Boxers Deserve So Much Better When The Lights Go Out On Their Careers….
By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart
An opinion piece from the only Donald worth listening to…
Full Stop – In British English grammar a full stop is a lengthy pause, in the US, you call it a period. In the UK that tends to suggest feminine products. Here it means a period of time where I look at something in boxing in a little more depth. I am typing from my perspective of a fan who watches the sport closely. It’s an opinion. It is my opinion. Don’t like it? There are other opinions out there but if you don’t like it then good, debate and democracy are a good thing. If you do like it, feel free to spread the word.
Shame on Who…?
Another weekend of boxing leaves a few of the usual clichés out there – ridiculously scored cards, referee not intervening soon enough, mismatch in matchmaking, genuine title contender in shock result – we all get to see them and get to spout them. If these are not weekly events, then they are monthly records of what is seen.
It’s the one about the safety of the fighters that tends to gather some more attention than others – rightly so.
The cliché of the doughty and rugged person who is up in the early hours of each day, doing the miles, getting to the gym, boiling down in weight and making the grade is what we all want to see, hear about and read. The pressure on each and every fighter, over time, to turn their hard luck story into an inspirational one is heavy. It weighs heavily on their conscience but also on their daily routines. If you don’t hear the “training on Christmas day, means you train one more day than your opponent” exhortation to work harder, it shall be something else repeated over and over again until fight night and bright lights.
Even in small hall shows we want to see that dedication bring reward. We are there because Uncle X knows fighter Y or that person with the gloves on in the red/blue corner lives at the end of the street.
And then one day, the lights fade to zero, the training regime disappears, the vast numbers of ticket buyers point you out in the street as someone who at one point was/could have been/ never was “someone”.
And as the lights fade, the people disappear and memories begin to lack the luster of the present, you find yourself – where?
Lonely? Ill? Forgotten? Desperate?
Oh, not if you were someone who made the grade, got a title or ten and fought in huge shows against the best of your day. For you, there shall be opportunities to make appearances, be asked by radio/TV/newspapers for your opinions – on present day fighters or what it was like when an anniversary comes round.
And then you will go back into a box. A box which is comfortable for everybody else but one that is not so comfy for you.
An ex-fighter. Someone who was part of a multibillion $ industry who is now part of the media fodder because they are now showing signs of weakness – the way they lived their lives is now catching up on them. People who never followed you or laced a glove are now scoffing in queues or making comments on social media and without ever knowing your story, you are discarded once more.
Why?
Inconvenience? Embarrassment?
You know when a fighter is interviewed from yesteryear, and he slurs or his words don’t quite connect with their meaning? People dislike it.
The industry dislikes it. In the UK, ex-fighters have to run to others for help. Enter the Ringside Charitable Trust: a charity.
Not a fund into which promoters and millionaires who have benefitted have a direct debit or monthly contribution to give, but a charity. Dependent upon special nights, ironically under the selfsame lights, with the selfsame rings raising funds. Or the person who goes on a sponsored walk or with a sponsored charity event to raise cash for…
Supporting ex-boxers who have fallen on hard times.
This week in The Boxing News, they complained bitterly about how the sport should hang its head in shame due to the lack of support for former fighters – they are right. Until an ex-boxer’s fund is established that levies contributions at the highest level to allow people to leave the support at any level and know they shall be looked after, we should all hang our heads in shame. I read a book once which asked former fighters and fight fans what they thought about the idea. It’s still waiting for someone to set it up – that book is now over 20 years old. That idea is not past its sell by date but truly needs someone to champion it, set it up and make it happen…
Until then we should all hang our heads in shame…
Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By “Bad” Brad Berkwitt