Champs Page #4

---

way he did, not complaining,

showing a lot of

grace, he probably

emerged from that Olympics

as the most well known

of all those boxers,

even the ones

that had won the gold medal.

That became his launching pad

was the Olympics, while Mike

had to begin his pro

career in obscurity.

Cus got me into thinking

about the great fighters.

And every time I failed, I'd

go read about their failures

and how they overcame

their failures.

Mike had a very high

skill set, and he

had a profound understanding

of boxing and boxing history.

And that's what

made him special.

When he

wanted to know something,

he'd sit there and watch

numerous fights of guys

from the '50s, and

'40s, and '30s.

He's like a boxing encyclopedia.

What's the difference

between a good fighter

and the great fighter?

It's how far they're

willing to go

and how much they're

willing to endure.

It's the hunger for the world.

You want to be that champion.

Once you get to know Mike,

you know he was a very insecure

human being and very insecure

fighter, so a lot of that tough

guy image and a lot of the talk

and the brashness was basically

to hide his own insecurities.

Every time he went

in the ring, he was scared.

It wasn't like he just

knew he was gonna win.

But Mike also knew, when he

looked in that opponent's eye,

he'd seen fear.

Scared as I was fighting,

I realized these guys

were more afraid of me

than I was of them, and that's

when my whole game started

changing as far as my

approach to fighting.

Left hand almost drove

Richardson right

through the canvas.

I'd get all his

early fights on ESPN

and he knocked everybody out in

the first three second round.

So you looked at

it and said wow.

Anybody that wants to stay in

the business for a long period

of time, like myself, I

plan on staying in boxing.

I would like to box for

at least a good 20 years,

because I love the game.

You took care of

business tonight.

Congratulations, Mike.

Thank you, very much.

I studied every

fight that Mike fought

and told everybody, be quiet.

I'm watching.

Well, you know,

because my whole thing,

I realized that was going to be

the toughest fight in my life

if it happened.

This is the guy that

I've got to face one day.

In prison, you have

a lot of energy

that's bottled up.

From one way or the other,

love it, don't love it,

agree to disagree, it

has to be released.

After getting in a few fights, I

built a reputation on the block

like I was building

on the streets.

I was known, don't fight me.

You've got to stab me.

At home, you can hide,

but in those institutions,

you have to see these people

every day you wake up.

Someone is plotting

for that vulnerability.

You gotta meet your

fears every day.

Things going through my

head was that I'd be dead

before I hit 18, or I'd

be in prison all my life,

or that I'd be nothing.

As I got more mature in

jail and I started watching

other people, I started

saying to myself,

what's wrong with

this situation.

I had to stop being ignorant.

I started doing research.

I seen something to me

that really woke me up.

Prison is a business.

It's 50, it's $60,000

a year for one inmate.

How can I keep myself from being

an employee of this business?

Oftentimes, the

real problem with prison

is this stultifying boredom.

There's mountains of evidence

that the supermax prisons where

you're in a cell by

yourself 23 hours a day,

they literally

drive people insane.

The people who leave

are substantially

mentally harmed

by the experience.

It's just not what we as

humans are designed to handle.

I think that thing that

gives you something to do,

to hold on to, can be a very

powerful means of getting

yourself through the

mind numbing tedium.

They had an old gym with a ring,

with gloves, with sparring,

and Smokey Wilson, AKA Michael

Wilson, continued to say,

come on to the gym, man.

Come on to the gym.

Stop fighting on the black

or you gonna go in the hole,

or you gonna get

stabbed, or this an that.

So, all right, man.

All right, yeah.

I'll go to the gym.

And I sparred with one of

the known, respected guys.

I didn't knock him out, but

I gave him a boxing lesson.

And Smokey Wilson

became my trainer.

I got a chance to get back

into what I've deviated from

and used it to my advantage

in the penitentiary.

It came to a thing where now, in

prison, you bet on each other.

And I'm getting this reputation

because now, the block,

the jail was buzzing.

I became the celebrity

boxer in a penitentiary.

The boxing program

was established

in 38 penitentiaries, from

Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

And so we had boxing

tournaments in jail.

In, Rockview,

Dallas, Graterford, Smithville,

Frackville.

We, on buses, escorted

by guard with shot guns

from one prison to another.

I'm beating everybody

in every penitentiary,

and I become the middleweight

State Penitentiary champion.

I fell back in love

with boxing again.

Boxing is the sport

which all others aspire to be.

It's you and another guy,

and who wants it more,

and who's got the heart, and

the will, and the desire,

but it comes down to

a lot more than that.

The best

combat is man against man.

I mean, since Roman

times, the gladiators.

It's human nature for people

to compete against each other.

Sometimes I feel

so guilty I'm a boxing fan.

I know on one level,

I'm not supposed

to really be enjoying

what I'm watching.

And yet on another, I

can't control myself.

We're violent.

We're animals.

Like any other animal,

there's a release

of aggression that

comes with fighting.

There's a drama to it.

Boxing is theater.

If it's not theater, you're

f***ing up in presenting it.

To be ringside, you're like wow.

This is amazing.

The part for me that

stuck was, people

are literally fighting

for their lives.

They're fighting

for their families.

That's the thing

that attracted me.

It's an ancient, brutal,

some would say barbaric sport,

but there's something

very interesting

about the individuals who choose

to try to perform at that level

and risk what they

risk in the ring.

It's raw.

It's something that appeals

to our basic instincts

of survival or battle.

Nobody else is going

in there with you.

You can't call timeout.

It's like having

a fight with blood.

A fighter doesn't care

who his opponent is.

He my weight?

Bring him.

It's a different mentality.

They're a different breed.

Fighters know what they

have to sacrifice and give

up to try to perfect their game.

A fighter learns from

walking through the fire.

Dwight Muhammad

Qawi and Evander Holyfield

in their WBA Junior

Heavyweight Title fight.

And of course, you

remember Holyfield

with the controversial

bronze medal

at the Olympic games

in Los Angeles.

Since then, 11

successful pro bouts.

Is 11 enough for going

up against someone

of the experience of Qawi.

The bell rings and

this is round one.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes