Pugilism

Fighters are some of the greatest people alive. Fighting has been looked down upon because of it’s violent nature. Eyebrow gashes, bloody noses, bumps, bruises and powerful knockouts activated from the pivot foot contribute to the case against boxing. However, the preponderance of evidence weighing in for boxing’s good is discipline, knowledge and a gold heart in pursuit of champion rounds with lean mean muscle. Detroit, for instance, you have children who grow up with no parents or even one mother. Fighting takes the impressionable youth off the streets. Boxing has saved a ton of lives. There are well respected managers and trainers at the gym who will train teenagers in the art of throwing a punch: pugilism. Hours punched-in on the clock with these youth earn father figure status for those who are brave enough.  The mentorship is far more valuable to the youth than a gold chains or name brand garments because their family becomes his family. There is by far less depreciation by rust or removal by robbers.

Coming from Detroit, people always say bad things it even though they haven’t been there. Although the city was hit by a financial crisis, Robert Graham’s sculpture, “The Fist” represents the call to get back up and fight. Joe Lewis fought back against Jim Crow laws by winning the world heavyweight championship. The big black fist symbolizes a fighting spirit. No matter what profession you have you’ve got to have a fighting spirit. Life will knock you down. You’ve got to get up. Like Mike’s relationship with God, he is frequently knocked out. After several blows to the mind, body and soul he has dropped to the ring floor of life. The standing count for a helpless fighter lasts several seconds. Everyone who watches the center stage contest is thinking, “They’ve got to get up.” You’ve got to keep fighting for your family, your dreams or whatever it maybe. Sometimes you get beat up. Mike has lost rounds and fights before. He keeps fighting. Mike uses technical skills learned from boxing and applies it to other areas of his life including his relationship with God. Mike has learned to defend himself in the sport and help others develop a fighting spirit.

Mike’s first encounter with fighting was through Brian his middle brother in-between 7th and 8th Mile Road on Ashton Avenue. At Henry Ford Public High School in Detroit fighting was commonplace. They knew it’s a rowdy city. It’s like other places. If you mind your own business nobody messes with you. Mike was never jumped and avoided fights as much as possible. Brian is a fighter with a lot of guts. He was the brash and wild one. Mike looked up to him. He went away to a juvenile center for doing some bad things. In Mike’s neighborhood there wasn’t a lot of good going on; however, it didn’t stop the love of boxing being passed from one brother to another. Brian started telling Mike about boxing because he was learning how to box also. He showed Mike a few little moves. Mike thought what his brother taught him could be useful. Maybe he should box too. Mike was a football receiver in high school, but boxing caught his eye. He wanted to emulate his brother.

As Mike grew older he fell in love with boxing’s mental game. Boxing is 90 percent mental. Some schools of thought would tell you 91 percent mental and nine percent physical. Mike loves the mind games. It’s modern warfare without a wireless game controller. The ability to break someone down with your mind is a sophisticated array of measures and counter measures. Mike will tell you by nature he’s not a fighter and avoids confrontation as much as possible. He doesn’t like to tell people he boxes. Some people who find out change their behavior around him by tip-toeing around him.

Detroit’s ‘forgotten son’ has three scriptures on his left glove and three scriptures on his right glove. ‘The Fighting’ boxing gloves are black and white. A pair of these multipurpose boxing gloves costs as much as an exclusive pair of Air Jordans. Mike believes in using these gloves for both bag training, sparring and professional boxing contests. Purchasing a different pair of boxing gloves for bag work and boxing matches is costly. Mike is fiscally responsible during his training regiments leading up to the fight and in post. There are different brands of boxing gloves like Winning and Everlast. Grant boxing gloves are like the Lamborghini’s of the boxing world. It’s about the support, quality and how they hold up. Opponents get punched with not only with well worn boxing gloves, but with the stench of devoted training hours. 

“The jab is the best punch in boxing no matter what,” Mike affirmatively states. You cannot land anything without the jab. According to the old school teaching in boxing everything comes off the jab; double, triple or even quadruple hooking off the jab. Mike’s jab is his left hand because he’s right handed.  On the left glove there are scriptures about Jesus Christ being his foundation just like everything you do is based around the jab. Jesus is the center in his orthodox stance. The right hand is his power hand. Whenever you throw the right hand he’s trying to knock the guy out, but not in every situation. The scriptures are about God being absolute, sovereign and powerful over the entire universe. When you become known for something, Tommy Hearns who arguably has the greatest jab ever, everyone knew the ‘Motor City Cobra’ was going to come out with his jab. There’s a counter for everything. It’s a mind game. Not all intel is good. 

Mike enjoys sitting under trainers and learning from them. Hearing their stories about where they came from and how their careers took off taught Mike a lot of knowledge about the boxing ring. Bill Miller, a legendary trainer out of the Kronk Gym, dressed in a Kronk hat and jacket taught Mike around the age of 15 to 16 years of age about the game of boxing. They talked together about great defensive fighters like James Toney who was slicker than most. At the Infinity Boxing Gym one day, Mike exited the ring after sparring with Anthony Barnes. Mike got beat up. He is an undefeated professional boxer now. Mike and Anthony were teenagers back then. Mike immediately hit the heavy bag to refine his combinations punches to address what he did wrong.

A few punches into the swinging dead weight vinyl cylinder, Bill Miller pulled Mike aside. They sat in chairs side by side talking about fighting in general. Bill said, “Champions are rare. You can have a 100 guys in gym and you may get one champion. A champion walks into the gym once every ten years. You know you don’t always see champions, but when you see ’em you know ’em.” Bill gave Mike a look. Mike knew what Bill saying to him during this life defining moment. Like the precise placement of punches of Bill’s boxers, Bill knew how to connect with an assertive comment. It sat with Mike for years. Mike said, “The great thing about it was it happened after I got beat up.” Bill didn’t care. Bill saw potential in Mike. That’s something Mike believes the world needs to know. There’s potential in all of us despite our differences.