Determination in face of fear top attribute for boxer to have
Real fighters possess plenty of true grit, writes Michael (Mr. Boxing YYC) Short
True grit.
Recently, some guy informed me there’s a more modern movie of the same name, but I was only aware of the John Wayne version from 1969.
What’s the meaning of true grit?
Loosely, it means: being gritty, showing determination despite setbacks, roadblocks, failures; acting in spite of your mood, in spite of fear or how you feel; and displaying fortitude and courage.
Cus D’Amato, the famous trainer who guided two of the youngest heavyweight boxing champions in history to the crown — first with Floyd Patterson at age 21, then Mike Tyson at age 20 — said it this way: “The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It’s the same thing — fear — but it’s what you do with it that matters.”
As a boxing promoter, I’m constantly faced with fighters pulling out of scheduled fights. Sometimes the whole show completely changes by fight night and maybe more than once.
Fighters, like hockey players and wrestlers, are expected to have a certain type of grit embedded in their DNA. There are several of those things on social media about, “You don’t play boxing.”
Yeah, talk is cheap!
When talking about true grit, (Marvellous) Marvin Hagler comes to mind, along with Archie Moore, Henry Armstrong, Bobby Chacon and, of course, Muhammad Ali, plus just about any other fighter before the 1980s.
Nowadays, we still have several boxers who possess grit, but there’s a growing amount who don’t.
There’s even the new breed of “fighter.” You know the ones. They train constantly, have a nutritionist, strength and conditioning coach, a hypnotherapist, team T-shirts, a sponsor banner and legions of fans. One thing remains, though: they hardly, actually fight.
This happens even at the amateur debut level. A stubbed toe, a red dot on your thumb, “I don’t feel well,” a neighbour’s pet squirrel’s funeral and so on.
This, of course, stems from most of the “trainers” around today. Many have a handful of fights, if any, then apply for a city licence to open a gym and have several claims of travelling the world competing. Many of these fights, though, were “underground.”
True fighters possess true grit and get in the ring anyway.
Recently, local fighter Devin Reti was dealing with a muscle imbalance that caused his shoulder to give out and weaken in training. So much so that Reti couldn’t actually spar a full eight rounds in the gym, which was the scheduled distance of his forthcoming bout.
In fact, he could only get through about five rounds.
His coach Doug Harder, commander-in-chief at Bowmont and an old-school guy who started boxing in 1978, bellowed, “So what? Use your left hand. That’s all you need for this fight!”
I’ll even mention some MMA guys I’m tight with — Jesse (Big Cat) Arnett, for one. Ask him how he feels going into championship fights at the Bell Centre in Montreal after an extremely harsh training camp that’s enough to make an Olympic wrestler say “damn.”
Several years ago, MMA fighter Justin Schmidt of Strathmore called his promoter on fight week to inform him that his brother had just suddenly died. Of course it’s horrible. Of course we mourn. Of course we all feel. But instead of cancelling a show that was built up for months as the main event and casting aside the months of arduous training, Schmidt said, “I just want to dedicate my fight to my little bro.”
Yup, there’s more than one way to act in every situation.
Sometimes, when you’re only willing to do what’s easy, life becomes hard.
But when you’re willing to do what’s hard, life becomes easy.
So in the meantime and in between time, that’s it, another edition of Mr. Boxing YYC.