Why
I Love Boxing
October 02, 2007
by Scott
Muoio
Boxing is the greatest sport ever
created.
Why do I love boxing? I love
boxing because it is the epitome of human competition. Boxing
is the definition of passion and sacrifice, a sport for those
who come from nothing and risk their lives to support their families
and prove to the world that they exist. Boxing is the opportunity
to achieve greatness for those who might have no other way. It
is the chance to be something great, a hero, for those who otherwise
have no one or nothing to root for. The greatest of the sport
are those who have transcended it, toppling the odds of success
by becoming more than merely athletes but rather, legends.
In more tangible terms, boxing is rising from
the canvas when you’re knocked down, holding on when you’re
being pummeled in the corner, and surviving to fight another day.
It is fighting with all your might, all your heart, and all your
skill and ability and then embracing your opponent when it’s
all over because he has done the same. Boxing isn’t just
a sport, but rather a place where you fight against more than
your opponent. In boxing you battle yourself and the hand that
you were dealt from the day you were born. You battle critics
and cynics who tell you that you’ll never make it. You battle
your size, your intelligence, your speed, your age, and most importantly,
your will.
There are many reasons the poorest of our
society are the ones most commonly found in a boxing ring, but
the biggest, I think, is because they are the strongest. The poor
are the ones who can take the abuse, the sacrifice, the risk,
and the challenge of what boxing is and what boxing represents.
So even when they make it and the money begins to flow, the greatest
of boxers continue to fight because it is about more than money,
about more than simply themselves and their family, it is about
everyone who has ever had a dream to make more of themselves from
the hands they were initially dealt.
So why do I love boxing? I love boxing because
it is microcosm of life. Boxing takes all the good, bad, noble,
rotten, and glorious in life and puts it in the center of a ring
with two combatants vying for its truth. Boxing shows that the
greats in life aren’t those who always win, but those who
fight the hardest to win. It proves that skill, money, fame, and
talent can only go so far toward greatness and that the true measure
of success is in the strength of will and the nobleness of courage.
It is the ultimate test of man against man and man against himself.
It is about relationships between competitor and competitor and
competitor and those he loves and who love him, always concerned
that the next punch that hits him will be his last. It is about
the relationship of boxer and trainer, putting one’s faith
in another’s philosophy to train, compete, and step in when
his man has received as much of a beating as he can endure. Boxing
is about tears shed for joy and pain, exhaustion and loss, and
the hopeful promise of another day. It is about passing down knowledge
from generation to generation, about revering those who came before
you, and about the confidence and humbleness to know the right
time and place for each.
Boxing is barbaric, cruel, and dangerous but
it is also the sweet science of everything that makes us human.
Hate on it if you must, but it has and will go on from the beginning
of time to the end. So while our own time on earth is but a pin
drop on an eternal spectrum, I am honored to have witnessed those
who sweat, bleed, triumph, and meet the ultimate end in this greatest
of all sports.
Many may not understand you, boxing, but I
do. And I love you.
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Do you love boxing, too? Or maybe you think it's
a horrible disgrace. Let your opinion be known! Email Scott Muoio
at scottmuoio@undependentmedia.com
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