Andre Lambe said he is more than happy to learn the hard way after his toughest spar to date with top Puerto Rican amateur Armani Almestica.

Lambe had barely touched down in Orlando, Florida, for a two-week training camp when he was thrown in the deep end with Almestica, an intense volume puncher, at Pichi’s Boxing Pit.

Almestica, who won the Junior Olympic Tournament in the Sunshine State the previous weekend, forced Lambe out of his comfort zone and gave him a valuable lesson in his boxing education.

“It was a big sparring day as six gyms came together,” said Lambe, who returned to the island on Tuesday. “It was pretty intense.”

“I’d seen Armani spar before — he’s had more than 80 fights and turns pro next year — but this time they put me in with him.

“His punch volume is crazy, he throws like a hundred punches a round and it was a new fighting style for me.

“I had to adjust because he was a pretty good technician and I couldn’t do everything I wanted. I’d never faced a guy like that before.”

Lambe, 20, faces Markees Hines, of Baltimore Boxing Club, on the undercard of Nikki Bascome’s professional bout against Mexican David Rangel at North Field tomorrow night.

It will be Lambe’s first outing since his first-round stoppage of Gilbert Vargas at the Berkeley Institute in December after a frustrating few months of inactivity.

Lambe was denied a fight on the undercard of Bascome’s points win over Iwan Azore at the Fairmont Southampton in February as his opponent Jason Canamaso failed to show.

The southpaw then won the Novice welterweight division title at the Arnold USA Invitational Championships in Columbus, Ohio, without throwing a punch after the fighters in his class withdrew.

“It’s pretty frustrating because training for boxing isn’t like steady training for football and other sports,” Lambe said.

“You’re trying to get to your peak performance so you can execute on fight night and when they don’t happen you have to de-escalate all over again.

“The mental part is the hardest because this is what I live for.”

Having watched two of his fighters lose to Lambe — Vargas and Dorian Bostic — Jake “The Snake” Smith, the Baltimore coach, will be keen to reverse that trend.

“[Markees] is open class, I’m not open class and I don’t know much else about him,” said Lambe, who has a record of six wins and three defeats. “I guess I’ll find out after the first round.

“I expect Jake to bring harder people every time and nobody comes here to lose. I know he’s dug deep to bring someone of really good quality.

“Win, lose or draw we’re still amateurs and we’re still learning different styles so we’ve got them in our locker.”

The other fights on the undercard are Courtney Dublin v Jaylon Roberts; Matthew Tannock v Gary Martinez; Robert Somner v Victor Santos; and Zain Philpott v Kristan Browne.

General admission costs $60 and $95 for ringside, with tickets available at Caesar’s Pharmacy, Sports R Us, Hunt’s, and ptix.bm. For more information, e-mail bermudaboxingfed@gmail.com