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History repeats itself. Don’t let it repeat on you….
I was at the video store the other day in the section where they keep the movies that almost no one ever rents (sometimes you find an oldie you’ve been looking for). I came across a movie named “Champion”, a foreign film about the late Korean fighter, Deuk Koo Kim. It Then occurred to me what was bothering me lately about boxing.. Joe Mesi. Now, for the last two years, Joe had been trying to get the decision levied by the Nevada State Athletic Commission overturned. The governing body had stripped him of his license due to bleeding on the brain discovered after his bout with Vassily Jirov. I gave the story little mind at the time because I never expected to hear anything new about it. Then I watch the news last week an lo and behold, the ruling had been overturned and he is now allowed to apply for a license. This put a bad taste in my mouth for obvious reasons. One, because of the damage that I forsee happening. Two, I thought the NSAC had done something very smart and it angers me that a judge who has no real bearing on the damage that boxing can cause decides rights are more important than safety. Three ,I thought Mesi and his camp would eventually wise up and forget this foolishness.
Fighters never cease to amaze me as they do some of the most off the wall things and some of the most amazing. For example, Zab Judah’s attack on Jay Nady after the stoppage in his fight with Kostya Tszyu. Did Zab think that beating up Nady would overturn the decision and the fight would continue? How about Hector Camacho Sr. and his career long tribute to the Village People every time he made a ring entrance? Or, on a more serious note, the fact that George Foreman was able to regain the heavyweight championship after years away from the ring and being in his forties when knocking out a prime Michael Moorer? Don’t forget Bernard Hopkins being a top rate pound for pound fighter and champion with an unprecedented amount of title defenses over an eleven year reign until the age of forty. The one thing that has always amazed me the most about fighters is the fact they don’t know when to quit.
Many guys have ended stellar careers on the losing end of things with irreversible damage because they don’t know enough to walk away. Evander Holyfield had to be stripped of his license after horrible ring performances and slurred speech. Terry Norris, another great fighter who stayed too long, is now laden with the mental and physical effects of one too many punches. Meldrick Taylor, a fighter I wrote of in another article, was barely understandable when he retired.
All of these fighters are still young men. Holyfield is just in his forties and he has a lifetime ahead of him. A lifetime of being a punchy ex-fighter. Something that could of been avoided had he or his camp made the decision for themselves when the decision should have been made. These guys must live day in and day out with the headaches, slurred speech, forgetfulness and more, every day until they die. There is no going back. All the glory they achieved in the ring cannot compensate for that.
I think about Jerry Quarry, his last days spent in a wheelchair. A man who was found urinating on himself with fluid leaking out of his ear, unable to even form a sentence. Why? Too many hits to the head!
It’s bad enough that we have accidents that happen in the ring. Healthy fighters who just got hit at the wrong second. Guys who took one shot too many, from damage caused during a bout. Accidents like this cannot be helped and they can happen to anyone. An amateur fighter recently suffered a fate like this. A young lady in perfect health was hit the wrong way and it cost her her life. Worse yet, you could end up like Gerald McClellan, the man I consider boxing’s most horrible tragedy in boxing history. Stuck in the dark, day in and day out, with delusions and panic attacks. He screams out about things that he has no idea aren’t real. His sister does everything for him from bathing to changing him. He suffers a fate worse than death. A fate that can make even the coldest person shudder at the thought of it happening to them.
The ego and psyche of boxers are fragile. Pride can make you do foolish things. Every fighter thinks that they have one last good fight in them. Hell, men in general have this attitude about anything. My Uncle Lou one year went shopping for his own clothes. After twenty years of my Aunt doing all his clothes shopping, he decides to go on his own and buy some pants. Uncle Lou, being a man, refused to think about the fact that he does not take the same size he did the last time that he bought his own clothes. So, after coming home with four pairs of trousers six sizes too small, Uncle Lou found out the hard way that he isn’t the young slim hard body that he thought he was. Now I know that’s just a stupid story about an old man and his foolish pride, but the lesson to be learned there is that Uncle Lou only had a lesson in ego. A lesson that is not permanent. A lesson that won’t destroy his life and the lives of those around him.
Now, we have commissions to protect fighters. We have committees to decide to license or not license fighters. There are doctors to tell us if the fighters are healthy. The problem is that these organizations and individuals don’t always do this. Things are overlooked and things are missed. For the sake of paydays, sometimes the best interest of the fighter at hand is unfortunately not a priority. When this happens, you like to think that family and friends are there. This too is not always so, but in certain situations none of this matters in situations like this as there is a gift.
Joe Mesi has been told that he has had bleeding on the brain. He has been warned. He knows the risk and for some reason he wishes to continue to fight. I have to wonder if Joe has ever been around a fighter who has suffered from ring damage. How many punchy fighters has Joe been around on a regular basis? I have to wonder if Joe realizes that damage to the brain is not a broken bone or pulled muscle. With damage to the body you can always have rehabilitation. You can still live a normal everyday life after the loss of use of one part of the body. You cannot have a normal life after loss of brain use or damage to the brain. I don’t know if Joe Mesi realizes that the brain is what runs everything else. Without it working properly, everything else is just secondary. Maybe he does know all of this and chooses to ignore it? I don’t know but I still have to wonder.
Joe Mesi, you are a thirty two year old man who seems reasonably smart. You have a good family. You seem to know more than just boxing, so why is it that you choose to go back and box? You can do anything you want. If you want to stay around the game that bad, open a gym. Become a trainer, A commentator, Share your knowledge of the sport with another young fighter and help him become one of tomorrow’s champions. Try traveling. Anything but boxing
I am not a fan of yours Joe, nor a detractor. I don’t expect you to listen to a word I say. I am not sitting here believing that no one else has told you these things. I am just hoping that you have thought all of this out. I hope that you have done all the research there is to do. I hope that you have met the fighters who have suffered the effects of too many ring wars. I hope that you have talked to the families of the fighters who have died in the ring. I hope that you asked your family if they mind caring for you every minute of the day if things go wrong. I hope that you are aware of the damage and pain it will cause your family if things end up in the extreme.
I wish you all the luck in the world. I sit here and hope for your sake that none of these things happen to you. I hope that the doctors are right and that you are as good as new. I hope that you continue with your career right where you left off. I also hope that I don’t stand in a video store one day and come across a film about you and the tragedy that you suffered in the ring. You have been given a gift, a look into the future if you will. All the fighters that I mentioned and hundreds more wish they had the warning you did. I am sure that they would have made a different choice. I wish most of all that you would sit down and watch the movie “Champion” then watch the Deuk Koo Kim – Ray Mancini fight and change your mind once you see for yourself what the future may hold. But for some reason, I don’t think it will.
