What constitutes being a real boxing fan? Article

Am I real boxing fan?
by
Roland Andrei T. Carada
aka
Ared




Some once told me that I was not a real fan of boxing, just because in my recent memory, I have only watched one fight of Margarito and that was the one where he fought Cotto. In fact, if we take it to a broader context, my race has been indicted as being one-trick ponies who only worship Pacquiao – we are not boxing fans, but Pacquaio “nuthuggers”. True, Filipinos in general heap praises on Pacquaio (and yes some are genuinely nuthuggers) but are we a one-dimensional race of nuthuggers, never to elevate into the real realm of pugilistic fandom? Secondly, what constitutes being a “real” fan of boxing?

I used to remember that when I was a kid, I would watch with my father the boxing matches of Espinosa and the Penalosa brothers. I was heartbroken whenever they were robbed of victories (that one time Louie got screwed by the Japanese was firmly entrenched in my memory). I also witnessed the beginnings of the early Pacquaio, I even remember when he got knocked out in Thailand, with all those Thais jeering as Manny fell to the canvas. I watched their victories and was like hyperactive little kid whenever one of them scored a KO victory or the judges announced the words “And the new…”. I was that annoying kid that probably screamed in your face “And the new – new –new new”

Of course, these were all Filipino fights and if I remember correctly, everybody in the country also stopped what they were doing to watch Luisito and Gerry and Dodie Boy, not just Manny Pacquaio. In that case, am I only just a Filipino boxing fan? If then, there would be a marked distinction on who the real boxing fans are.

“Real” boxing fans watch only the world’s best fighters. If you only watch American boxers, or if you only root for Mexicans, or Puerto Ricans, then you are not a real boxing fan. You’re just some mug who likes to cheer for your own country’s fighters. Then of course, the Thais, the Japanese, the Cubans, they are all not fight fans because they only watch their own fighters. Of course I am not a real boxing fan, because in my country, I cannot watch all the fights as only a few foreign fights are ever shown here.

And of course, the people who live and breathe pugilistica are not real boxing fans because many of them do not know the world’s best fighters. The old fogies at my gym at Elorde’s who box everyday are not boxing fans because they do not who the hell Joan Guzman is. Heck, even Erik Morales is not a boxing fan, because he did not know who Salvador Sanches was. At least, that is by the definition of many of you here.

By your definition, the “real” boxing fan is the one who watches all the fights. The “real” boxing fan assimilates all the information about the boxers and boxing in general, how this punch should be thrown, or how fighter A should have fought fighter B. You make elaborate schemes on how much better a fighter would be if he had done this or done that.

Then you who call yourselves real fans, at the same time call fighters who live and die in the ring as bums, tomato cans, walking heavy bags. You always talk about how technically limited a fighter is and how this fighter would walk all over this other fighter. You criticize boxers at every step but are not even willing to walk the life of a boxer. You the supposed "real" boxing fan.


So the question is still this, are you a real boxing fan? What to you constitutes what a real boxing fan is?

In the end, I may not know as much as you. I may only have a limited knowledge of who the greats are. I may not be able to predict who wins every time and as far as I know I have already lost more vcash than I have earned. But I appreciate all the hard work these fighters have done and I cheer for them rather than analyze every little thing they do and I do not compare them with the greats of yore. Does that make me less of a boxing fan than you? Are my brethren any less of a fan than you are?




PS
I loved the Margarito-Cotto tiff.