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Boxing: A Moment in Time
By: Amy Rachiele, M. Ed.
Author of the Mobster Series
Boxing is a rigorous and life altering sport for many. It has its own set of building blocks. Your team is not lined up beside you ready to stop another team from advancing forward nor is it a group of individuals striving to defend a net in the middle of a field of green grass. But it still takes a village.
The mental acuity and commitment to physical fitness and the willingness to let another person hit you is a whole different land of mental game. It takes a community of trainers, coaches, sparring partners, and essential friends and family for support but in the end the boxer must enter the ring alone with only dexterity and perseverance as his guide.
I attended my first fight on December 2, 2016 to watch Anthony Marsella Jr. box. I really had not watched a televised event let alone sat ringside in the heat, sweat, and emotional investment that goes along with being part of something “live.”
“A moment in time” that is exactly what Anthony Marsella Jr.’s fight became. A moment because as soon as I was able to blink my eyes, remove them from the scene before me for a millisecond, he had taken down his opponent. I wrestled with the entire situation from many angles–as a spectator, a mother with a son, and maybe even as a quite removed acquaintance just passing through at that moment of impact. The event became surreal because I was moved, changed, and in essence–altered.
Dedication only taps the surface of the metaphysical doctrine of boxing. I believe the word is tossed about these days. You are dedicated to a cause, or family even friends. Dedication to yourself as a whole is what it takes to be a fighter.
You can have all the support in the world or none at all because in the end you are alone– an island of one facing another island ready to collide, blow by blow, to shift the earthly tectonic plates. Anthony Marsella Jr. gave that metaphor new meaning for me, an uneducated boxing fan and a novice viewer.
Fist to fist!
Shaking the world!
Congratulations Anthony!
