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The Real Fight Club

You’ve simply had enough, and you’re not going to take it anymore. You want to fight back, but you don’t REALLY want to hurt someone.

Some of today’s richest, most popular fighters began as angry kids who wanted to learn to protect themselves and get a handle on their aggression by learning skill, technique, and strategy. Oba Carr started boxing when he was six. Some idiot stole his bicycle and the shy boy wanted to learn to defend himself in the future. You might say he has: Carr built up an amateur record of 168 wins with only eight losses. As a professional, Carr has 50 wins. His only three pro losses came at the hands of some of boxing’s best: current 147-pound champion Felix Trinidad, top contender Ike Quartey, and the immortal Oscar De La Hoya.

Many boxers duke it out with the loving support of their parents. Oba Carr had the blessing of his father. Oba Carr, Sr., has trained his son to fight and has always been on the ringside team.

Current world welterweight champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley had 260 amateur fights before turning pro in 1993. His glorious brawl with Oscar De La Hoya in Los Angeles, on June 17, 2000, has gone down as one of the greatest fights in recent memory. Before the fight, CBS Sportsline asked Mosley if it was difficult having his father also be his trainer. Mosley replied, “No, not at all. It is actually great. I know that he has my best interests at heart. I feel comfortable knowing that I have someone that I can depend on.” The Mosley father-son team is a world championship team.

Boxing produces friendships that last a lifetime. Fighters and trainers spend so much time in the gym that they become family. Prizefighters look out for one another and follow each other’s careers with great interest. Before their titanic scrap in L.A., both Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya spoke fondly of the one fight they had with each other as kids. While neither would admit defeat, both kids became friends outside the ring while they fought inside it. It is ironic that a sport based on athletic violence creates such strong friendships among foes.

Sometimes, the road to championship lies in a different path. Lennox Lewis, today’s 240-pound, undisputed, heavyweight champion of the world, made his first major mark in boxing by capturing a gold medal in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. But Lewis knocked the tar out of his opposition long before that. He won 75 fights as an amateur, with 58 knockouts. He lost only seven. No matter what he did as a professional fighter, Lennox Lewis made Olympic history. For some people, being an Olympic champion of the world is enough.

A successful fighter must do more than just throw punches. Just ask Mike Tyson. “Iron” Mike showed the world that, for some, rage can’t be satisfied by just fighting. The British Boxing Board of Control is now demanding that Tyson explain, before August 31, why he threw several punches at Lou Savarese after his most recent fight had been stopped, and launched into a verbal tirade against Lennox Lewis. When Evander Holyfield pushed Tyson beyond tolerance, he bit off a chunk of Holyfield’s ear. Tyson was suspended and has not been seriously considered for another title shot in United States boxing. If you don’t play by the rules of the ring, you’re tossed. Don’t try to become a boxer unless you’re willing to respect the rules — a good life lesson.

Don’t punch somebody if you’re angry; put on a couple of leather mitts, climb in a ring, and put that anger to use according to the athletic rules of boxing. It beats the alternatives.