Of Men and God in Boxing

(or Why Pacman will never fight a Rabbi)


Some on the forum have noted that Pacman may have wished he had fought Yuri seeing how Cotto succeeded against the good Rabbi. Perhaps some cultural naivite, not surprising on this forum, or just a superficial understanding about the more nuanced psychodynamics that govern the behavior of superior men of principle, conscience and faith that from time to time grace the sport that oftentimes is more dominated by men of gutter hip hop type egotism as championed by PBF and those who regale in his thuggish ways.

Yuri Foreman blew my mind when he gave a remarkably gracious, humbled and heartfelt response to Kellerman's interview in the immediacy of that brutal and injury ridden beating he'd just had at the hands of a Miguel Cotto who really never went anywhere, and if anything, stronger, better and more disciplined than the one who beat the biggest names in his previous divisions and who gave the Pacman four solid round of a Hagler/Hearnesque fight. He thanks his God for granting both warriors and the fan a good spectacle free of serious injuries to both contestants (despite his being injured!). Why go on despite being injured...to which he answered, it's what a champion does he would say. Just as I thought nothing could top the bravery he had just displayed, he tops it off with an extraordinary interview that reaffirmed his calling and steeled the admiration and respect that he can only gain from sensible sentien beings everywhere.

It reminds me of the Pacman's response after the ODL fight, after his rituals of a solitary prayer in the corner, thanking his God, and graciously, as if embarrassed by his dominating performance, proclaiming that Oscar was still his idol and that it was nothing personal. It is not that your faith is bandied about when things goes your way that is remarkable, but that it had been the foundation upon which he grew out of poverty and succeeded in times of defeat, as manifested in Forman's response, that separate the men from the boys in our perigrination here on earth.

Some here contend that Pac probably regretted not taking on Foreman after seeing Cotto succeeded in such fashion, the same folks who'll never understand how Pac, on principle, refused to give in to PBF's set up and contrivances. Just as the fundamentalist end time Pentacostals would resort to revalatory prayers for their daily decisions in life, Pac, perhaps through prayer or contemplation, never had the right feeling about a possible matchup with Yuri, no doubt borned out of the fact that 'he is a man of God', that he (pacman) is a servant of god and that in the intuitive and complex machination of what is right and wrong is just not the right fight for him to make, then or now.

Officially, it would come out as Yuri being too tall, too big, too slick, or stylistically not optimal for Pac. But when you see what Cotto did, you know Freddie and Arum know that that cannot be the real reason for such reservation, for how can you explain how such resevation does not obtain when a potential match with Margarito is proposed, who is just as tall at 5'11 with an even longer reach (not to mention more sinewy, stronger, bigger calves and legs and intact acls with a granite chin).

I am glad Pacman came about and graced the sport the past decade, just as men like Yuri...few men who actually edify the sport, but sometimes ridiculed as being superstitious when their actions actually manifests certain cultural and religious faith and principles contradictory to the bottom line or the materialism and unprincipled egotism of you know who.

 

That's okay

Should his atheism preclude our acknowledging his being grand for the sport? Hell no.

Should he be regarded, in the sport, better had he been a christian? Hell no.

Is he one of the greats? Hell yeah.

Is he an *******? I never met the dude...

 

Yeah...I was shootin' for Nat Hawthorne...or maybe Bill Buckley, goddmnd his soul...