Yo Rocky - From the Archives

June 3, 2001

It was a typical Friday night, in the year 1950 something, in the South Bronx.

My dad, my mom, my sisters, my cousins, my uncle, and my aunt gathered around the TV to watch the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, and Friday Night Fights.

This was the golden age of boxing. With the likes of Rocky Graziano, Kid Gavilan, Floyd Patterson, Emile Griffith, and Sugar Ray Robinson to watch and admire, this young girl became a boxing fan. In later years, the fight game still had the wondrous talents of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and others.
When you grow up in the inner city and your sports and athletic world consists of dodge ball, stick-ball, Johnny on the Pony, and hand-ball in the schoolyard, you are in serious awe of these powerful warriors. I admired their speed, agility, and physical beauty. In addition, within the Spanish-speaking community, boxing is the equivalent of Nebraska football in Nebraska. It is the most highly regarded of macho endeavors.

If you are like many, especially most women, boxing seems like the most barbaric, brutal, and inhumane sport on the planet. If you don’t know what the training regimen involves or what physical skills are necessary to become a highly ranked boxer you would think these guys were just dancing around for 10 to12 rounds. Gee, how hard can that be?

But, the combination of speed, skills, physical, and mental endurance, in a one on one confrontation is unmatched in any sport. The drama of a championship bout is possibly the most thrilling contest in the world of sports.

But, here we are in the year 2001, and where have all the heroes gone?

The fight game was never pretty. It was never what one would call a squeaky-clean sport. There have always been nasty, sleazy, ugly, and corrupt people involved this sport. The Queensbury rules, notwithstanding, boxing has never enjoyed much of a reputation as the prototype for sports integrity. The Olympics, long regarded as the prime example of all that is good and pure and beyond reproach in the world of sports, has fallen victim to the temptation of the almighty dollar. If corruption can rear its ugly head within the inner sanctum of sports virtue, then what can we expect from the boxing world? Sad isn’t it.

The world of boxing has left a very bad taste in the mouth of this boxing fan.

When Mike Tyson entered the ring and destroyed fighter after fighter, the world of boxing, Don King, and the rest of his cronies were just drooling over this kid’s power and inner rage. Now we know that “Iron Mike” has personal demons more powerful than his fists.

“On the surface, people like Tyson attempt to portray themselves as being nasty, tough, invincible, and arrogant. Snarling at the press, demeaning of opponents, showing no respect for the media or for that matter anyone else. All a front.”