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Boxing…Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? Not If I Can Help it!!!
Kimo Morrison - 12/15/2004
The air was stagnant, the lights so dim I could barely see to walk. The smell of rotten socks and sweat almost unbearable. Eyes peering from every direction trying to read the fear in your face as you are the new blood in the house. My cock sure attitude swiftly taking an about face and running out the door from which I just entered. The ring,… a make shift one at best put together with fence posts and garden hoses…yes garden hoses. A beating applied to me by a kid younger, scrawnier, and white of all things! And this my first day of boxing some quarter century ago. I will never forget it, nor will I ever be able to give my three boys the same wonderful experience. That’s the saddest part of all.
I have gotten over the fact now that the kid was white, and to this day he and I remain very good friends. But I can not get over the fact that we no longer have a place for the youth to go in my community that offers boxing lessons. Where will boxing be in a few decades from now if this crisis continues? This is not just taking place in my town, but all across America. We are letting the greatest sport I know slip slowly through the fingertips of society. The children of the next generation need boxing more than ever. If not for boxing in my generation, many of the kids I grew up with my self included would have probably ended up dead or in the can.
What can I do to not only ensure the future of boxing, but to help my boys get the chance to experience all that I did in a sport that now saturates my every day? Can one man make a difference? Or is it something we as a whole will have to do to ensure that the sport we all love so much gets the boost it so well deserves? I don’t know, and that is what bugs me the most about this whole thing. Boxing doesn’t get the exposure that it used to through mainstream media, nor does it receive any positive press when being mentioned. I have fond memories of watching boxing in the late afternoons with my father on regular network T.V. I commend NBC for stepping up and taking a second chance on boxing, but we need more than that.
I as one man am willing to do my part to help if only for my small part of the world here in N.E. Washington. I make this challenge to any pro boxer, trainer, or promoter with enough dedication, money, clout, and balls to meet me half way. I am a property owner. I will donate the land for a boxing gym if a genuine call is made to my editor from someone willing to build and supply all equipment for a gym. They must have enough contacts to help sponsor guest trainers… and the kicker is it must be free to all kids under the age of 16. That’s my challenge. I will stake thousands if there is someone out there willing to not only meet but exceed my ability to give. Real Estate is only materialistic, but the dream of something bigger could help generations, and change lives the way mine was if only there are a few willing to take the step.
I call out all the champions, today’s, yesterdays, don’t matter. Show the fans how Hardcore you are about keeping boxing alive helping if only a little to push the sweet science back to the forfront of sporting culture as we know it. The Champ of the world used to be respected and known by all men. To hold the heavy weight title was to sit on the throne of mankind. Help is needed everywhere but it must start somewhere. Is there a fighter out there that held out long enough to get a purse worth sharing to our children? The future of our sport depends on sewing a new crop of boxing enthusiasts. I do not ask without giving myself and will shed sweat and blood to pound every nail if need be.
Writers use your contacts to get real fighters with real desire to impart wisdom upon today's youth. Get them to commit to just one week out of the year to travel and teach free of charge. If we want to get back into the mainstream then we must act accordingly. Little Leage ball clubs for baseball, football, and soccer hold camps where the pro's come to share and ignite a fire in impressionable children. Why should we be any different holding out expecting the sport the way it is today to come full circle miraculously gaining favor in the eyes of young atheletes.
The gauntlet has been laid, let's see who has what it takes to help break through!
Kimo Morrison can be reached at unprofessionalguys@yahoo.com
Isaac Barrio can be reached at ibarrio@hardcoreboxing.net
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