Michael Watson - The Man ..The Legend!!!
London Marathon 2011: Michael Watson still showing his fighting spirit by helping Brain & Spine Foundation
In the 20 years since Michael Watson was torn apart in a boxing war with Chris Eubank, suffering horrific brain injuries which left him almost clinically dead, he has become one of the most admired figures in British sport.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...1_1807053b.jpg People's champion: Michael Watson was more than happy to be asked to be the non-running captain of the Telegraph's 2011 London Marathon team Photo: PAUL GROVER
As lucid as he has ever been since surgery, Watson told Telegraph Sport this week that “the fighting spirit has never left” him, because he refused to be seen as a loser.
There was not a scintilla of hesitation when Watson was asked, late in December, if he would reacquaint himself with the London Marathon as the non-running captain of the “Yes, I can, and with pleasure,” came Watson’s purred reply. “Anything to do with the 20-year anniversary? Why would I not want to do something to help people less fortunate than myself?” That mantra sums up the man from Hackney. And he means it.
Watson has always fought for a cause. Twenty years since that night in north London, when a scything upper cut from Eubank left him comatose on the ropes, in the 12th round, with severe brain injuries, and about to take on his greatest struggle.
He was near clinically dead. He endured six brain operations, 40 days in a coma, with no sign of a recovery. Silence was followed by talking, a wheelchair, then walking, and little by little, the man returned, deep in both mind and spirit.
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It is 12 years since Watson sued and defeated the British Boxing Board over negligence and, poignantly, eight years since he faced a battle greater than any in the ring — against his ravaged body, mind over matter — to complete the London Marathon in 2003.
One step at a time. It took six days, two hours, 27 minutes and 17 seconds, and in that time he captured the hearts and minds of the British public. Nine months before the feat, he could barely cross a room unaided.
On the streets older women poured their pensions into collection buckets, with drunks and a man living in a cardboard box on the Embankment all contributing as well.
Watson became, in his own words, “the people’s champion”. He was, and remains, an incredible man. Looking back on it, with a lucidity which belies his injuries, he said this week: “That marathon opened the floodgates for me. It made me feel alive, vibrant. It was electrifying.”
His stoicism in that marathon is a quality which many of this year’s runners understand. Many have lost loved ones through brain injuries.
Watson was one of the lucky ones. “The most important thing I’ve shown over the last 20 years is that I’m not a loser, that I still have the fighter’s spirit,” he explained.
Watson is 46, and at times his utterances resemble a guide book on ‘The Zen of Living’. At other times, he proselytizes from a spirit world seemingly all of his own.
“People see me on the street and they call me a champion, the people’s champion, on a daily basis. It’s a test of faith, the power of the spirit, who dares must win.”
Watson told the team: “Dare to believe in yourselves; where there’s a will there’s a way. Boxing made me disciplined, gave me values it made me real, it turned me into a man, gave me self value, self-worth.
“I still have a fighting instinct. Never forget your strengths, and that every step you make on the marathon will help other lives.”
Watson’s journey was inspiring for this year’s Telegraph marathon team to hear. So, too, for consultant neurosurgeon Peter Hamlyn, who operated on Watson, and who founded the Brain and Spine Foundation.
“I think back to those first days, and the milestone moments. The first eight months were so depressing. He couldn’t hear, couldn’t speak, couldn’t walk. Slowly, he clawed it all back. So extraordinary,” says Hamlyn.
“Then he completes the marathon in 2003. I felt he wouldn’t walk again. Michael really is a medical miracle, and on a personal level he has done more for me than I could ever have done for him.
"You have to be a pretty tall man to be in Michael’s shoes and say you are doing something — like the marathon — for people less fortunate than yourself.”
And so to boxing. “I don’t miss boxing one bit,” Watson said. “I have no malice towards it, nor any towards Chris Eubank. I don’t really watch boxing very much now. It’s gone downhill. They are fighting for their wallets, not their hearts.
“Everything happens for a reason,” added the Telegraph team captain. “It’s been a long, hard struggle, but what happened to me just made me a better person within.”
When Watson speaks, there is nary a dry eye in the house. As it will be on the day of marathon, a time when thousands will reflect and remember spirits lost.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oth...oundation.html
Re: Michael Watson - The Man ..The Legend!!!
He really is an amazing man!!!
Makes me proud reading that. :cool:
Re: Michael Watson - The Man ..The Legend!!!
i cant believe its 20 years ago
Re: Michael Watson - The Man ..The Legend!!!
I know mate... He was robbed in the first fight and really should never have had the 2nd..
It is 12 years since Watson sued and defeated the British Boxing Board over negligence and, poignantly, eight years since he faced a battle greater than any in the ring — against his ravaged body, mind over matter — to complete the London Marathon in 2003.
One step at a time. It took six days, two hours, 27 minutes and 17 seconds,
:appl:
Re: Michael Watson - The Man ..The Legend!!!
He is a man that should inspire any person.
Re: Michael Watson - The Man ..The Legend!!!
A mad night twenty years ago, one minute jumping round the pub in elation, then suddenly realizing we were watching a tragedy unfold before our eyes, amazing fight in the ring and a man left almost for dead emotions all over the place. Micheal Watson a total hero what he has done since is humbling.
Re: Michael Watson - The Man ..The Legend!!!
Re: Michael Watson - The Man ..The Legend!!!
Watson was world class that night, unstoppable and even had Eubanks legitimately down which is an incredible feat. Eubanks landed a shot in a million.
