MILLS LANE SAID “TO KNOW BOXING IS TO LOVE IT!
Boxer Turned Referee & TV Star Mills Lane
Charlotte, NC– When you get right down to it, it really isn’t a metaphor for anything. Oh sure, you can find all kinds of metaphors in and around boxing, but in its purest sense, it is simply two combatants, going toe to toe, seeing who’s will, skill, heart or might will overcome. and that’s life!
DOESN’T MATTER WHO YOU ARE!
It doesn’t matter your chosen profession, what country you come from, how much if any education you have, what your friends of family think or say about you, or any of those things. Oh sure, they might can give you a couple of steps head start, but like the tortoise and the hare, at the end of the day, what ultimately matters is your will, skill, heart and might. Yours. Not moms and dads. Not a teachers and not a teammates.
THIS IS WHAT MAKES BOXING GREAT
And that’s the primeval beauty of pugilism. When two boxers are well matched, there is something that happens deep within the human core that strikes a resonance that begins to vibrate (if you are not familiar with resonance, then The Professor says that’s your homework for the day, look it up!). It stirs something deep within us that we may not even be aware of on a conscious level, but its there.
NOTHING QUITE LIKE THE “SWEET SCIENCE”
There is a beauty, albeit at times barbaric, an athletic grace that is not duplicated in any other sport. There is an individualism, some might call it a loneliness in pugilism that calls to us, like a moth is called to a flame. And when the two pugilist face each other, under the lights, and the referee has said,” and protect yourself at all times” and as the great referee Mills Lane used to say “Lets get it on!”, there is no one out there with you, no teammates, no helmet, no anything to hide behind. And you fight. You fight until either one of you cannot continue, one of you quit, or the winner is declared by judges at the end of the fight.
YOU CAN FIND YOURSELF, YOUR SOUL IN BOXING
At its primeval heart, pugilism is about the fighters own self-actualization, a way to discover the truth about oneself that perhaps could not as effectively or quickly be learned any other way. In pugilism, heart and will are as important as skill and talent. And the only one who can make you successful, ultimately, is the fighter himself. Yes, trainers/coaches are vital. But at the end of the day, the trainer doesn’t fight the fights. The fighter does, one on one, with no one else to blame, or hide behind. Either the fighter does it, or he doesn’t. That’s life.
And there is a primeval beauty to that.
Professor Chuck Marbry