Jake “push-up” King meets his match in boxer Sam Soliman Daryl Timms
From: Herald Sun
November 19, 2013 3:47PMIT WAS a battle of the two kings at Punt Rd.
In the blue corner was Richmond's Jake "The Push-Up" King, while in the red corner was Sam "King" Soliman.
Soliman, who will fight fellow Australian Les Sherrington for the WBA Pan Asia Boxing Association's interim middleweight title at Flemington on December 11, is no stranger to the Richmond gym.
For the past seven years he has taken the Tigers through boxing sessions and rates King and the recently retired Shane Tuck as the two top pupils from his class. He said the pair were ring savvy enough to use as genuine sparring partners.
King described himself as a "lover not a fighter" but that soon changed after putting the gloves on with Soliman in a solid workout which left the pair puffing so much that they could have blown out the candles on the cake that marked the boxer's 40th birthday last week.
After two lots of surgery at the end of the season _ one to repair a shoulder and the other on a foot - King said that for a change he'll be fully fit for the start of pre-season training.
"I've been able to move a bit earlier than previous years," King said.
"It was disappointing with the way we finished off the year, but that's football.
"Every side goes out and wants to improve and hopefully we can improve to take that next step."
King said the players were still "gutted" after losing the elimination final to Carlton and would get together when they resumed training to discuss the events and then move forward to 2014.
The small forward and his teammates will be at Soliman's fight, the first since his controversial win over German Felix Sturm in February when local authorities accused the Australian of testing positive to a performance-enhancing drug. He has since been cleared.
And while King got his nickname after doing 303 push-ups at a 2006 training camp, Soliman is also no slouch at the capper.
The alarm on his watch is set on the hour to single that it's push-up time as he completes sets of push-ups totalling 500 in a day. He warms up with four sets of 50.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/jake-pushup-king-meets-his-match-in-boxer-sam-soliman/story-fnelctok-1226763730902#mm-breached
