Imagine for a moment that you have just won boxing’s World Championship of the world. As you lean against the ropes, you realize that your life is about to change. It is a glorious moment. The problem, of course, is that at the same moment that you feel you have proven your superiority, your opponents already want what you have.
And if your desire for respect for your achievement outweighs your hunger, you quickly may find yourself without your title. In boxing, most of the great champions have lost their titles for this very reason. Given the hard work it takes to be a champion, it is perhaps understandable.
Possibly the most famous example of a champion’s desire for respect took place in 1980 during the second meeting between lightweight fighters Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard. Before their first fight earlier in the same year, Duran was considered by many to be the most fearsome fighter in the world. He had only lost once in his career (at the very start), and he had been the world champion for eight consecutive years. At the pinnacle of Duran’s career, Sugar Ray Leonard had emerged as just the foil Duran needed. After much contention about when and how the two would meet, they fought one of the best fights in boxing history, with Duran edging Leonard in fifteen rounds.
After that fight, Duran was prouder than ever. After eight years at the top, he had long felt that he deserved more respect than he had received. For the first time, he was finally feeling it from the public, but he wanted more: he also felt that he deserved it from Leonard. Sugar Ray, however, had his own agenda, and when their rematch began five months after the first fight, it quickly became apparent that Leonard was not going to roll over.
Duran was visibly angry. But when Leonard faked a roundhouse swing with his right hand and caught Duran with a left-handed jab to the face, Duran became embarrassed. When Leonard did the fake a second time and the crowd laughed, Duran had had enough. Toward the end of the eighth round (a round he was winning), he uttered the two most famous words in boxing history, “No mas.” (“No more.”) Sadly for Duran, this one episode became the cause of his celebrity. He was a phenomenal champion who deserved a second chance.
Our current National Champion, the young David McNeely, is too young to remember all this, of course. And this is too bad, for perhaps he would have been more aware of the perils he might create with his own “no mas” at the recent National Team try-outs.
Like a boxer who wins the championship, David’s victory at the Nationals was hard earned and totally deserved. He played brilliantly on a weekend when all of the top US players were present. He deserved more time to bask in the glory of the Championship than he got. But because this is the year of the Pan American Games, the team try-outs were held within weeks the Nationals. It wasn’t anyone’s fault; the schedule just necessitated it.
After winning the Nationals, David justifiably felt that he deserved some respect. And indeed, he did. He may have been only vaguely aware of it, but US squash fans were incredibly impressed with him and his play. But, like Duran and other great champions, McNeely seemed to have a hunger for more.
While no one can take anything away from McNeely’s Nationals victory, even he likely would admit that it was a bit unexpected. However, with the tournament taking place on the heels of the college season, David was one of a group of college players who took the Nationals by surprise. In contrast, many of the pros found themselves rudely awakened by the terrific play of the college kids.
The pros were embarrassed, and they were determined to make up for it the only way that they knew how, by securing places on the National Team. David got his wake-up call early, when he lost to a finely tuned Tim Long. When Richard Chin beat him next, David’s dismay at the lack of respect he was being given was palpable. Though he won his next match, when it was over, David quit the try-outs saying a number of things that he will likely regret, including that he felt that the National Champion deserved to be named to the team.
David didn’t deserve to make the team, of course, and he has probably earned the cold shoulder he will likely get from the other players, but his frustration was at least comprehensible. Duran made his mistake near the end of his career, and because of that, it remains indelibly engraved in people’s minds. David is at the very start of his career, he is our current National Champion, and he will be one of our great players. Though he made a mistake, it was an understandable one. David, like Duran, deserves a second chance.
