16.05.05 – By James Allan: Sometimes boxing can anger and frustrate me in a way that no other sport on earth can. Dodgy judging decisions, meaningless title fights, pay per view and great match-up’s that never come off, are all reasons as to why I occasionally feel like giving up on the damn thing. But then I sit down and see a fight that suddenly lifts me out of my gloom and I can’t stop talking about how great boxing is.. This weekend I had the pleasure of watching two, not one, but two match-up’s that showcased everything that is good about boxing. The first was an all out war between two fighters that were not prepared to take a step backwards, but who were prepared to leave their heart’s, bodies and soul’s in the ring in order to achieve victory. The other was an almost perfect exhibition of boxing, delivered by a much avoided fighter to a modern great, that made you understand why boxing is sometimes called the sweet science.
The first fight was of course Castillo v Corrales; the second was Wright v Trinidad.
You will be hard pressed to see a better fight this year than Castillo v Corrales. It was the kind of fight that gives ammunition to those who are for and those who are against boxing. For those who are against the sport it highlights just how punishing and how brutal the fight game can be. Watching an interview with Corrales one week after the fight, I couldn’t help but notice that he still looked completely exhausted. Asked how he felt one week on, his answer summed up exactly how intense the fight was, “ow” was all he said. It was the kind of fight that takes years off a boxers ring life. For those who love the sport, it had everything that you hope to see in a match-up. It swayed one way and then the other, both fighters looked as though they might have been knocked out in earlier rounds only to be either saved by the bell or to cling on desperately until the end of the round. That Corrales managed to come of the floor twice in that fantastic tenth round to stop Castillo, means that he, no they, have now written their names into boxing immortality.
The Wright v Trinidad fight, while less intense was no less fascinating. It was fascinating, as it allowed people to see another though no less respected side of the sport. Wright put on an almost faultless display against a man who was quite rightly regarded as one of the best fighters of the last twenty years. Trinidad could do nothing against an opponent who utilised the most important though sometimes the most neglected punch in boxing, the jab. Wright’s jab was phenomenal. It wasn’t just there to annoy Trinidad; it was there to break up every offensive manoeuvre that Trinidad attempted. It was banged into his face again and again, jerking his head back every time it landed cleanly. Sometimes Wright would follow it up with a straight left and when these two punches landed you would have thought that Wright not Trinidad was the knockout artist.
While you marvelled at the display of boxing that Wright put on, you also found yourself gaining increased respect for Trinidad. He could have taken it easy on himself and retired on his stool in the later rounds of the fight. It must have been as obvious to him as it was to everybody else, that he could have fought twenty rounds with Wright and that he still wouldn’t be able to win one of them. But such is Tito’s heart and pride that he refused to do this. He still came out in every round looking to make things as difficult as possible for Wright, looking for that one opportunity that was never going to come, to knock him out and save the fight.
These two fights and these four fighters highlighted everything that draws me to the sport. The thing that should always be remembered about professional boxing is that those who participate in it do so of their own free will. No one forces them to put on a pair of gloves and face up to their opponent. They do it because they love it, because they can test themselves in a way that it is almost impossible to do in any other sport, putting their skills, their strength, their courage and their will up against another man and finding out who is the superior boxer. This holds true no matter how successful a fighter’s career becomes.
The higher up the ladder they go the more money they will earn and the more adulation they will receive, but ultimately these are not the reasons that the vast majority of professional boxers get involved in the sport. They are the targets that many work towards and all hope to reach, but as we all know only a tiny percentage of fighters reach this status. If Corrales and Castillo had been fighting against each other on the under card of a local show for a share of £500 instead of the WBC/WBO lightweight titles of the world, they would still have put in the same amount of effort, they would still have shown the same will to win and they would still have pushed themselves to the same limits they did over a week ago. It is in man’s nature to test himself, whether it be climbing the highest mountain or diving to the deepest depths, man will always look to challenge himself.
Boxing allows a man to challenge himself. Those who call for the banning of the sport miss this point completely. Leaving aside the simple truth that if the sport were banned that it would only go underground and would survive in an arena where there were no medical precautions or legislation to ensure that those who take part are fit to do so, many men will always be drawn to the thrill of the prize ring and many people, probably myself included, will be prepared to pay to watch them. Boxers are often looked upon by those who wish to ban the sport as nothing but pawns, weak brained pieces of meat to be pushed around and sacrificed by greedy promoters when the time is right, but nothing could be further from the truth. They are in many cases some of the most literate, serene and gentle people imaginable outside of their chosen profession.
To those who call for the banning of the sport not only are they devaluing the boxers as they assume they are incapable of making choices for themselves, they are also devaluing themselves, as they are assuming they have right to decide what activities a man can or cannot participate in. I can’t hope and don’t intend to try to persuade the people who would like to ban the sport as to its merits, but when I watched the footage of Corrales going up to Castillo, who is being looked over by doctors ensuring that he is ok, while Corrales tells him through his interpreter that he will always have his respect and as the audience is still standing and applauding in admiration of two fantastic athletes who have given their all, why boxing is still, for me, the best sport, despite it’s problems, in the world.