25.04.07 – By Scoop Malinowski: Arise he did from instability and chaos. Arise he did, against all odds, to the echelon of greatness. Boxing was grandma’s boy’s salvation. Taught by his father and uncles, this extraordinary young marvel absorbed all their teachings and excelled beyond any limits. The kid sacrificed his childhood for the sport he loved. He’s conquered every man they put in his path to the mountaintop (well, except one!). He is there now, on the verge of taking center stage in one of the biggest prizefights in history.
“All greatness is misunderstood,” so it’s been said, and so is this man. Few saw the truth of this man beneath the cocky materialistic external, but that is all just a front. “Nothing is ever what it seems.”
As the moment arrives, we are beginning to see those little truths which were not evident before. The pain and suffering of a proud and beautiful young man who, deep down, seems to be crying out for something or someone. The elusive…
It isn’t gold.
“…I couldn’t talk to my father about what I wanted to, I was scared…Let’s stop the childishness.” The son was calling out to the father. You never saw such sincere emotion in the eyes of this boxing genius. You never knew it existed under all the stupendous bluster.
May 5th may be also be an affair of the heart. The stakes are huge of course. The money, the prestige, the power, the legacy. But there are some things in this world money and power can’t buy.
And sometimes when you win, you lose something in the process. And when you lose, you could win something you never imagined, in the process.
We know what happens after victory. But who will be there to embrace you if you fail?
You learn a lot by winning. But you really learn the most from failure. You can never be complete until you experience defeat.
They picked this fight, they both wanted this, for their different reasons. They both imagine and expect to triumph. But only one man is complete.
“Years of love have been forgot in the hatred of a minute.” –Edgar Allen Poe (Years of hate have been forgot in the love of a minute)
“It is not the man who has too little, the man who craves more, that is poor.” –Seneca
“Love conquers all.” –Virgil
Scoop’s book “Lewis vs. Tyson: Heavyweight Armageddon! The Inside Story About the Biggest Money Fight in Boxing History” will be published in 2008.