Champions

Last Sunday, I didn't just watch a boxing match. I witnessed a transformation. Two brutally skilled boxers, by virtue of their sublime dedication to professional brutality, became champions.

What does it mean to be a champion? Does it mean, simply, to win? Perhaps. And yet, even a slight perusal of recorded sporting history would yield the following observation: many of the champions whose greatness has stood the test of time did not possess sporting records untarnished by defeat. But they all possessed sporting records where their defeats were untarnished by surrender.

Boxing pundit Saad Farooqi wrote very movingly about what characterized the finest boxing champions that the modern world has been privileged to witness:

When one says Ali is the greatest fighter (regardless of whether one agrees or not) of all time we aren’t thinking of young Cassius Clay hammering Liston into submission. We aren’t thinking of the dance master blitzing his opponents from countless angles and directions. To tell the truth, we think Ali/Frazier or Ali/Foreman. We think of a heavier, slower aging boxer his skills no longer glossed with youth and speed. The Ali we call "The Greatest" is the boxer who stepped in the ring against an opponent no one gave him a chance to win and then winning it. That was what made him the greatest: courage. It was him proving to boxing pundits that you can never measure human spirit or guess what it is capable of...

And that’s what boxing is all about: courage and character. Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao showed that throughout their fight. It’s not skill or power or technique that defines a boxer as much as it does his courage to do what most men and women won’t even dream about.

It is easier to understand this from the perspective of the valiant Cotto. He had every reason in the world to give up. He didn't. That took courage.

It is harder to understand this from the perspective of the victor. Manny Pacquiao won, and in a very convincing fashion. But that's not why he is, ultimately, a winner. Anyone can win due to an overwhelming display of talent, skill, and passion. But very few people win with a grace that ennobles both the victor and the vanquished. After the fight, Manny refused to crow about his victory.

“I always tell myself that I am just an ordinary fighter, but I have to beat the best fighters and sometimes I can,” he said.

Sometimes, those who believe that they are just ordinary people who, by virtue of their skill, passion and determination end up with the wonderful opportunity to compete at the highest level, end up as winners. But always, they end up as champions.

Photo Credits:

Picture of Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto comes courtesy of GMA News.