Argüello interview days before death

Amen. They are vintage Argüello.

 

Contrast reminiscent of Jacob and Esau!

Alexis actually has the edge on Mayorga in height and reach. I agree, Argüello gives Ricardo his just desserts.

 

Argüello's Pryor II "quit job" actually makes a suicide more baffling, simply
because he was willing to go through hell for a relatively less important goal as a boxing championship. Yet he desisted on that canvas for one simple reason: He loved life and was not willing to risk it, no matter how precious the sporting goal.

You're absolutely right. Argüello was not a saint, nor is that the reason I look up to him. It is the obvious natural gentlemanliness, courteousness, human decency that he exuded. Carnegie no doubt contributed, but I would say the breezy people-influencer merely polished Alexis' native demeanor. This is why some people never relate to that How-to-Win-Friends stuff: it may simply not be in them.

Boxing has always been horribly managed and, as you say, crucially so at key moments in history. Yet it is up to those of us who love it to continue carrying its torch. It will always be what other sports aspire to. And the 15-round distance (like the pitcher in the batter's box) is part of the essence thereof.

 

Let us not despair.

Boxing will always have a place, if not always its rightful place, in the sun. As Joyce Carol Oates, of all writers, declared, boxing is "without a doubt, our most dramatically masculine sport." Two guys rolling around on the floor in spandex will not alter this reality. Boxing has been engaged in since the Iliad and the zenith of Ancient Rome. Its appeal has passed the test of time. Why? Because there has never been nor will there ever be an art of self-defense that can touch it.

No combat-sport championship can be more compelling than a Queensberry title bout between two great fighters. Remember the Fight of the Century: many spectators were surely there for other interests apart from the title match at hand. But through it all, and in the end, the crowd was mesmerized as one upon witnessing a fifteen-round show of pure manhood: two men standing essence-to-essence, soul-to-soul, deploying incredible --totally contrasted-- physical skills, in a contest engaged in with slashing courage, noble endurance, a profound sense of honor.

With all due respect, no MMA champion will ever attain the global stature ascended to in his time by world's heavyweight champion Joe Louis.

You look at Manny Pacquiao today pushing the limits, fighting for his people, a true idol, and he is, now, before our eyes, what is right about boxing, evidence of how just a few good men can elevate pugilism to its rightful place: what other sports aspire to.

No amount of horrible management can keep down boxing at its best.

Where are the Dempseys, Alis and Argüellos?

P.S. Recognition of any passion I may show is a real compliment from someone such as yourself, who has consistently, year in, year out, poured himself into every excellent post he writes.