Actions Outside Ring Influence U?

[Slip Stream]

Eyes On the Prize

How many of you guys base your liking of a fighter on boxing talent alone? and how many of you care about how they act when they are not training or fighting?

Most of the time i try to just enjoy how a fighter performs in the ring and not let how they act outside of the gym or ring influence me.

It is sometimes hard when the person is comical or entertaining.
(paulie #TK) I think he seems like a friendly guy, but im not his biggest boxing fan....it's just almost impossible not to like him

There are others that I CANNOT stand, but love to watch them fight...so i dont let it weigh in on my opinion.

thoughts?

I try to look at fighters objectively, because if I do have some sort of personal bias against someone it's going to affect how I perceive their performance in the ring. I wasn't ever drawn to the sport because of what a fighter did outside of the ring, for me, it was the brutal artistry they were able to accomplish in the ring. I think some fans lose perspective with their commentary here, because you'd think they knew some of these fighters personally or had some sort of stake in their life and or career. It's actually kind of bizarre. I'm sure the sports world is filled all kinds of undesirables but they achieve fame and fortune because they can entertain us and capture our collective imagination.

When I go see a Tom Cruise movie, I'm going to see if he can entertain me on the big screen. I have no caring if he danced on Oprah's couch, is into Scientology, or if he enjoyed **** with Katie Holmes. These are not things that are pertinent to my existence nor will they ever be, I don't know the man.

Do I care what Manny Pacquiao does outside the ring, hell no, why should I? Caring about whether Manny cheats on his wife is as moronic as me caring about what the posters on this site do in the privacy of their own homes. His actions don't have any baring on whether I'll pay my bills, or if I love my kids, or if I'm a good friend to the people around me. I realize for the sake of argument I could take the moral high ground and say Manny's a terrible husband, but heck, I cheated on my wife too and it felt pretty good.

Truth is, I wouldn't want anyone looking at my life and making an assessment of me when they don't know me personally, that would be a bit unnerving. People are free to not like whomever they want but when a shallow personal assessment precludes one from rational discourse about a given fighter, I think there may be a deeper problem....

[mathed]

You can only get so far on natural talent alone, there will/should come a fight in which the guy has met his match talent-wise and he will have to rely on heart, will, perseverance to get the win. These characteristics are developed by one's life journey and circumstances outside the ring.

When people have things given to them all the time, they lose touch with what it means to come from the bottom and fight your way to the top. When that time comes and they have no physical advantages over a hungrier fighter, the heart and will are the only things that separate the two and the guy who has more fire inside of him is going to win the battle.