There are a few people who get introduced to boxing, but it never quite matches their perception of what they thought it would be. The workout is harder than they expected. The training and technical aspects end up being more complicated than they can grasp. The moves require more coordination than what they are capable of. Or they actually make it into a ring and the reality, the brutality of it all, really hits home and it’s too much for their hearts to bear.
Boxing is not for everyone, but IF on the other hand, you are one of THOSE people...you catch the fever. You get bitten by the boxing bug and it becomes a part of you, a way of life and a reason to live. Middleweight champ Marvin Hagler once said, "If you cut open my bald head you'd find just one big boxing glove in there. That's all I am. I live it." If you can't relate to those words on some level, then you can quit reading...otherwise, what follows might be all you.
There's nothing redneck about this, but if you can relate to these Top Ten signs, then you might have it bad.
You Might Be a Boxing Fanatic if....
1. You don't speak Spanish and still watch boxing when it's on Telemundo, Univision or FOX Deportes.
2. You hardly have money for gas, but you will still pay $54.99 for PPV because it has “fight-of-the-year” potential.
3. You call your baby's pacifier a mouthpiece.
4. You're tempted to name your kid after a boxer.
5. Your dog IS named after a boxer.
6. You spend more time maintaining your gym than you do your lawn.
7. You use your vacation days to travel to boxing tournaments.
8. To you, even the worst boxing match or bad boxing movie is still the best thing on television.
9. Your travel luggage is a Title Boxing equipment bag.
10. You've given everyone in your family a ring name…and they don't even box.
If these ten characteristics apply to you, then you are a hopeless, helpless Boxing Fanatic, but you are also the life force of this magnificent sport. In spite of all of its faults, foibles and corruption, boxing has a way of getting in to your veins and inhabiting your soul. Sometimes it is a sick perversion and at other times it is a microcosm of all that is real, right and good in the world. Boxing parallels life on so many levels, that it just feels right. It doesn't have to make sense. It just has to make your blood pump and the adrenaline flow. That's boxing.
Now it’s your turn. Finish this sentence - You Might Be a Boxing Fanatic if...
Doug Ward is the President and Trainer for the Underground Boxing Company.