For those who have been avid fans of Kostya Tszyu, the seeing him fail to answer the bell for the last round of a close fight with Ricky Hatton would have been unbelievable or bizarre. Worse, it appeared that he was leading at the time he quit. Indeed, for one who has seen how durable, ferocious and strong this Russian fought all of his fights, one would say that quitting is never in the Russian vocabulary.
Yet, history will tell us that many of the great and strong fighters had failed to answer the bell and decided not to continue fighting. We have the great Joe Frazier against Muhammad Ali in the Thrilla in Manila, Duran in the “No Mas” legendary fight against Sugar Ray Leonard, and many more, the last of which is Tszyu in the Hatton fight.
Quitting in a fight may seem to be an indication of a lack of heart. Truly, there are fighters who lacked the heart. But there are those, like the ones I mentioned that have so much heart that they would have to be made to stop fighting to save their lives. Yet, some ignorant boxing fans would equate and lump all of them to the category of boxers who had exemplified cowardice in the face of imminent defeat and torture at the hands of their respective opponents.
For the informed boxing aficionado, there is an ocean of a difference between the fighter who stopped fighting because he lacked the heart and those who stopped fighting because he needed to.
Boxing is a brutal and savage sport. For this reason, it must be properly supervised and regulated. An oversight and negligence may prove to be fatal and may cause the loss of precious life of a boxer. The boxer must always be at the peak of his physical condition.
While I had always known the savagery of this sport, I had never fully appreciated the full extent of the punishment that a boxer endures in a fight until recent weeks that I had been sick to the point it rendered me dehydrated. I cannot help, but compare my weak physical condition with those boxers who deliberately refused food or water just to make the weight a day before the fight. I remembered very vividly how, in his second defeat, Manny Pacquiao would have to fight in an emaciated and dehydrated condition because he needed to make the weight, which he, nevertheless, failed. It came to my mind how stupid it was for Rod Nazario to allow Pacquiao to continue to fight (he has lost his belt a day before anyway) in such weak and vulnerable condition. Pacquiao, at that time, could not sweat nor cry a tear anymore because of dehydration. That condition was worse than the dehydration I suffered yet there I was unable to get up while Pacquiao still managed to fight and endure those body blows from a strong and well-conditioned Thai fighter. In hindsight, I was thinking that Rod Nazario had simply made Pacquiao almost commit suicide. An irreparable damage could have been inflicted on Pacquiao at that time. Fortunately, Pacquiao was able to prevent further injury to himself. He would have died there.
The punishing blows can really kill a man with good conditioning. Much more if a boxer is not on a top physical shape. And yet, Nazario would have nothing of Pacquiao’s condition and proceeded to have the fight for monetary reasons. At that early in Pacquiao’s career, that fight alone would have spoken volumes about Nazario’s priority as a manager.
Hence, when Tszyu decided to call it a night, I understood perfectly that it was not because of his lack of heart. He has so much of it as he has fought so many great battles and bore the punishments willingly in that no retreat stance. There must be a stop at any point somehow least one would want to die right there in the ring. The mind may be willing, but the body may be at the verge of collapsing. And Tszyu had it in Hatton’s fight.
With all of these things swirling in my mind, I felt all the more spiteful of the promoters and managers who exploited their boxers in the name of money.
Surely, there is a noble reason why the boxer should receive more than anybody else. It is his life on the line. Money can be earned at anytime, but life can be lost forever. Thus, it is not only illegal, but utterly immoral for a promoter or a manager to simply look at a boxer as an opportunity to earn quick bucks. That once the money is received, no one cares for the boxer. It is like money tainted with blood.
In the Pacquiao-Murad saga, the court must realize that the boxer will have a lot more to lose if a fraudulent promoter or manager will be given the right to compel a boxer to continue with an inequitable relationship fraught with deceit and exploitation. If Murad has any claim on future Pacquiao fights, that claim can be easily resolved by putting the money in an escrow account without having to enjoin Pacquiao from fighting. It must be a primordial concern by the court that Murad, as a promoter, has his other fighters from whom he can generate revenues while Pacquiao or any fighter in that regard, will have only, but his fists and body to earn a living.
It will be great injustice and a shame on a judicial system if the consideration would have been the contrary for it would only mean that the court itself will put the promoter’s money over a boxer’s life and the future of his family. Luckily, the American justice system has been founded on the principles of justice, fairness and equity. Dark as the journey may seem, Pacquiao can still somehow see the light at the end of the tunnel.
