Boxing at its very best

By Bruce Martinez

The sweetest science, about as sweet as the sweetest plum. Of course I speak of boxing. And did boxing ever have an unbelievable weekend.

Three-and-a-half to one underdog Bernard Hopkins whipped Felix Trinidad. This was a very big upset, and was very exciting to watch. The big weekend started however with ESPN2's Friday Night fights which was held in San Francisco. It was a very good card and illustrated exactly what makes boxing so great.

In every good fight boxers take on continually evolving roles, they play heroes, villains, the hurt and desperate and the boldly triumphant. As these roles evolve the fight changes with them and the fans are sucked in, the edge of the seat becomes the only place to be because you can never know when the curtain will draw closed and the play will be over.

Under the bright lights sweat glistens and drama unfolds. You can always look for the first moment a fighter appears beaten, when he seems to know the other man is better that night. Then you can look for the moment that defines a great fighter, the one in which he steps past the pain and past the fear and continues to trade blows and maybe he wins, maybe he loses. Either way you are taken to a place no other sport can take you, because no other sport is such a primal brutal human drama. No other event can end as suddenly or as violently. Boxing makes kings and topples them just as quickly, boxing raises all of us, at least those of us who let it. And this is a beautiful thing. And it always will be.Email Bruce or call (408) 554-4852