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Today I read an eloquent piece by Red Young in the anthology of boxing yarns "The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told (Thirty six incredible tales from the ring)" edited by Jeff Silverman. Red Young was writing of the No Mas incident, and comparing it with other occasions when boxers quit.
One paragraph in particular caught my eye:
I sometimes tire of reading jibes on Boxingscene about quitters and cowards, mainly I suspect from those who have never once had the cojones to step through the ropes, who have never faced so much as an honest smack in the jaw in their life. It's a bizarre and somewhat saddening irony that the fiercest critics of so-called cowards are the ones who were never brave enough to even put themselves into a situation where there was a choice between quitting and pain.
I'm not saying that courage and heart are not qualities to admire in a fighter. But admiring those qualities should not amount to ridiculing those without them.
One paragraph in particular caught my eye:
The Sweet Science is a harsh mistress and under her cruel rules the deadliest sin is to give up under punishment. The most damning criticism that can be made of a fighter is to say, in the parlance of the fight mob, that he is a bit of a kiyi or that he has a touch of the geezer in him, meaning a streak of cowardice. The fact that no coward walks up the steps and into the ring isn't good enough for the fight mob. It is further required that when his number comes up, the fighter must endure pain and punishment without complaint as long as he is conscious.
I'm not saying that courage and heart are not qualities to admire in a fighter. But admiring those qualities should not amount to ridiculing those without them.
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