Now, before this thread goes any further, I want to point out that there's no way that I would paint any fighter in a light that twists their actual story. In the history of sports, I've never seen anything else more heartbreaking then boxing. I've watched them all (sports) in my short life and I've fallen in love with all of them. Baseball, basketball, football, tennis, auto racing, etc, etc. However, I've also fallen "out of love" with the previously mentioned sports after about a 2-3 year saturation point. Boxing is the one sport that has transcended that very line that I've drawn in my life. It's been a long time (to me) since I watched my first full fight (live on March 30th, 2005) since beginning as a full fledged fight fan. Granted, as a fan of nearly all sports, I did watch Ali and Tyson and those are my pre-boxing aficionado days that stretch back to me as a 4 year old being handed "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!!". In between that time, the sport of boxing was slow cooking in my mind like a 24 hour BBQ pork shoulder. However, since that day in March 2005 I've watched with close attention nearly all tangible live fights since that date and any fight in history I can get my hands on. Recently though, with the suicide of Edwin Valero and the deaths of Vernon Forrest, Arturo Gatti, Alexis Arguello. For the first time in my life, I have a small feeling of disgust towards the sport of boxing. Valero pushed the apple cart over. I grieved for Forrest, Gatti, and Arguello with anger towards the forces that pushed the acts to cause their demise. Now, I feel heartbroken. I see the rhythm that this sport offers up much like a counter-puncher noticing habits in his opponent's style. This rhythm. There's a consistent history of this rhythm. Boxer comes from nowhere. This boxer comes from the Podunk City of the world. Culican, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Merida, Managua, Brownsville Brooklyn, Hackney London etc, etc. A total ghetto/slum. An environment where people die more than they live in a figurative and literal sense. These murky environments are despised for their conditions, complained about by politicians in long term and ignored in short as the very same people drive by. From this muck, from this dark environment, comes the brightest star. A boxer that shoots through the muck with a body and mind that appears to be crafted out of titanium coated with teflon. His name might be Meldrick Taylor, Alexis Arguello, Michael Watson, or Arturo Gatti. As a fan we watch this precipitous rise with pride or disdain (depending which side of whether you like the guy or not). Each new fight revealing something more interesting than the last, and you're hooked. You and this fighter are like a symbiotic relationship. You watch the fighter in the ring with unwavering attention while the fighter supplies your soul with entertainment. You watch to see him win gloriously or to get the "loss that he deserved". This continues til the fighter retires early to our disgust, "He coulda beat so & so" or they fade back into the monster that birthed them, "You hear Sweet Pea's doing coke?" leaving us shaking our heads in disappointment. In the fall you see your fighter spiral downward faster then any of the training they put into their fistic craft. It's rare to see a boxer get away "scot free". A fighter that could satisfy the fan's imagination win, lose, or draw and retire with his life in tact. This morning I was going about my normal routine. Wrapping up last week's boxing notes, prepping my schoolwork for the week, drinking massive amounts of coffee when I saw the report on the suicide of Edwin Valero. I said out loud, "You've got to be kidding!". I'm aware he admitted that he murdered his wife and I'll never give any quarter to a person that takes a life (for the murder I was shocked as well, but to the point that I knew he would be locked up). However, once he left this world at his own hands I felt a "weakening". It was like the sport of boxing sent its own left hook to my gut after the 1-2-1 combination of Forrest, Gatti, Arguello. A horrific combo that for the first time in my life, knocked me on my ass in relation to the sport of boxing. This might sound ridiculously poetic, but I'm trying to make sense of all this chaos in the sport of boxing. For as much as I love this sport, its dark side is deep. So deep in fact that it could trap nearly anybody that gets inside of it (or near it for that matter!). Since Edwin's suicide I've caught a glimpse of this monster that hides in the shadows of this sport. Before, I ignored it while the creature toiled in the shadows of the dark chaos in the annals of boxing history. I've ignored it til now, and for what I've seen...briefly...I had a shift in my position on boxing. It hurts to be on the other side. I don't want to be here, but my subconscious knows better. It's necessary. Any of you guys feel the same way sometimes? Does it make you feel heartbroken that your own sport produces these travesties?
Good thread :good Yes,where there is light,darkness must fall. I see what you mean Briscoe. As much as I've been a long time fan of boxing,some things that have occured within in it have made me sick to the stomach through the years. Haearing about ex fighters hitting rock bottom in one way or another. Jerry Quarry and too many others living out their final years in a twilight existence etc. Sad.
Excellent post, many thoughts I agree with, some with which I disagree, but all well put. I had similar feelings after Benn-McClellan.
I wonder how long until the edwin valero vs Duran threads start popping up.He'll become the Tony Ayala figure for boxing's closet deviant fans everywhere.
It's almost like I have a love-hate relationship with boxing because of the reasons you outlined. The roar of the crowd lives, but each fighter passes on and falls from their grace only to be replaced by a new young lion. As if the expense and entertainment if the fans is worth the damage and problems fighters face from boxing. That's a dark angsty outlook that a feel sometimes. But let's be realistic. Boxing does a lot of good for others too. But there's an awful lot of travesty. Great topic and excellent original post. I think a lot of the hardcore fans hate to admit. Their love of a sport comes at a price for others (Sometimes).
excellent thread...i too have watched this sport since the days i was 3 years old hanging out with my father, uncles, and others watching the fights with them when they come on....and i love boxing but sometimes there are just so many things about it some ive had the unfortunate honor of witnessing live that make me shake my head like why do i continue to watch it..so much corruption, so many messed up endings for boxers, so many controversies, etc etc....you wonder on how far all of it will go before the game gets a complete makeover and cleaned up
I wouldnt go as far as to blame boxing. What happened to Valero, Forrest, Arguello and Gatti was tragic but could have happened to anyone regardless of which walk of life they come from. There are many many boxers who are decent, clean-living family guys but that doesnt sell papers or create interest. Its all just a shame really:verysad
That was amazing, nice post. My belief is that the correlation to these tragedies is the boxers being famous, rather than them being boxers. People who are famous and become celebs live a bizarre life. Especially for someone like Valero who probably never saw himself being a star until he realized his boxing abilities. A lot of times, people like these don;t have the right people guiding them. But, yea, I think the bad things happening are linked more towards being a star rathr than being a boxer. But I could be totally wrong...
I recommend you read "Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing", by Donald McRae. It's a great book that deals with exactly the thoughts you are having. [ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Trade-Boxing-Donald-McRae/dp/0747258694[/ame] Boxing shows you the very best and worst of mankind. Valero's story is pure madness. I couldn't believe it when i read he killed himself. Call me selfish, but when he murdered his wife, the first thing i thought was how this would rob us of great fights. atsch He's a piece of **** for doing that to his wife, but still, i also hate that we miss out on a possible superstar.
I guess my response to the original post is to ask what might have happened had Diego Corrales and Edwin Valero and Stanley Ketchel and many others not been boxers and instead chosen a different profession... Would Valero have still committed a murder-suicide? Would Diego have still gotten drunk, and turned himself into a bloody smear on the ashphalt after he hopped onto his motorbike in the following hours when the alcohol was still in his system? Would Ketchel have been shot in the head by Walter Dipley after making moves on his wife? One never knows, but there's the possibility that those events might have happened given the people that they were. Make no mistake...there are many boxers who are afflicted with impulses that cause them to engare in the most reprehensible behavior known to man, woman, and child. There are always going to be James Butlers and Edwin Valeros and Tony Ayalas out there. And because of the nature of the sport, there are always going to be fighters like Ali who don't emerge from the sport with their minds and bodies intact. But then again, there are many more fighters who achieved a measure of success and good fortune that simply wouldn't have been available to them under other circumstances, and it's important to remember that when we hear another story of a fighter who falls from grace with the world around him. Every now and then, a small bit of light comes from that darkness, and it's usually the fighters pursuit of that light that causes them to produce efforts that others remember in forums like this.
I agree fully, we're going to get a load of half baked posters that are foaming at the mouth to prove Valero's spot in the head-to-head game. I had a thought like this after my initial shock had passed. It made me mad that a guy like Valero could leave his story "unfinished" in relation to his massive boxing talent. It's going to be amazing to see a boxer with a 27(27)-0 record (67 total rounds of boxing!!!), but when you see how it finished outside the ring...that's where the heartbreak sets in.
They would've and millions of people are living those kind of shitty lives as we speak. We just don't know and don't care because they are faceless numbers to us, whom we have no emotional connection with, unlike Gatti, Arguello, etc.
Exactly.. I think Forrest can be excluded from the other group though, he didn't self destruct he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it's worth noting where these guys came from, chances are Valero would have done something like this anyway, same with Barrios etc etc you can't blame boxing for what these guys did but its also clear to me that boxers (tapia, arguello) struggle to cope when they're no longer fighting. On the point of boxing injuries i'm sure if Ali was told (before the olympics say) he could have all that he had but at the expense of parkinsons he would still take it. My heart goes out to those nameless journeyman who suffer the same problems but without the highs of victory to compensate.
