Who quits because of a cut BELOW the eye? What?s next, mussed hair? Of course, that wouldn?t apply to the follicularly challenged Collazo?
??Lo es una verg?enza!??Spanish for ?What a disgrace!?
June 26, 1976. A date which will live in infamy. The date on which Muhammad Ali faced Japanese pro wrestler Antonio Inoki. The agonizing embarrassment I?d felt as a to-the-bone boxing fan at that Barnumian bacchanal had faded to a dull ache over the past 39 years. Until last night. With all its sting, it came back last night.
July 11, 2015. Another date of infamy.
It was on that date that 34-year-old Luis Collazo (36-7, 19 KOs), of proud Puerto Rican heritage and a tough New Yorker, challenged undefeated Keith Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) for his WBA World welterweight title at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida.
Though a solid fighter, few gave the faded former titlist much of a chance. But in the fifth round he almost pulled off what surely would have been a candidate for Upset of the Year, landing a left hook to the body that folded Thurman like a cartoon accordion.
But there was an accidental headbutt in the sixth, resulting in a cut below Collazo?s right eye, and it all went to pieces like Ingrid Bergman?s letter to Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca went to pieces. It went to pieces in the rain, and Bogie wadded it up and threw it away. He was the ?guy standing on a station platform in the rain with a comical look on his face because his insides had been kicked out.?
Between the seventh and eighth rounds Collazo had his insides kicked out. Or so it seemed. Referee Telis Assimenios asked him if he wanted to continue. ?I can?t see,? he said. ?I can?t fight.?
?I won?t fight? is what he meant.
What a contrast with so many of his brethren. A couple of years ago, RingTV.com?s Lee Groves wrote an article on boxers who fought and won despite debilitating injuries and agonizing pain. The story that made the deepest impression, at least on me, was Gene Fullmer?s 15-rounder with Florentino Fernandez at Ogden Stadium in Odgen, Utah, on August 5, 1961. At stake, Fullmer?s NBA World middleweight title.
?Though Fullmer engaged in multiple wars with Sugar Ray Robinson, Carmen Basilio and Dick Tiger,? writes Groves, ?as well as singular battles with Gil Turner, Rocky Castellani and Joey Giardello, he would call his lone encounter with Fernandez the toughest fight he ever endured.?
Although ahead on the cards, it was toward the end of the 12th that ?Fullmer felt a tell-tale snap in his left elbow and the effects were unmistakable,? continues Groves. ??The pain made me sick to my stomach,? Fullmer said in a story by Boxing.com?s Mike Casey. ?The pain from my elbow was going through my whole body and it seemed to settle in the nerve center of my stomach. I was worried, real worried. How was I going to get through the next three rounds with only one arm? Would I be able to stand the pain? Would I empty my stomach right in the center of the ring??
?Fortunately for Fullmer?and everyone else?that didn?t happen. Instead Fullmer burrowed inside and winged clubbing right hands with all his might while using the left just often enough to keep Fernandez honest. The jabs and hooks awkwardly flailed through the air and, as Fullmer feared, Fernandez launched a furious attack during the first half of the 14th that drove the defending titlist in an unfamiliar direction?backward. But Fullmer dug deep, weathered the storm and produced his own rally in the round?s second half to snuff out the challenger?s rally. That surge may well have saved Fullmer?s title, for the pair fought evenly in the final three minutes and Fullmer retained his title by split decision.
??Never once during the panic that ran through my mind did I think of quitting,? Fullmer said. ?I had every excuse in the world to call it quits in my corner at the end of the 12th. Nobody would have called a guy with a broken elbow a quitter. Certainly I would have had another chance at Fernandez, even if I quit right there. But, like I say, it never even came to my mind.??
It never even came to his mind.
As Mike Casey writes in ?When Gene Fullmer Gave Pain the Elbow,? the article referenced by Groves, ?Some boxers raise the white flag, but they are a tiny minority. Most are natural born warriors at heart who regard it as their sacred duty to hear the final bell, whatever their pain and whatever the result.?
Granted, sometimes it makes all the sense in the world for a guy to quit on his stool, but that sure as hell wasn?t the case last night. No shame in losing, but a noisome abundance of it in quitting without sufficient cause. Let?s face it, without any cause at all. After all, this is boxing. Who quits because of a cut below the eye? What?s next, mussed hair? Of course, that wouldn?t apply to the follicularly challenged Collazo, which I guess explains why he went with the boo-boo.
