Boxing

Personal story, this is long. If it’s TLDR fine just plz be respectful. This isn’t easy for me to share, I want to know if anyone else has had an experience similar to mine…

I’m 39 y/o. My first memories of watching boxing were the 90’s Tyson fights, and other HW’s. I vividly remember my dad (big sports fan, hardly a boxing fan) telling my mom and I on a Sunday morning when I was 5 y/o that Tyson had been KO’d in Japan. It was a Big. Fkn. Deal. Can’t overstate what a BFD this was.

Time passed, I watched “ESPN Friday Night Fights”, some “HBO BAD”, but didn’t have friends or fam more interested than me so I was “a casual”. My interest in the sport grew in my late teens-early 20’s (2003-2011) when I had my own place, my own cable bill, and I began either hosting ppl to watch/chip in for Kelly Pavlik, Floyd, or Manny PPV’s, or rounding everyone up to go to a bar for PPV’s. Both Floyd and Manny’s KO’s of Hatton we watched at raucous bars in PHX, outstanding atmospheres. Even non-boxing-fan friends we dragged along were energized by the excitement of the events.

Then 2011 my personal life hit a rough patch, I lost just about everything (including my freedom for a short time) and everyone I loved or cared about. I’ll admit, I was in so much pain emotionally and so depressed, I had the darkest of thoughts. I lost interest in sports, work, exercise. I didn’t care if I lived or died.

Then I ended up living w/ someone that had HBO…

Out of boredom and coincidence, I started watching boxing, religiously. Every televised fight, and most importantly every little feature HBO & Showtime did in their promotional shoulder programming, i.e.- “24/7”, “All Access”, “2 Days”, “Legendary Nights”, “ON: Freddie Roach”. Watching the back stories of the fighters, their struggles (which dwarfed mine), their hardships, coming from places completely void of opportunity yet they MADE their opportunities using nothing but their mfkn fists… God damn it STILL fires me up!!

I began exercising again, HARD. I began working again, HARD. My perspective began to shift. I started telling myself I’d been knocked down, not out. Instead of dwelling over what I’d lost, I started asking myself how I could make the most of what I still have? When it hurt I thought of Manny, Eric Morales, Provodnikov, Golovkin. How desperately they wanted to get to the US (where I’m from), how hard they fought to get here, then stay here…

I’m still not where I want to be, but I’ve made immense strides. I got primary custody of my 2 kids. My oldest is now a D1 athlete. My youngest is tracking incredibly well too. I truly feel boxing (just as a fan) was the inspiration for the turning point in my life. I have begun giving back to the sport as I am filled w/ gratitude. Yet boxing is more than a sport to me. The fighters and their stories, they are so fkn powerful. Idk if I’d still be here without boxing, without the fighters, thus without the inspiration I’ve drawn from them.

❤️🥊