How can such a beautiful sport be so heartbreaking?

[ßringer]

Honestly. I consider this sport to be the most beautiful sport in the world. One on one, man to man, no excuses. The difference in winning and losing sometimes by a single point, the desire of your opponet, or shady judging officials who hold your livelihood in their hands.

I think Diego Corrales sumed it up best when he said "One on one, it can be beautiful.". At it's highest level, boxing is poetry in motion. A blistering, fast-paced war of skill and will.

As a fan, I sit here and watch these guys do what they do in amazement at the level of their craft, and the size of their hearts. It takes a special breed of man to climb into a ring with a man who wants nothing more than to take him out and end the night early.

Watching an epic fight from start to finish is something like being able to watch Rembrandt paint, or watching Scorsese direct. It's absolutely beautiful to me and I never tire of it.

But on the flipside of the coin, it's also the most heartbreaking sport in my opinion. As fans, we watch these guys go toe-to-toe in brutal bouts that would kill lesser men. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. And there's always another prospect on the horizon to look out for.

We watch them build their careers from the ground up with their fists, like watching a construction crew erect a skysc****r. The guys we like, we support. The ones we don't care for, we pick apart. All the while we have no idea the amount of pressure these guys feel from people like us, or the amount of pain they are in when they're in the ring.

There comes a point in every fighter's career when the foundation collapses, the the skysc****r falls. And we look over it, discuss it, analyze and debate it, and rank the fighter in terms of skill and accomplishment. Then we set our sights on the next one, and the one after that.

Who really cares about these guys when they're no longer competitive? When nobody will pay to see them fight. When they're at home on the couch watching tapes of themselves back in their prime wishing they could go back? When the arenas have long since emptied, and their name only rings a bell in the halls of one's memory? How must they feel at such a moment?

I know I've touched on a lot of different subjects. Feel free to comment on any, or all. Or you can just say I'm gay for thinking about it in such a way. But I was watching some old fights on youtube of guys who are long since gone and it really got me thinking about it.

[ßringer]

So.....apparently I'm the only one who cares enough about these guys to think about them long after they've faded out.

[Enemy/Friend]

This site doesn't have the proper attention span to read articles that long.

[ßringer]

This site doesn't have the proper attention span to read articles that long.

It should've been another "Holyfield was robbed" thread. I'd have 27 responses already.

[Guest]

Write a ****ing goth song about it, Emo boy.

[ßringer]

Write a ****ing goth song about it, Emo boy.

Yeah yeah, take your Holiday vacation already slag. You've been repeating yourself all day.

[pistol whip]

Some fighters even in retirement carry a lot of weight in boxing and sometimes they can make somthing very special when bridging the gap between the new and old. So it's not always heartbreaking to see them and a lot of times it's actually really touching. Here is an example and yes some ofit is in spanish but keep watching.

[Kris Silver]

Terrific post Bringer. Can't really think of anything to add to it. I often tend to prefer one on one sports, and for me there's just none like Boxing. A violent sport can be beautiful, but also stir up real feelings of emotion as it's pretty intense. You train harder than ever for months for a 1 hour fight, it's like no other sport. To see people get robbed either in the ring or out of it by way of not getting fights, just really gets me.

There's some real dodgey unjustifiable stuff going on in boxing which is why imo it's not as big as it was. Unlike most sports, the very system and people whom rank, sponsor and award the fighters, are increasingly becoming the athlete and the fans enemy, through so much corruption and unjustified wrong going. That's a very very sad thing and I don't know what it's going to take to go some way to fix it. At times like this I don't have too much faith in any organisations to investigate and force change to boxing. Perhaps a strong willed politician is at this stage our best hope, that again is unlikely and a sad thing.

[Porter's Dad]

This is going to be a predictable response, but...great post.

Nothing makes me as sad as seeing Evander getting robbed tonight, Steele waving his hands against a bruised and bloodied Taylor against Chavez, RJJ's body longer doing what he wants against Calzaghe, seeing Toney fight in his last fight and wanting him to retire, Cotto getting broken down by Margarito, etc...

And nothing is as thrilling as seeing Vasquez vs Marquez giving their bodies and soul for our pleasure, watching young fighters like Lopez, Linares, Kirkland, Ortiz bloom fight by fight, watching a classic fight from the archives for the first time, seeing your fighter KO someone else and be crowned champion, even Margarito finally getting recognition that he deserves for slogging it out all these years...

Boxing is a truly extraordinary sport.

Nothing is as intense, as profound, as cerebral, as damaging to those taking part for our viewing pleasures.

[Steak]

I try to care about the boxers after theyre retired. I tried donating money to Genaro Hernandez actually, because it turned out he had cancer and his insurance wouldnt pay for it...what a waste of time, health insurance. I never heard if he turned out ok or not.

boxing is a powerful sport. we mostly only watch it to be entertained, but boxing fans like us actually start to care about the fighters themselves and become concerned with their well being. you wont find that often in other sports.