Often when a year is in its final days, people take time for reflection on the prior 12 months and strategize on improving for the next 12. But if you look back at where you were at its start and what has happened since, you’re nowhere even close. It is the evolution of time and the evolution of you. When every day is a new challenge, to steal a boxing analogy, it is those that can counter punch with the struggles and have the best chin, that ultimately make it.
For me, I spent the final moments of 2009 alone in a one bedroom apartment in North Charleston, South Carolina watching a replay of the first Juan Diaz/Juan Manuel Marquez fight, which is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Still, not an ideal New Year’s Eve party for a single guy in his 20s… But being the new kid in town, I wasn’t exactly loaded with options or enough desire to sit at a bar downtown and look like I got off at the wrong exit. You see, that whole “southern hospitality” thing – it’s not really all it’s cracked up to be but I digress. For me, 2009 was a year full of sacrifices and ended up finishing strongly, and it was in 2010 when I found out just how quickly things can change, and without much warning.
The year in boxing started out with a ton of potential as well. There were solid matchups and big time fights scheduled. There was the anticipation of the “passing of the torch” battles like Shane Mosley taking on Andre Berto and the very real chance of finally getting to see Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather in the biggest fight the sport has had in the last two decades. But like I said, things change, and in boxing, sometimes they change without real reason either.
Now, maybe it’s just me but it seemed like there were a lot of cancellations in fights due to sickness and injury. That stuff you can’t control. The sport had some bad breaks in that department. Pacquiao/Mayweather not happening could and should have been avoided. Whether you believe the Mayweather side or the Pacquiao side, the end result was the same.
But the sport had some standout moments as well. Sergio Martinez is a superstar in the making, and behind Pacquiao and Mayweather, he is the best fighter in the world. 2010 saw an impressive win for the Argentinean over Kelly Pavlik and a knockout of the century type victory over Paul Williams. He’s got the ability and the looks to go mainstream and barring any set backs (which is always a big IF, especially with any carry over effects from the prior year in the sport) 2011 will be huge for Martinez. And to think he finished ’09 with disappointment in losing his first bout with Williams… Again, when you look back at where you were, you’re nowhere even close.
Looking back, I can’t help but notice a parallel between the year in noxing and the year that was for me – A lot of potential for great things that were taken away without warning, and some without reason. Relationships lost, bouts with illness, and a very poor outlook in the middle months or rounds if you will. Not anything close to what I could’ve predicted when the clock struck 12am on January 1st. But if I’ve learned anything about myself during the last year, it’s that I can take a punch. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re made of until you get cracked, again and again.
Just like boxing did, you have to came back and finish strong. The last month and a half in boxing saw four straight fight of the year candidates. There was scintillating action that even a detractor of the sport would be in awe of…
So here I am now, back in Southern California, a thousand miles and moments from where I was a year ago. If I could have looked ahead and seen what would take place, I probably would’ve told myself to go duck and hide somewhere. But where’s the fun in that? And more importantly, where’s the challenge?
Mike Tyson once said “Everybody’s got a game plan, until they get hit on the mouth.”
He could not have been more right.
I have no clue where I’ll be a year from now, or if Pacquiao will have fought Mayweather, or if boxing will pick up where it left off in 2010, and nor does anyone else. If it was only as simple as being able to capsulize your life 365 days at a time… That’s why I’ve always thought that New Year’s resolutions were silly. The reality is every day is different than the prior, and so on and so forth. So why wait ‘til the beginning or end of a calendar to reflect on failures and strategize towards success?
The fight is now.
