A Knock-Out Knock Down... Saturday, October 16

Headed out to Suwon with UP Boxing, including Junior Mint and the Cheonan Bulldog. It was fight day for the Cheonan Bulldog and I sat along side his nervous girlfriend as she held a cute cheering banner she had made for him. The two of them have been dating for 4 years and plan on getting married in the next 2 years, after she graduates university. I've known the Cheonan Bulldog for about 2 years now, maybe longer, so I'm quite familiar with both him and his girlfriend.
The Cheonan Bulldog wasn't the only fighting today, there were many others of which included two young guys fighting to get their professional license. In the home corner there stood a muscular young boxer and in the away corner stood an over-emphasized taller-than-tall boxer. Seriously, the dude was just taller than life itself!!! But anyways...

As you can see from the picture directly above, something went down, or I guess I should say someone went down. The taller-than-life itself boxer went down after one too many upper cuts. He kind of staggered for a bit, then wobbled, and then went crashing down, pulling on the ring ropes as he descended. I felt bad for him, we all did, but getting hurt in boxing comes with the territory. His coach, a familiar face to me here in the Korean boxing community, immediately jumped in the ring, as did the on-the-scene paramedics and many others. Off went his shoes and hand wraps, out when his mouthpiece, and then finally back he came to consciousness. Ever since that Korean boxer died this summer no sooner after he left the ring (at a tournament I was supposed to fight at too I should add), the Korean Boxing Commission takes no ring injury lightly and it was evident with today's flood of people that jumped in to help him. He was alright though, just a couple of bruises, bumps and one sore ego.

I tried to dodge people's questions about why I hadn't arrived with Snickers by keeping myself focused and preoccupied with the Cheonan Trump. I stood by his girlfriend during the fight, during the whole day actually, and I couldn't help but think she was the cutiest most adorable girl I've seen in a long time. Her voice was all shaky when she cheered him on and she held on to that homemade name banner as if her life depended on it. I did my best to cheer on the Cheonan Bulldog, calling out shots for him to make and telling him to shake it off whenever he took a clean hit from his opponent.

In the first round the Cheonan Bulldog was momentarily knocked down -- not out, just down -- and with that I was instantly reminded of one of Snickers' fights when the very same thing happened to him. His opponent was playing around with him in the ring but when Snickers let his guard down his opponent threw him a surprise punch. Me, standing high up in the crowd, yelled "$#it!!!" at the top of my lungs. I was shocked that I had said that let alone had yelled it for all to hear, including the TV cameras. Snickers always jokes about that situation too, telling me that it was me yelling that made him snap out of it and get back in the game.

In the second round the Cheonan Bulldog made a big comeback and ended up knocking his opponent out. His girlfriend and I jumped up and down like two school girls and the look in her eyes was of pure relief and pure pride.

The day ended with us all going our separate ways and I ended up hitching a ride with another boxer from UP Boxing Club. He and his wife offered to drive me back to Cheonan, that is if I didn't mind sitting in a van with nine little Taekwondo boys who probably were no older than ten. Strangely enough -- and I say that cause I'm not really into kids let alone a van jam packed with them -- it was hilariously fun. They didn't speak more than a handful of English words but we ended up having a kind of cell phone game tournament and my 30 year old Polish butt got brutaly kicked by a bunch of ten year olds, nice... hahaha.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Is it ever just a game?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.
-- Wendell Phillips