{"id":454882,"date":"2026-02-05T06:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/454882\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T06:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T06:08:09","slug":"kentucky-bigs-started-using-boxing-gloves-to-improve-physicality-in-practice-it-gave-us-energy-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/454882\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Bigs Started Using Boxing Gloves to Improve Physicality in Practice: ‘It Gave Us Energy Today’"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Kentucky forward Andrija Jelavic<\/a> gave his postgame interview with reporters after Kentucky\u2019s 94-78 win over Oklahoma on Wednesday<\/a>, he was interrupted by one of Kentucky\u2019s assistant coaches. Mikhail McLean<\/a> delivered a message. <\/p>\n

\u201cTell them about the boxing gloves,\u201d McLean said. \u201cTell them about the boxing gloves.\u201d <\/p>\n

So, what are the boxing gloves? Well, they\u2019ve become a way for Kentucky to embrace physicality in practice and before games. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe boxing gloves is that we\u2019re warming up by punching the boxing gloves from Coach Mikhail,\u201d Jelavic said. \u201cWe\u2019re literally punching them. He emphasizes that. It\u2019s really good. We\u2019ve been doing it for the past two games, and it\u2019s brought good results, so we\u2019re going to continue doing it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Breakout Was Against Arkansas<\/p>\n

Mikhail McLean, who coaches Kentucky\u2019s bigs, has been using boxing gloves in practice and pregame to toughen up UK\u2019s players. It started before Kentucky\u2019s game against Arkansas on Jan. 31, and has been reserved specifically for the bigs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is even in practice, pregame, and everything,\u201d Jelavic said. I\u201dt\u2019s the first thing we do when we walk into the gym. He takes those sparring gloves, and we\u2019re punching them five times, then you go through seven GAs that are holding those punching stuff. You have to do a layup. That\u2019s just our pregame routines.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kentucky\u2019s toughness has been evident since then. It\u2019s been a crucial part of how Kentucky has been able to win seven of its last eight games. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like some breakout was the Arkansas game when we were really emphasizing us starting physically and hitting guys that are not even meant to be hit in that moment from the start,\u201d Jelavic said. \u201cThat\u2019s when the boxing gloves started.\u201d <\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s an emphasis before every game. Jelavic, who has found his way into the starting lineup, is looking to use what he\u2019s learned from the boxing gloves in real game action. <\/p>\n

\u201cI found some situations when I can punch a guy, make contact with a guy, and they\u2019re not being seen by the referees, but it means a lot to our team,\u201d Jelavic said. \u201cEven when you make contact and make a foul, it gave us energy against Arkansas, and it gave us energy today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Kentucky forward Andrija Jelavic gave his postgame interview with reporters after Kentucky\u2019s 94-78 win over Oklahoma on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[186799,703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-454882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-andrija-jelavic","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}