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FROM THE ICEMAN DIARIES: Now anybody that knows me knows that the boxers are the first priority in my mind when it comes to this game. I appreciate and respect everybody else but I have a special feeling and bond with the guys that actually do the fighting. So the fight between Paulie and Cotto ends and as the fighters are heading down the alley way towards the tunnel back to the dressing rooms a bunch of people go to stand by the railing next to where the boxers will walk by so our group heads over, too, to check out the scene. Paulie is up on the ring apron acknowledging the crowd who, for the most part, are supportive of him and yelling up encouragement. "Hang in there, Paulie. You'll be back." Stuff like that. His face is swollen pretty bad, looks like he might have a broken jaw or a broken bone near his eye and he has some blood in his nose, but he's still standing there accepting the night for what it was. I mean, these things happen in the hardest game in the world, you know? Every night just isn't your night, no matter how bad you want it to be. So he stands there facing it all just as he would have had he won the fight and usually when people yell up to him he gives them a sheepish look back, like he is feeling bad about the night but he wants to show appreciation to them for still being there in what amounts to his darkest hour as a pro. So finally he has friends and assistants with him and they begin the walk back towards the dressing room and as he begins to head down the tunnel towards us there is this big mouth Puerto Rican girl, maybe 27 years old, who is laughing and pointing at Paulie and as he gets closer she gets up on a chair with the assistance of her boyfriend and she is looking down and saying things, obnoxious things, and it is very, very clear that she is more than happy that Paulie not only lost but is in pain both mentally as well as physical. The annual NYC Puerto Rican Day parade is less than twenty-four hours away and the fans representing the Island are especially proud tonight as their man has come through with a huge victory. She is also very clearly a Cotto fan. Fine. Be the fan. But when Paulie gets right underneath us, literally less than ten feet below us, this laughing, ignorant girl leans over the railing and yells something obviously nasty and negative to Paulie as she very gleefully sticks her middle finger right in his face in front of about forty or fifty people.
Well, I don't know, I already was not too happy with her big mouth, her obnoxious attitude and her laughing and her disrespect of a guy that just showed the kind of heart and will that she likely could never in her life even relate to. In those first seconds after she put the finger in Paulie's face it became a very real possibility that I would nudge her slightly and send her over that railing right down the ten or fifteen feet to where Paulie and the guys were walking by. I could have done that and not felt any remorse at that time but my better judgement grabbed hold of me and I immediately changed gears and instead of sending her tumbling down where she may have broken her neck, instead of that, I turned to my left away from where she was and I jammed my right elbow straight back into her thigh and sent her tumbling off the chair onto the floor (she grabbed another chair to stop herself from splattering all the way onto the floor). It felt good, too, I admit it and I expected it to, but the best part of it all for me was that when she landed and realized what happened? She immediately started using that big mouth of hers to cuss out her boyfriend, blaming him for being "******" and bumping into her and knocking her off the chair.
Then we all turned and walked away and out of the Garden onto 7th Ave, leaving her there, hopefully, to at least feel a little of the lingering effects of pain just like she tried to intentionally leave something not too nice with the warrior (Paulie) that just went through misery, in effect, for her enjoyment.
In my world fighters always get the last shot.
Well, I don't know, I already was not too happy with her big mouth, her obnoxious attitude and her laughing and her disrespect of a guy that just showed the kind of heart and will that she likely could never in her life even relate to. In those first seconds after she put the finger in Paulie's face it became a very real possibility that I would nudge her slightly and send her over that railing right down the ten or fifteen feet to where Paulie and the guys were walking by. I could have done that and not felt any remorse at that time but my better judgement grabbed hold of me and I immediately changed gears and instead of sending her tumbling down where she may have broken her neck, instead of that, I turned to my left away from where she was and I jammed my right elbow straight back into her thigh and sent her tumbling off the chair onto the floor (she grabbed another chair to stop herself from splattering all the way onto the floor). It felt good, too, I admit it and I expected it to, but the best part of it all for me was that when she landed and realized what happened? She immediately started using that big mouth of hers to cuss out her boyfriend, blaming him for being "******" and bumping into her and knocking her off the chair.
Then we all turned and walked away and out of the Garden onto 7th Ave, leaving her there, hopefully, to at least feel a little of the lingering effects of pain just like she tried to intentionally leave something not too nice with the warrior (Paulie) that just went through misery, in effect, for her enjoyment.
In my world fighters always get the last shot.
to your mom..
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