“By an act of will, a man refuses to think of the reasons for fear, and so concentrates entirely on winning the battle.”
Richard Nixon, American politician, 1913-1994,
It has become a forgotten truth that fighters don’t always lose when they lose. Learning lessons in defeat can prove more valuable than the apparent affirmation of victory; punishing the lazy, or the arrogant and affording perspective to those willing to listen to the truths defeats present, losing can be a gift.
A fighter beaten can still return stronger and better for the setback. In the past fighters accepted this and as a result, at least in part, they fought more often because the worry of defeat wasn’t as troublesome as it has become in era when being unbeaten was the preeminent narrative.
Daniel Dubois became a refreshing example of the value of fighting tough opponents and the catharsis of defeat. Against the cocky Croatian Filip Hrgovic on Saturday, in the midst of the latest lurid carnival of lost integrity from Saudi Arabia, he fully delivered on his physical gifts, years of hard work and the humility required to learn from defeat once considered a crippling weakness.
Conversely, Hrgovic finally paid the price for a relaxed outlook which this week appears to have mutated into hubris.
Continue reading “Meek and Destroy. Dubois finds his inner badass”
In the immediate aftermath of Showtime’s exciting announcement of the Super Six tournament to be held at 168 pounds over the next two years, I asked readers to predict who they felt would emerge from the groundbreaking series as champion. As you might anticipate the outsiders, Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell only landed 2% of the votes cast but it was Danish hard-man Mikkel Kessler who fans felt most likely to prevail. 60% of the votes went to Kessler with Froch (21%), Abraham (9%) and Taylor (8%) trailing someway behind. 
Bobby Gunn is a curious phenomenon. No other fighter, whether christened Floyd, Bernard or Oscar has engendered the type of readership and commentary that articles about the Celtic Warrior have. I suppose that might say as much about the sporadic readership of this gloomy corner of the blogosphere as any significance Gunn actually holds for boxing fans at large but it forces me to ensure his doubtless plucky lunge at Tomasz Adamek, the number one Cruiserweight in the world, doesn’t pass with out some message of good luck. 
Since the disappointment of David Haye’s withdrawal from this year’s biggest heavyweight title fight and a potential record breaking event to boot it has been widely assumed Ruslan Chagaev would prove to be the natural replacement for the former Cruiserweight king. Similarly shorter than Wladimir, with a reliance on speed and movement the WBA champion is a far more obvious replacement, physically at least, than Nikolay Valuev, the near 7ft Russian who offers a polar opposite opponent than the one the younger Klitschko has spent many weeks preparing for. Bu this thesis overlooks one obvious factor, the 6ft Uzbekistan fighter is a left-hander. 
Regular visitors will be accustomed to the acerbic analysis of Andrew Mullinder, our resident correspondent in Moscow. I’m sure Andrew has all the usual creature comforts we enjoy in the West but I prefer to adapt the usual visual triggers employed by third rate cold war thrillers to conjure an image of Andrew huddled over an ageing type writer, all fingerless gloves, one bar fires and cheap vodka, manically venting on the issues of the day from his down trodden apartment block in some mafia run ghetto. Why? Well it just makes sense of his withering contributions, and the latest, a deconstruction of the most artificially created ring moniker in boxing must have come after a slurp or two of the strong stuff. 
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