By Matthew Hurley

Boxing is a sport that prides itself on technique, skill and guile as much as it does on toughness, ruthlessness and brutality. The men who step through the ropes demand respect and most often are disenfranchised human beings rescued from the violence and degradation of the streets through the tough sport of boxing. They discover pride, the value of work and camaraderie in the gym and inside the ring. Boxing has saved more lives than it has injured. 

But one terrible, tragic injury is still one too many. It hurts when a boxer falls, never to rise again. It hurts because it enhances the very metaphor for life that writers have for years attached to the violent sport of boxing. Life can be cruel, oftentimes unjust, even wicked and the world of boxing, with its sordid underbelly and intermittent tragedies oftentimes reflects all that pain just as it can mirror triumph and the sheer will of the human spirit. 

Naysayers, however, disregard the courage, commitment and skill it takes to be a professional prize fighter. Instead they focus on its apparent barbarism and rise up in righteous indignation whenever something tragic or potentially tragic occurs inside the ropes. Suddenly these great pontificators demonize the sport and in doing so denigrate its participants by calling for boxing’s abolishment. 

From Benny Paret to Doo Koo Kim, to Gerald McClellan to Bobby Tomasselo, to Beethaven Scotland and now to Leavander Johnson, these harpies, many of them sportswriters who know nothing about boxing, point to these tragedies and arrogantly spout, “I told you so.” 

Then a magnificent bout like Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo occurs and all is suddenly forgiven. Quite frankly these tedious talking heads are the same people who cheer when a linebacker knocks a quarterback senseless or a hockey defensemen hip checks a winger into the boards, dislocating his shoulder and knocking out his teeth. In the end, if you can’t appreciate the beauty that lies within the brutality of contact sports go watch golf and do the rest of us a favor and keep your inane opinions to yourself. 

The story here is not about the merits of the fight game but it is about a human being who is now fighting for his life. How he got there is beside the point now. Leavander Johnson proved himself to be a noble and courageous practitioner of his chosen profession. He wasn’t a big star making big money. He was an honest man making an honest living. Now this man of honorable intentions needs our prayers for a swift recovery. He would never want to be used as an example to be pointed at by people critical of his chosen line of work. 

His situation is so very human because he is now so very vulnerable. There is no more compelling a story to be told. A person in physical and mental peril touches us emotionally because it is a unifying truism that we are all privy to. We are the only beings on the planet who are cognizant of our own mortality. When an athlete falls, a person sometimes representative of an almost mythical hierarchy, all is brought back into focus. That fragility is frightening. That is what Leavander Johnson’s struggle is now truly all about. He now represents life more than ever. 

As he lies in a hospital bed after surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain, Leavander Johnson is now fighting the fight of, and for, his life. All we can do now is anxiously wait and hope for his complete recovery. He is a fighter and one who always gave everything he had when he stepped into the ring. Hopefully this courageous young man has at least one more gallant effort left in his warrior’s heart.