Growing up, I wasn’t really into team sports all that much. I never did the Little League, soccer, basketball, etc. thing.
I would watch sports, but I had no desire to be involved with that stuff. I was always more of a loner, so my mom let me sign up for karate classes.
I did that for a few years and eventually it kind of drifted off. I still liked it, but I got more into guitar playing and things of that nature, and there were only so many hours in the day.
These days, I watch football, hockey and basketball fairly regularly.
And even though it’s fallen in popularity, I love boxing. My dad was way into it, so if there was a fight, it was on the television. He would always go and catch all the closed-circuit fights when that became a thing, but I was a bit too young to be going to those. I grew up when a big fight was AN EVENT, and there was always excitement when the big names fought.
Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Lyle, Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Duran, Tyson, Chavez. There were a ton of great fighters in that timeframe, and there was always a buzz when they fought.
While I still try to keep up on it when I can, it’s just not the same to me. Fighters used to have an aura, a mystique, about them that just seems to be missing today. Compound that with the outrageous price of pay-per-views and the rise of MMA, and some of the luster has worn off.
Thanks to the magic of YouTube, though, I can pretty easily relive the excitement of the classic fights and fighters of bygone eras. Even going all the way back to the likes of Dempsey, Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, etc.
While I have been known to pick up a football or basketball and toss it around or take some shots from time to time, nowadays I am pretty content to just lift my weights and be a spectator.
Think I’ll watch some Hagler Vs. Hearns now though.
The Beginning At Last 
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