The Underdog of All Sports

I'm coming to realize just how underappreciated the sport of boxing really is. Sure, it makes for a great movie once every 3 years or so. But it gets not even an iota of the shine of sports like basketball and football. You pick up the paper, you see youth lacrosse and high school swimming stories. But how many boxing stories?

"I've had 1,000 kids come through this door in the last year. But when they see how real it is, some of them say, whoa, this aint for me," coach Parker, a local boxing coach, told me. He went on to say that you can't play boxing like you play basketball, so if a kid sticks with his program, he knows this child is different.

I think he's right. Many boxers have backgrounds that are just as riveting as the few who happen to get a movie made of their life. Many of the kids in his program have hellacious lives and whacked-up families. Boxing, as barbaric as it might seem, is their outlet. It's a gladiator sport that's about preparing yourself for different scenarios, coach Parker said, which he feels is the key to life as well.

"There are only 8 punches in boxing; after that it's all about who's in better shape and who's smarter. You both know the 8 moves, so really it's about being prepared for the scenarios you'll see out there in the ring," coach Parker told me.

The sport is a lifeline for a lot of "at-risk" youth...but what can it really lead to? For all the people who are out here boxing (heavyweight, welterweight, every kinda weight class) why come you only know, like, 5 names? We know that a very small number of kids make it to the NBA or NFL,, but those are team sports.....but imagine how many fewer will make it to be Ali, Tyson, Mayweather, Holyfield, Sugar Ray Leonard....