Training is really starting to peak for both of us now! It’s hard to keep up with everything at this point. Preparing to fight is so demanding. On weekends, we sometimes travel up to our dad’s boxing camp in the North Country, where we can stay and work out in the full boxing gym, do our running on quiet back roads and get away from other distractions. During the week, balancing our families and jobs can get even tougher.

Tickets are really going well for our fights July 31st. Call 330-6378 for info. Two fighters on the card are having a public workout on Monday, July 13th. Undefeated Guilderland lightweight Mike Faragon and Schenectady 140lb-er and NYS correction officer Brian Miller will be at Schott's Boxing, 21 Vatrano Ave. in Albany, at 1:30 pm. Stop by if you can.

Shannon: In a typical weekday now, I get up and run at 6:30 am, take Devan and Olivia to summer camp and head to the gym, where I’m doing 14 rounds total broken down between hand pads, heavy bag, speed bag and jump rope. I go back to the gym at 6:00 pm where I work on abs and do 300 push-ups. At this point, I don’t believe in much sparring, because I want to limit the number of times I get hit in the head. I do spar with Shawn a few times before a fight to work with him. I don’t like sparring because it goes about 50% and you can get hurt fooling around in there. I have never tried to win a sparring session with anyone and am not one of those guys who thinks beating a guy up in sparring will make you a name or a good fighter, its actually the opposite! I am glad the fight is getting closer as I’m really starting to tire of the training again!

Shawn: I’m feeling really good about the fight right now. I’m pushing my body to the limit on hard training days and taking care of myself with rest and a good diet. My weight is right on target and I’m getting much sharper in the ring. I get different kinds of sparring with Shannon, who is so experienced, but also bigger and stronger; Brian Cloakey, my dad’s amateur boxer from Plattsburgh who has a lot of amateur fights and went to the nationals a couple years ago; and Roger Zapata, an amateur boxer and undefeated MMA fighter who is also a southpaw. We all go at it at a good pace, pushing hard but working with each other to sharpen our reflexes and skills. The last few weeks, things are going to get really serious.