By Dave Sholler

I have decided to retire from the sport of boxing. Simply put, I have had enough. After spending years chasing down fighters, promoters, and managers, I no longer have the desire to hound boxing personalities for quotes and headlines.

Mentally, I’m spent. Interviewing welterweight champions has become like wrestling porcupines. Getting facts and truth from promoters has been like finding an honest politician. In turn, the process of writing a piece has become grinding and I feel as if my eraser has been reduced to mere shavings.

It hasn’t been any easier physically. The sport has taken its toll on my limbs, digits, and extremities.

My left hand, also my writing hand, is bruised. Years of scribbling nonsense from overzealous managers has left me feeling carpal tunnelish. Likewise, my right hand, the controller of the starboard side of my computer keyboard, is sore. At the end of the day, I think I’ve punched one too many laptop keys.

I’m tired. I’m achy. I’m retiring.

Like Marco Antonio Barrera, Bernard Hopkins, Erik Morales, and Vitali Klitschko, I’m hanging up my proverbial boxing gloves. Like the four aforementioned Hall-of-Fame worthy candidates, I’m getting out before the sport gets me.

I will not be retired. Instead, I am riding off into the sunset.

Similar to the Mexican-born Barrera, I’ve tangoed with some of the best the sport has to offer. From light heavyweight stud Chad Dawson to Hall of Famer Dwight Muhammad Qawi, I have penned stories on many of the sport’s past and present stars. I’ve had promoters such as Gary Shaw applaud my work. On the other hand, I’ve had managers of former world champions question my viewpoints of their fighters.

Much like Barrera did against the Juarez’s, Pacquiao’s, and Morales’, I have done my best to perform with dignity and class. I’ll admit that it wasn’t always pretty. But like “The Baby-Faced Assassin,” I worked diligently to get my point across. I strived to prove that I possessed championship pedigree. In this quest, I surely took some lumps along the way. However, I learned a lot by having my ego bruised and my confidence challenged. In essence, I became a better man.

I’m retiring because I understand what Bernard Hopkins was feeling after he defeated Antonio Tarver in 2006. After spending years trying to prove myself on the journalism circuit, I feel like many of my colleagues in the sweet science today respect what I bring to the table. Sure, I may have been critical of other writers for failing to “tell it like it is.” But in the end, regardless of how they truly feel about me, I believe they respect my hustle. “The Executioner” understands what I mean. The Philadelphia native was never the most popular. He was, however, always respected.

I’m saying goodbye to the sport because I want to pursue politics and platforms for change like Vitali Klitschko. Arguably one of the best heavyweights of the past decade, Klitschko listened to his body and bid farewell to the sport in 2004 to pursue government and societal change. Maybe I can’t turn my writing experience into presidential or parliamentary candidacy. But can’t I write a speech for a governor or prime minister? Can I not campaign on behalf of all the struggling writers out there like some sort of journalistic lobbyist?

To my friends inside the boxing community, thank you for your support. This will be my final column. Today, Friday, September 5, 2008, will forever mark the end of my career as a boxing columnist.

I’d like to continue on, I really would. I’d love to keep following rising stars Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Diaz. I wouldn’t mind watching veterans like Joe Calzaghe and Joel Casamayor cruise down the final stretches of their respective careers either. But in the end, I just can’t summons the will power to press forward anymore. The sport has been good to me.

It’s time I let go.

Like Barrera, Hopkins, Morales, and Vitali, it’s time I kick back and relax. I’ve had a good run. There’s no need for me to sign with Don King, fight Kelly Pavlik or Sam Peter, or contemplate another return to the ring.

To my friends at BoxingScene.com, I am officially announcing my retirement from this column. Please join me here next Friday as I celebrate some of my career accolades. And please, pretty please, join me in one week so that like my friends B-Hop, Barrera, Morales, and Big V, I can announce that I am un-retiring.

Boxing is in my blood, damn it. As folks like Hopkins and Klitschko have found, it’s too hard to say goodbye. Retirement in our sport means very little. We may be tired. We may be brittle. But we aren’t going anywhere.

STIFF JABS: Diaz-Katisidis should be a thrilling fight. When I caught up with Diaz earlier this summer, the Houston native was happy to finally be free from Don King’s clutch. Now with Golden Boy Promotions, Diaz should have the mental clarity needed to focus on his fight Saturday. For the record, I like Diaz by decision. Football season is back in full swing and I’m really looking forward to this year’s gridiron action. I’m always partial to my Philadelphia Eagles, so here’s to Donovan McNabb having a big season in his last year in Philadelphia. Yes, I said it. His last year in Phily. With Kevin Kolb waiting in the wings, “5” will be a free agent next year unless he somehow brings home the Lombardi Trophy. Good luck Don. Without anyone to throw to, you’ll need it.

Dave Sholler is a featured analyst for sports radio stations across the country. Reach him at shollerholla4@hotmail.com.