I shouldn't have been so naive. Boxing is a great sport. Some don't consider it a sport at all, some consider it legal self defense, or a fight with gloves on. Obviously, boxers are punks. All they want to do is get in the ring and pugilize each other.
But I see it as more than just punching. It is a lifestyle of not conforming, not caring about success, and not wanting to fit in. Boxers are rebels. They tend to be less intelligent people from the lower echelons of society who just want to express their frustration.
There is good and bad in every flock. I've met boxers who where poets with sensitive hearts and I've met poets who can't fight for shit. It takes all kinds. Boxing is a great sport. I want to get back into being a boxing fan and forget about wrestling, judo, and all the sports.
Less than 5% of the human population can really box. Of that group, less than 5% make it to the top level. People like Pacquiao, Alvarez, Mayweather, Ruiz, Joshua, Golovkin, Lomochenko, Wilder, and even that clown Fury are the top of the top of the top. It is extremely competitive and brutal. If you are an international name in boxing, you are exceptionally tough and fit. Wrestlers are high dominance males, boxers are super dominant males.
So besides music and cooking and my judo/aikido practice, I will start watching some boxing on the internet. It is fun. It is not so much the anger or aggression I like, but the expression of masculinity and will and the feelings I had that I wasted my athletic potential. I had a great jab. I could have been at least a competitive amateur in my youth. But I decided to take up judo instead.
Judo is physical education. The point of Judo is to make you mentally tough. You get used to winning and losing and it prepares you for life. In life, you win some and you lose some. If you have a strong spirit, you never get discouraged by loss and you never celebrate when you win. Judo players are winners.
But boxing is an exaggeration of masculine behavior and it is not as easy as it appears on television. The average man versus the average boxer might get killed in the ring. A boxer has to do pushups, run, eat the low carb diet, stretch, do situps, and spar and hit the heavy bag. Most men can't take a punch. They have no real ability to fight, no matter what they look like or what they say. Don't be dissuaded by looks, size, appearance, or words.
I don't regret anything I did in life. It happened for a reason. But now that I am middle aged, I can look back on the good and the bad. Boxing was an important experience in my life. It is a great sport. I actually want to use YouTube to look at the top level guys and what they are doing. There are B+ boxers, there are A boxers, and there are A+ boxers. And then there is Ali and Tyson, whose names are almost synonymous with the sport.
I found out that the Christian bible is right. Suffering is grace. Poor, downtrodden, simple people are better than rich, haughty, powerful, and conceited people. More than 2/3 of the American populace are not rich. They are working poor, disabled, on welfare, or retirement benefits. One third are middle class, upper class, or the 1% who are all evil men. But even the poor in America are like the rich in other countries. So count your blessings. Most Americans biggest dilemma is how to budget themselves. In places like South America and Africa and Russia, people fight for food. We have it easy.
So boxing is a metaphor. Fair is Fair. In this type of sport, it is all about who is better not who is more sneaky or has more strategy. If you don't have speed, power, timing, and reflexes, you are not going to make it as a pugilist. So I see it as a morality play not a fight between to uneducated retards.
I am a fan of boxing and I find full length wrestling, judo, and MMA bouts to be rather boring. But that is just me.
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