Tony "The Tiger" Thompson as he prepares for his July 12 outing against Wladimir Klitschko. This time out, Thompson does some venting about some "fans" along the Beltway concerning a recent situation before giving us info about his training. Here is the unedited Tony Thompson.

Hello fellow bloggers and blog readers I would like to start this week’s blog with a little venting. Now anyone that knows me understands how much I love DC and the whole DMV(DC, Maryland and Virginia).

However, I must say some not all of you are getting on my MFnn- nerves with the bullshit. What is the bullshit Tony you might ask? O.K. let me explain. It seems that some of us still have the crab in the barrel syndrome. Meaning, as soon as they see a fellow DMVER doing something good or positive in any way they promptly start talking crazy. Instead of using your hands too help one of your own up you use your claws to pull them down and in the process, you pull us all down. Hence, what we call the bullshit. Now, I don't normally respond to the bullshit but if I keep letting it go, it can become an epidemic and infect us all.

Therefore, I will provide a clear and precise response to some of the things that have been said. First, let’s address the Askia situation (I hope I spelled your name right buddy). Let me begin by saying that Askia is a buddy of mine. So, when I say what I'm about to say, he knows I will only be saying things that I have told him to his face and they are true. I did not hurt Askia in sparring on purpose. We are in the fight and hurt business, so guess what, sometimes you get hurt. To answer your questions, no I was not mad at him for supposedly getting off on me that's his job and it’s my job to respond. Anybody that's met me knows I don't get mad I just get even, which again is my job. I have worked with a lot of the young fighters and I hardly ever go into the sparring ring with the intent of trying to hurt somebody on purpose (I never say never because somebody might have been trying too hurt me and like I said I don't get mad I get even, Mo Wilson). My objective is too get better and hopefully help the other fighters get better. Now if you are a slacker and you jump in there with me you might get hurt. This is sometimes the case with Askia and remember this is something that I have told him, to his face. This was done not in an attempt to belittle or embarrass him, but to tell him the truth and hopefully motivate him too take this sport serious. Because I always tell people, you play basketball and football you don't play boxing you live, eat, breath, and sh-- boxing.

OK, that's enough venting for this week I have more but I don't want this whole weeks blog too be negative so let’s talk about what’s going on in camp. Now last week we left off with me taking a iniquitous ass whooping from my fellow fighters (I don’t do sparring partners because you can't get better that way). They really came to work, which was not all that fun for me but great for what we are trying to accomplish. So this week I had to respond and lets just say my team felt a lot better about my performance as did I.

Now don't get me wrong, in no way were we pushing the panic button, but they were happy to see some of the great work that I’m capable of producing. As a result, I was pleased to see that I was finally adapting to the Florida heat and humidity. Sometimes this sport plays games with your mind and you have to be mentally tough to deal with not looking your best every day. I'm somewhat vain about getting my ass kicked, as is most fighters, especially the good ones. Anyway, so I was not happy with myself. But as I have said, on many occasions, that I have a great team and they do a great job of keeping me sane and composed. By the way, my team consists of Tom Browner, Barry Hunter, and BB Hudson, not Buddy McGirt not to say anything bad about Buddy and we will get into that next week but we are just using his gym. Sometimes your trainers have to pull you back so they can build you up and that can be frustrating for the fighter sort of what happened to Big Brown last week.(I'm talking about the horse get your minds out the gutter.lol.) However, to my credit, I do a great job of listening and executing a plan and sometimes that plan includes rest. So after taking a day off in the middle of the week I came back on Thursday and looked spry for a man of my advanced age.

Now don't think a day off for me is like a day off for you. I still had to get my ass up and go to work it just didn't consist of sparring or all that damn running. I don't like to run unless the police are coming, I need to catch a plane, or of course, it's only one pack of Oreo’s left on the shelf at the store. Naw I’m just kidding about the plane. Therefore, bloggers I will holla back next week and I will try my best DMVERS to fight the crab grabbers that plagues our lovely city. How about throwing crab grabbers in there, I haven't heard that since the 80's. Goodbye.


"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.” John Donne

(For those who don't remember the "Askia situation" Askia Schneider was scheduled to face Jonathan Felton at Michael's Eighth Avenue last month but was hurt in training against Thompson -- GDW)