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In editing my book there are alot of things I have decided do not make the cut and will not be included for different reasons..... this is one.
(UNEDITED) In my time as a boxer I have always been the type (I assume most fighters are) that has wanted to pay people back that got over on me. I guess it is that type of competitive spirit that makes boxers successful. It's not a personal thing towards the opponent as a person, really. For me it is more like we are machines or something and it is just something where I would want to pay them back if they got over on me and after I did it would pretty much be over with. Nothing personal as a man, just as a boxer. The first time I ever remember feeling that feeling in such a good way was back in 1986 at the Stowe Village Gym in the Stowe Village Housing Projects and I was boxing with a local heavyweight named Curtis "The Trashman" Dudley. Curtis was very tall, six foot four, and usually scaled 210 pounds or so while I was five foot ten and 165 pounds. We used to spar pretty frequently, though, and the sessions were always action packed because even though he weighed so much more than me and was so much taller it was a thing where I had so much pride and I wanted to be the boss of the gym, no matter the weight.
One day, though, we were going at it pretty good when he caught me with a good, clean shot that opened me up just below my left eye. Not a terrible, terrible gash but not a paper cut, either. The worst thing for me, though, wasn't the fact that I got cut but the fact that there were people in the gym that day and there was no doubt the days events would be traveling like the speed of light to all the other boxers and gyms in Hartford. I mean, we all know that if you want to get the word out about something call either Ted Koppel or have it happen in a boxing gym because either way, the word will get out to the masses. I hated the fact that the guy marked me up because whenever people asked me what happened I would have to let them know what happened and who did it to me and I also hated the fact that Curtis would be able to look at me and say to himself or to other people, "Yeah, I busted that kids eye up good."
So I went home that night and repaired my eye all by myself, holding it together with my fingers while I made my own butterfly bandage and I closed it good, too. To this day there is only a small trace of the scar that was left. The mental wound it gave me was much tougher to close, though, and, really, I didn't want it closed. I seethed I guess you could say for however long it took to get back in the ring with Curtis and when I did it was like the rush of relief and excitement you get when you're a kid and the several months of waiting for December 25th is finally over.
I remember it well. Curtis was so tall and long armed with heavy power (compared to me, at least) that I built him up in my mind to be a version of Tommy "Hitman" Hearns and because he was Tommy I put myself in what I liked to call "Hagler mode." Basically, I always loved the way Hagler fought that fight against Tommy a few years earlier when he rumbled with such ferocity and determination it was as it he elevated himself to a level higher than he had ever been on before in his life and he literally drowned Tommy with his constant barrage of mental and physical pressure and the torrent of punches that he threw. To this day I look at Hagler's performance that night as proof that no matter how physically outgunned you may find yourself in the ring your mental power (combined with good physical power, of course) can take you a long, long ways and you can overcome someone that has superior physical gifts than you do. So I went into the sparring session with Curtis bent on getting revenge and redemption and respect with the mindset that I imagined that Marvin must have had when he stood across from Tommy and what I remember most was that the session that day was very intense and action packed and one reason for that was because I made up my mind beforehand to never take a step backward no matter what he hit me with and I definitely carried that out.
I can actually remember being in there and imaging myself as Hagler in his fight with Tommy. Now I would have been very happy and satisfied with just having a very good day of sparring but what actually happened was like something that could have been written by some guy in Hollywood. Curtis and I spent a lot of time trading power shots in the middle of the ring and one thing that session helped me verify was that taking a punch is in large part a mental thing and I know this because I was so focused for that day that despite all the punches we traded that day I was never hurt by even one of the big mans shots. He may not have been shook up by any of my punches either but he did come way with a very badly bruised eye (the same eye that he cut on me a few weeks earlier) and when I saw that, man, that was really something. Banging up his eye like he did mine a few weeks earlier felt so good and it gave me such a strong feeling of "get back" that I thought to myself how "This is what it's all about right here. You hit me and hurt me but I come back and pay you back. This is exactly what boxing is all about."
I liked that feeling so much that I spent much of the next fifteen years, until quite a while after my final fight in 2001, trying to recapture it every time the opportunity presented itself.
(UNEDITED) In my time as a boxer I have always been the type (I assume most fighters are) that has wanted to pay people back that got over on me. I guess it is that type of competitive spirit that makes boxers successful. It's not a personal thing towards the opponent as a person, really. For me it is more like we are machines or something and it is just something where I would want to pay them back if they got over on me and after I did it would pretty much be over with. Nothing personal as a man, just as a boxer. The first time I ever remember feeling that feeling in such a good way was back in 1986 at the Stowe Village Gym in the Stowe Village Housing Projects and I was boxing with a local heavyweight named Curtis "The Trashman" Dudley. Curtis was very tall, six foot four, and usually scaled 210 pounds or so while I was five foot ten and 165 pounds. We used to spar pretty frequently, though, and the sessions were always action packed because even though he weighed so much more than me and was so much taller it was a thing where I had so much pride and I wanted to be the boss of the gym, no matter the weight.
One day, though, we were going at it pretty good when he caught me with a good, clean shot that opened me up just below my left eye. Not a terrible, terrible gash but not a paper cut, either. The worst thing for me, though, wasn't the fact that I got cut but the fact that there were people in the gym that day and there was no doubt the days events would be traveling like the speed of light to all the other boxers and gyms in Hartford. I mean, we all know that if you want to get the word out about something call either Ted Koppel or have it happen in a boxing gym because either way, the word will get out to the masses. I hated the fact that the guy marked me up because whenever people asked me what happened I would have to let them know what happened and who did it to me and I also hated the fact that Curtis would be able to look at me and say to himself or to other people, "Yeah, I busted that kids eye up good."
So I went home that night and repaired my eye all by myself, holding it together with my fingers while I made my own butterfly bandage and I closed it good, too. To this day there is only a small trace of the scar that was left. The mental wound it gave me was much tougher to close, though, and, really, I didn't want it closed. I seethed I guess you could say for however long it took to get back in the ring with Curtis and when I did it was like the rush of relief and excitement you get when you're a kid and the several months of waiting for December 25th is finally over.
I remember it well. Curtis was so tall and long armed with heavy power (compared to me, at least) that I built him up in my mind to be a version of Tommy "Hitman" Hearns and because he was Tommy I put myself in what I liked to call "Hagler mode." Basically, I always loved the way Hagler fought that fight against Tommy a few years earlier when he rumbled with such ferocity and determination it was as it he elevated himself to a level higher than he had ever been on before in his life and he literally drowned Tommy with his constant barrage of mental and physical pressure and the torrent of punches that he threw. To this day I look at Hagler's performance that night as proof that no matter how physically outgunned you may find yourself in the ring your mental power (combined with good physical power, of course) can take you a long, long ways and you can overcome someone that has superior physical gifts than you do. So I went into the sparring session with Curtis bent on getting revenge and redemption and respect with the mindset that I imagined that Marvin must have had when he stood across from Tommy and what I remember most was that the session that day was very intense and action packed and one reason for that was because I made up my mind beforehand to never take a step backward no matter what he hit me with and I definitely carried that out.
I can actually remember being in there and imaging myself as Hagler in his fight with Tommy. Now I would have been very happy and satisfied with just having a very good day of sparring but what actually happened was like something that could have been written by some guy in Hollywood. Curtis and I spent a lot of time trading power shots in the middle of the ring and one thing that session helped me verify was that taking a punch is in large part a mental thing and I know this because I was so focused for that day that despite all the punches we traded that day I was never hurt by even one of the big mans shots. He may not have been shook up by any of my punches either but he did come way with a very badly bruised eye (the same eye that he cut on me a few weeks earlier) and when I saw that, man, that was really something. Banging up his eye like he did mine a few weeks earlier felt so good and it gave me such a strong feeling of "get back" that I thought to myself how "This is what it's all about right here. You hit me and hurt me but I come back and pay you back. This is exactly what boxing is all about."
I liked that feeling so much that I spent much of the next fifteen years, until quite a while after my final fight in 2001, trying to recapture it every time the opportunity presented itself.
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