FORGET THAT ZERO

By Robert Aguilar

What posses a man to enter an eighteen foot by eighteen foot space to face off another man in a physical and mental battle? Since the early days of mankind there is evidence that by nature humans are competitive. Let’s take for instance ancient Greece, where the Olympics were invented. Athletes of that era competed for glory, status and the love of the sport; there were no million dollar contracts, just a crown of olive leaves for the winner and perhaps bragging rights. Times have changed and you would insult an athlete today if all you offered as a prize was a crown of olive leaves. I am all for athletes and in these case fighters to earn as much money as possible, after all they put so much on the line for our entertainment.

It can be said that the fans and the money they spend on at­tending and purchasing pay per view events pay for the salaries of the fighters and promoters. It is for that very same reason that fighters and promoters have an obligation to their fans. I find it ridiculous that fighters pick and chose to fight specific fighters they know they can beat. The most recent perfect example of this was Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Rafael Marquez. Lopez is twenty seven years old while Marquez is a thirty five year old who is at the end of his long career. I do not want to take anything away from Lopez he is young and skillful and for that reason let’s put those skills to a real test. They same can certainly be said about Floyd Mayweather Jr. who refuses to fight the best fighters in his division yet he has the audacity to claim he is the best fighter in the history of the sport simply because he is undefeated. Think about that for a minute, a fighter refusing to fight another fighter. How absurd would it be if one day the New York Yankees refused to play the Boston Red Sox? What if the Chicago Bulls one day refused to play the New York Knicks? First I think fans would laugh and then they would be up in arms.

Some of my best friends who live and die for their teams support them win or lose and they will sport their team gear no matter what. The true boxing fan is no different, as a boxing fan I can attest to this. Of course we want our favorite fighter to win but we will be there too in case he doesn’t. If you don’t believe me, ask any fighter that has ever lost a fight, ask him if fans still ask for autographs and ask to pose for pictures. You see fans don’t care about that zero underneath the defeats column, what they do care about is that their fighter gives it his all every time he steps into that eighteen by eighteen space called a boxing ring. My message to fighters; forget that zero and do what you do best and fight. You owe it to us.