Maybe because I’m not huge into sports photographs, but I was not aware of this amazing photo until this weekend. The photo is of Carmen Basilio winning the welterweight title November 30th, 1955 and was taken by Hy Peskin. You can purchase the photo here from the New York Times.
I grew up watching boxing tapes my dad had and, even though today it seems like a dinosaur compared to the likes of UFC, I still hold a soft spot for boxing.
It requires enormous discipline to even train for, let alone actually pursue. You have to rewire your natural instinct to avoid being hit, and to go in knowing that not only are you’re going to be punched, but that it’s also going to hurt. Probably a lot. A boxer has to embrace his primal survival instincts, reject flight, choose fight and do it while attempting to out think your opponent’s strategy and then create a plan to counter it … all while being punched in the face by someone who has actually trained to punch people in the face.
Anyone worth their salt has lost a fight. (Yes, even the boy who cried awesome.) They had to go home and explain it to their folks, they had to go to school the next day with a black eye, they had to look the person who beat them up and admit to themselves that on that day, that person won and that they lost.
Now, I’ve always felt that being beaten in a fight doesn’t make that person a loser, as long as they take something away from it.
If boxing has taught us anything (fixes aside), it’s that anyone can beat anyone on any given day - no matter who’s bigger, who’s faster, who’s stronger, or who’s “better.”
And on the days I’m getting smacked around by life, I try to remember that. No matter what, I’ve always got a puncher’s chance at winning.
I think that’s pretty awesome.
