By Brent Matteo Alderson

What happened to Leavander Johnson is a tragedy and the boxing community should develop an infrastructure to help aid and support our fallen gladiators and their families.  The thing that we must remember is that sometimes the sweet science isn’t so sweet and that these courageous men that lace up the gloves and walk up into the ring to engage in hand to hand combat with other men are modern day gladiators. 

They know the risks and choose to take them and that’s what makes them special and that’s why fighters have a special bond that transcends race or nationality.  Look at Mike Tyson.  He’s displayed racist behavior on numerous occasions, but when it comes to his fellow pugilists, he doesn’t care; he takes them in and perceives them as fellow boxers not as white guys or black guys. 

This was apparent when he hired the then forty-something year old Scott LeDoux whose wife had recently died of cancer to work as a sparring partner in the early 90’s and immediately realized it wasn’t going to work out because the middle aged LeDoux wasn’t able to provide him with the type of sparring he needed, but Mike didn’t care and told his trainer Richie Giachetti, “Richie keep him on, keep paying him.” Even Mike respects and values the character that it takes to be a prize fighter.

You see, as boxing fans we know fighters are special and we admire their courage and valor.  That’s what’s so attractive about the sport and it’s participants and that’s why it’s always attracted an artsy glamorous intellectual type of crowd. 

People from Frank Sinatra who when he used to bump into old fighters used to stuff wads of hundred dollar bills down their shirt pockets or guys like Ernest Hemingway who religiously followed the sport were well aware of this gladiatorial self sacrificing characteristic that is inherently part of every fighter.  These aforementioned individuals cherished the uncommon valor that prizefighters displayed inside the squared circle.  So as we pray for Leavander and his family, let’s also lend our admiration for him as a warrior.


Boxing Politics:

Ever since he left HBO, boxing has not been to kind to Lou Dibella.  His Olympians from Michael Bennett to Ricardo Williams were busts, he had his well publicized fued with Bernard Hopkins, and now one of his fighters is fighting for his life.

Antonio Margarito is fighting Manuel Gomez on the undercard of Klitchko-Rahman, but he deserves a big fight.  The problem is that he holds the WBO title and as a result he’s not ranked by the other ruling bodies and won’t be able to force a mandatory on the division’s true champion, Zab Judah. 

And King won’t risk one of his prized possessions against a rival promoter’s fighter unless he has to and Arum is not going to give up options on Antonio so you can forget about a Judah-Margarito fight happening anytime soon.  On the other hand Margarito is at least making six-figure paydays, something he wouldn’t be doing if he weren’t the WBO champ.  I’ve always viewed the WBO as a lesser organization, but there is some merit to what Doug DeWitt once said about the WBO title, “Before I had the title I was making 10 or 20 grand a fight, now I’m making a 100 grand a fight!” 

I disagree with all the people that are criticizing the stoppage of the Chavez-Johnson fight and pointing fingers and laying blame on people associated with the fight. Leavander had forty professional fights, finally achieved his goal of being a champion and was on the cusp of making some big money that would have set him and his family up for life. People are saying that they should have stopped the fight sooner, but I didn’t think the fight was that one-sided and believe that Leavander deserved the right to fight in order to keep the title the he spent his entire professional career trying to get.  

Evander Holyfield was scheduled to fight in Italy in October, but the bout was recently cancelled.

If you ever get the chance, pop in the tape of the Michael Nunn-James Toney fight. James weighed 157 pounds for the fight and was ripped, hungry, and poor.   

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