General Discussion

are always the best in the country. And, of course, Sugar Ray was in a class of his own. He could knock an opponent out cold while moving backward. Also, punch hard while on his toes. (Just before he turned pro, Ray was going to fight a really good amateur from Endicott. His name escapes me for the moment. But after Ray turned pro, the guy was a local legend, with guys insisting decades later that Ray was afraid of him. However, as Ray went on to elite, all-time great status, while the Endicott fellow went nowhere in the pro ranks, the guy was lucky!)

There is only one experience more lonely than walking from the dressing room towards the ring. That's being in the ring before the fight! In the decades since Rubin told me to quit boxing and go to college, I trained amateur and pro fighters. I was successful, and offered a spot training the national team. But by then, I had come to see the sport as brutal, doing long-term damage to the fighters. Plus, when Rubin learned my younger son was fighting, he was not happy. And it is no fun having the Hurricane tensley insist I "make him stop" fighting.

The felon hooked up with a parasite known as Don King to promote fights in Atlantic City. When Iron Mike Tyson was doing world's record amounts of cocaine, and realized that King had been stealing from him, he slapped King. Hard. The felon then considered buying Tyson's contract. I find myself wishing he had, because a lot of future problems could have been avoided when he tried stiffing Tyson.

While I have very mixed feelings about the sport, I find overall that boxers are the most interesting people. I tend to get along best with them.