“Knowing Christ is the best thing that has ever happened to me, although winning the US Open was a pretty good second.”
Dog Rounds
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(Death and life in the boxing ring), Elliot Worsell, London, Blink, 2017. ISBN 978-1-911274-79-7
Boxing “is few domains in which a human being can legally kill another human being”.Elliot Worsell interviews boxers who have killed – or seriously injured - an opponent in the ring. He finds in almost all cases that the boxer is not the same again. The boxer fears a repeat occurrence and holds back in the ring.
It is a repcurring theme that boxing is business not hatred. One boxer is quoted, “I want to hurt my opponent but just for 10 seconds”.
The guilt is shared when tragedy occurs. The victor is only doing his job but inevitably feels guilt. At the same time the referee is blamed for not stopping the fight earlier. The defeated boxer’s corner is blamed for not conceding the fight before the fatal blows.
In 1982 Ray Mancini’s opponent, Duk Koo Kim, died. Mancini is quoted: “My Christian faith is the only thing that carried me through. If not I might taken the bridge put the gun in my mouth, drank the bottle, taken the pills. If you’re weak-minded, that’s what happens. But, because of my faith and my mental strength, I was able to get through it”.
He adds: “A friend of mine said: ‘Raymond why did all these things happen to you?’ I said, ‘Why not me? Why should I be exempt? What makes me so damn special?’ I’m a firm believer that the good Lord puts things in our life to grow our faith and to develop us as people and to get stronger. I’ve dealt with things in my life and it has only made me lean on Him more. In that respect, I appreciate everything in my life. The good and the bad. I don’t always think, why did it happen? The things I’ve gone through have helped me become the man I am today”.
Another boxer who saw an opponent die, James Crayton, said: “‘God gave me that right hand. It’s natural. It’s my greatest possession”.
Barry McGuigan is presented as the exception, a boxer who survived the trauma. Yet McGuigan is quoted: “How could I not feel it? Here I was, a popular young boxer, someone who people admired and I’d killed someone. I think about the kid all the time. I think about how things could have been different. And I still pray for him as often as I can”.
This is an interesting section where Chris Eubank describes his attitude to boxing in religious terms: “The most powerful way to describe how boxing is to me is to think of yourself as a fundamental Christian or someone is deeply religious. ‘That’s how I position myself within the gymnasium. The gymnasium, for me, was like my church. I was devout. I went there and I worshipped. I didn’t socialize. I didn’t talk to people who went there. I didn’t want to hear anything but leather on flesh. The art. The life. I wanted to get to the pearly gates and I got there. Because I was devout. Because I was obsessed”.
An excellent book which gives a clear insight into the brutality of the sport and the effect it has on people.