“The hardest part is watching the fights,” my grandmother said.
I know what she meant.
If regular readers will indulge a bit of first person divergence from the norm, this past weekend allowed for only bits and pieces of boxing action to seep through. Instead, gathered with family, it was a moment of remembrance and farewell.
Late last year, my grandfather passed and, due to various circumstances, the family waited to come together to celebrate his life. When my great-grandfather died, I wrote a brief tribute in relation to the sport. My great-grandfather fought in fairground smokers and always admired the sport. Watching boxing, talking about boxing…it was passed through the generations.
It passed directly to me from my grandfather. His living room was a meeting place on so many weekends growing up. It’s where Mike Tyson knocking out Trevor Berbick made me fall in love with the sport, where Mike Tyson getting knocked out by Buster Douglas taught me never to take any result for granted, and where we never didn’t have something to talk about.
Tuesday Night Fights, Fight Night at the Forum, Friday Night Fights…if there was boxing, we watched it together.
It was far from all we did together. He was one of the largest figures in my life, someone who I always want to make proud. Shared love of boxing was just one of the threads that bound us but it was among the most fun. He would recount what it was like to listen to Joe Louis on the radio or take my late uncle to see his favorite fighter, Tommy Hearns, to defeat Pipino Cuevas on closed circuit. I ate it all up.
When life grew and moved forward, watching together was replaced with the calls. Whether right after a big fight or in the days afterwards, we would chat about results, what was coming next, and who should fight who.
As the years wore on, having seen thousands of fights, he didn’t always remember the names of fighters anymore but we had our own shorthand for the one’s he liked. Late in life, his two favorites were “the twins.” Grandpa was a big Charlo fan. I had the good fortune of being able to watch the first Charlo-Castano fight together and it was like old times.
The family gathered in that living room with several additions who hadn’t been there a generation before. No one knew how many fights we all had left together. Time wasn’t up but the clock was moving quickly.
The last call came after the third fight between Roman Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada.
I’d do anything to be able to pick up the phone and have a few more.
He was my favorite fight fan. I’m still trying to be as good a man.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.